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<\/p>\nNew research on the Salt Men of Zanjan offers insights into the diet of ancient Iranians and the fright that these miners faced before their deaths, 2,500 years ago.
\nAccording to ILNA, citing Euronews, these Salt Men met a horrific end deep within the Dozlakh mine in the Chehrabad region of Zanjan thousands of years ago. The salt mine engulfed and naturally preserved their bodies.<\/p>\n
The first of these mummies was discovered over thirty years ago during the initial excavation of this salt mountain. The severed head of this “salt man,” with thick white hair, a beard, and a gold earring, was found along with several iron knives, a leather boot, and pieces of woolen shorts bearing traces of urine and feces.<\/p>\n
It is believed that this man died around 300 AD, during the Sassanid dynasty. In 2004, another Salt Man was found just 15 meters away from the white-haired man, and by 2010, six more mummies had been uncovered in the mine.<\/p>\n
One of the most symbolic, and perhaps saddest, of these mummies belonged to a 16-year-old teenager. His body position clearly shows that in his final moments, he raised his hands in an attempt to protect himself from something.<\/p>\n
Further research revealed that all of these men had suffered fractures due to a mining accident and were crushed under the debris.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The fifth mummy provided insights into the diet of people from that time. His intestines contained a significant number of tapeworm eggs, likely indicating a diet of raw, semi-cooked, or poorly cooked meat. This discovery represents the oldest known example of intestinal parasites in Iranian history. \u201cThese mummies are special for a variety of reasons,\u201d adds Thomas St\u00f6llner. \u201cUnlike other famous human mummy discoveries, we aren\u2019t just dealing with a single individual, but with multiple bodies from different occupations. They offer a unique opportunity to study how such protective conditions affect human soft tissues.\u201d There is also evidence suggesting that the Dozlakh mine was used during the Seljuk period, between 1081 and 1307 AD, and the Ilkhanid period, between 1256 and 1353 AD. Additionally, other findings indicate that the mine was operational until the Middle Islamic period, known as the Islamic Empire of the Middle Ages. New research on the Salt Men of Zanjan offers insights into the diet of ancient Iranians and the fright that these miners faced before their deaths, 2,500 years ago. According to ILNA, citing Euronews, these Salt Men met a horrific end deep within the Dozlakh mine in the Chehrabad region of Zanjan thousands of years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":156132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[775,85],"class_list":["post-156130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zoroastrians","tag-salt-men","tag-zanjan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/156132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMining archaeologist Thomas St\u00f6llner and his colleagues explored the history of the mine and the mummies in an article recently published in the Journal of World Prehistory<\/em>.
\n“The salt mummies from the Dozlakh mine are undoubtedly among the most exciting recent discoveries in mining archaeology,” St\u00f6llner stated.<\/p>\n
\nThe preservation of these bodies is due to the high mineral salt content, which dried out their remains and prevented decomposition.
\nWhile these ancient miners offer remarkable insights and evidence about the Dozlakh mine, many mysteries surrounding the mine remain unsolved.
\nThe mine was heavily exploited during the Achaemenid period but was abandoned for nearly 200 years between 405 and 380 BC after an accident that claimed the lives of three miners.
\nMining activity resumed in the Sasanian period, around the second or third century AD, and it is believed that the mine remained operational until the fifth century, or possibly the early years of the seventh century. Evidence from that time suggests another disaster occurred, resulting in the deaths of salt men number 2 and 6.<\/p>\n
\nBy examining 18 archaeological sites around the mine, St\u00f6llner and his colleagues hypothesized that the Dozlakh Salt Dome may have played a pivotal role in the lives of the rural population at that time.
\nArchaeological excavations in the area revealed settlements dating back to the Copper Age, approximately 5,000 to 4,000 BC, and possibly even the Stone Age.
\nHowever, the presence of ancient people in the area does not necessarily imply they exploited the salt mine. If prehistoric societies did use the salt mines, their techniques were either lost to history or were too sporadic to leave any lasting evidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"