The Saltmen are the preserved remains of multiple human individuals that were discovered in the Chehrabad salt mines, located on the southern part of the Hamzehlu village, on the west side of the city of Zanjan, in the Zanjan Province in Iran.
By 2010, the remains of six men had been discovered, most of them accidentally killed by the collapse of galleries in which they were working. The head and left foot of Salt Man 1 are on display at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran.
In the winter of 1993, miners came across a body with long hair, a beard and some artifacts. These included the remains of a body, a lower leg inside a leather boot, three iron knives, a woolen half trouser, a silver needle, a sling, parts of a leather rope, a grindstone, a walnut, some pottery shards, some patterned textile fragments, and a few broken bones. The body had been buried in the middle of a tunnel approximately 45 metres (148 ft) in length.
In 2004, another salt miner found the remains of a second man. During archaeological excavations in 2005, the remains of another two well-preserved men were found. In 2006, the Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency partnered with the German Mining Museum in Bochum (Germany), in 2007 with the University of Oxford and the Swiss University of Zurich for thorough investigations.
A scientific long-term project was started, supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and British funds. Four corpses, including a teenager and a woman, are kept at the Archeology Museum (Zolfaghari House) in Zanjan. A sixth corpse found in the excavation campaign 2010 was left in place at the salt mine. Three hundred pieces of fabric were found, some of which retained designs and dyes.
In 2008, the Ministry of Industries and Mines canceled the mining permit.
After archaeological studies which included C14 dating of different samples of bones and textiles, the Salt Man was dated to about 1,700 years ago. By testing a sample of hair, the blood group B+ was determined.
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Three-dimensional scans which were modeled by a scientific team led by Jalal Jalal Shokouhi show fractures around the eye and other injuries which occurred before death, resulting from a hard blow. Visual characteristics included long hair and a beard; a golden earring in the left ear indicated that he was likely a person of rank or influence. The reason for his presence and death in the salt mine of Chehrabad remains a mystery.
Three of the saltmen are dated to the Parthian (247 BCE-224 CE) and Sassanid (224-651 CE) eras, and the remainder to the Achaemenid Dynasty (550-330 BCE).
In a 2012 research paper, it was reported that the 2200-year-old mummy of Chehrabad had tapeworm eggs from the genus Taenia in his intestine. This brings new information on ancient diet, indicating the consumption of raw or undercooked meat, and it also constitutes the earliest evidence of ancient intestinal parasites in Iran, adding to the knowledge of gastrointestinal pathogens in the Near East.
Ancient Iranian "Saltmen" Mummified In Mine 2,500 Years Ago Depicted In New Images Science Alert - September 10, 2024
Within the depths of an ancient Chehrabad salt mine in Iran, multiple miners met a grisly end thousands of years ago. Over the last few decades, their mummified remains, some of which show the terror they faced at the time of their deaths, have been excavated by archaeologists. Now, recent research has offered fresh insights into the mysteries surrounding these so-called 'Saltmen' and the history of the mine that claimed their lives.
The Chehrabad mine is located in the Douzlākh salt deposit, in the Mahneshan Mountains, which is northwest of where Tehran is today. Most of the Saltmen mummies recovered from the site date back to the Achaemenid Dynasty (550-330 BCE), which was the largest empire of its kind in the ancient world. At its peak, the Achaemenid Empire extended from Anatolia and Egypt across western Asia and northern and central Asia.
The first mummy fragments were discovered in 1993, which started the first phase of excavations in the salt mountain. This first Saltman’s severed head was preserved with a thick white beard and a single gold earring, and was found with iron knives, a leather boot, and pieces of woollen shorts that were stained with urine and excreta residue.
This individual is thought to have died around 300 CE, at the time of the Sasanian Dynasty. Then, in 2004, another Saltman was discovered around 15 meters (50 feet) from the first man. By 2010, another six mummies had been recovered from the site. One of the most iconic, and admittedly tragic, mummies belongs to a 16-year-old boy whose preserved remains show him with raised hands, as if he was protecting himself from something.
Subsequent research into the Saltmen shows that they all sustained fractures and compression injuries, suggesting they were crushed by accidents in the mine.
In addition, the body of the fifth mummy to be excavated revealed substantial amounts of tapeworm eggs in his intestines, which likely came from a diet of raw and uncooked meat. This result became known as the oldest example of intestinal parasites in Iranian history.
The salt mummies from the Douzlakh mine are certainly among the most exciting recent discoveries in the archaeology of mining. Several mining accidents are visible from the bodies, which reveal numerous details of these accidents and the life history of the individuals.
The mummies are special for several reasons. Unlike other famous human mummy finds, we are dealing not with a lone individual, but with several comparable people from different working teams. They afford a unique opportunity to study the effects of such preservation conditions on human soft tissue.
The mummies owe their preservation to the high salt content of the mine, which basically dehydrated their bodies and prevented decomposition.
The life of the mine
Despite the incredible details and evidence provided by the Saltmen mummies, there is much we do not know about the mine itself. We do know that the mine was extensively exploited during the Achaemenid period. At some point around 405 and 380 BCE, however, the mine was abandoned for about 200 years after an accident killed three miners.
The mine was also worked during the Sasanian period, around the second or third century CE. It looks as though the mine remained in operation until sometime in the fifth to early seventh century, when there is evidence of another catastrophe (which resulted in the deaths of Saltman 2 and 6).
There is then evidence that the mine was in use during the Seljuk period (a medieval Turkish empire that ruled the region between 1081 and 1307 CE), and the Ilkhanid period (a medieval Mongol dynasty that ruled Iran between 1256 and 1353 CE).
There is also evidence that the mine was used well into the Middle Islamic period (also known as the Medieval Islamic Empire).
Over the centuries, extraction locations and the system of extraction changed many times. As mining shifted to more productive locations, space created during earlier operations could be used for other purposes. This complex process means researchers can reconstruct how and when the mine was used by studying its stratigraphy, along with artifacts recovered from the sites.
But how long was the mine in use for prior to the Achaemenid period? This is where the situation becomes even more unclear. Researchers pulled together information from 18 nearby archaeological dig-sites that spanned from prehistoric contexts to the Islamic period. Their belief being that the Douzlakh salt dome would have assumed a central role in the economic life of rural populations.
Excavations have recovered evidence of settlements that date back as far as the Chalcolithic or Copper Age (5,000-4,000 BCE), and possibly even the Stone Age. However, just because there were people living in the area during these times does not mean they actively mined the salt from it. At present, there is little evidence to prove they did so. If these prehistoric communities did exploit the mine, their methods for doing so have been lost to history or were too disorganized to leave a trace.