TEHRAN – Experts believe that the two-centuries-old skeletons recently found near the Iranian city of Ardestan are “natural mummies”, Ardestan’s tourism chief has announced. 

“Furthermore, they have estimated the site of discovery dates several million years,” Mehdi Mashhadi said on Wednesday.  

Mineworkers found the human remains, which were entombed within canals about 30 meters below the surface at Lapalang Mine.

“Part of the site and its canals have been destroyed due to the modern operation of machines and extractions in the mine,” he noted.

The official, however, did not provide more detail about the ‘natural mummies’. 

The Discovery of exotic mummies is not unprecedented in the country. The highlights of the findings in the historical mines in Iran are the famed salt mummies, the first of which was discovered in 1993 in Zanjan Province. 

ABU/AFM