www.chnpress.com An international conference organized by the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department of Zanjan province, the status of Iranian salt men and the existing problems on the way for preserving them will be discussed by Iranian, German, and British experts. Currently despite all efforts have been made so far for preserving these salt men, the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department of Zanjan province is worry about the fate of these mummies.
Explaining that this international event will be organized in conjunction with the Research Center of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) during the coming September, Farhang Farokhi, head of ICHHTO Zanjan’s provincial department, told CHN: “Unfortunately despite all efforts have been made so far for preserving Iranian salt mummies in Zanjan’s Museum, they are not in a satisfactory situation. Evidence show that they have even being a bit eroded compare to the time they were unearthed.”
Farokhi further pointed that keeping Iranian salt mummies in vacuumed glass coffins which have been done currently is considered a short term alternative for preserving them and it can not last for a long time. Considering the importance of these unique salt mummies, brings into light the importance for finding the best approaches for preserving them for next generations.
Discovery of human beings mummies is one of the most attractive archeological findings all over the world. However, safekeeping them has turned into a matter of controversy for archeologists and no definite approach have been adopted yet for their best preservation.
Due to the existing problems in this regard, Iranian archeologists have decided to stop further excavations in Chehrabad salt mine and if any mummy is discovered accidentally during activities in the salt mine, it will be buried again until the new approaches for preserving them is found. That is just what happened about the sixth discovered salt man.
From 1993 to December 2005, a series of salt mummies were found in the Chehrabad salt mine near Zanjan in northwestern Iran which belong to Achaemenid (550-330 BC) and Sassanian (224-651 AD) dynastic eras. Details of some of them are somehow vague, although some of them have remained almost intact. According to the released reports, four salt mummies were found until November 2006. However, the discovery of two more mummies in 2006 and 2007 raised the number of Iranian salt mummies to 6.
Currently the first discovered mummy is being kept in Iran’s National Museum in Tehran. The next four ones are being kept in Zanjan’s historical laundry, which have been changed into Zanjan’s Anthropology Museum and the sixth one which was recently discovered accidentally during operations in Chehabad salt mine, has been buried again to be unearthed later.
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