Violent Death in a Salt Mine

When death came to the Zanjan Saltman 1800 years ago, he was about 40 years old. Unusually tall for his era, he stood 6 feet 3. He wore leather boots, creamcolored lamb´s wool trousers, and a gold earring. His long hair and beard had been bleached  white by salt in the mine where his body lay. Workers half a mile  down a mine ni Zanjan Province in northern Iran found his mummified head (above) and a lower leg, along with three iron knives, a sling stone, and pottery sherds. Scientists at Iran´s Research Center for Conservation of Cultural Relics (RCCCR) studied the remains, preserved by the salt. They discovered a broken jaw and fractures around the ayes, perhaps the result of the mine´s cave-in and made CT scans (above right) revealing the leg bones inside his finely sewn bott. The high quality of the boot and the trousers--led Abdolrasool Vatandoust, RCCCR's director, to speculate that the man may have been a prince.

Bibliografia:

National Geographic

Vol. 197