2,600-year-old corpse found in Iran

NICOSIA (Reuter) - Archaeologists have discovered the body of a man preserved in a salt quarry for 2,600 years, Iran's IRNA news agency said yesterday.

It quoted Houshang Sobuti, an official of the Cultural Heritage Organisation in the western Iranian city of Zanjan, as saying the pickled corpse, with a gold earring in its left ear, was found in the nearby village of Chehrabad.

'The eyebrows, moustache and beard on the face of the man, who apparently died in the partial collapse of the quarry and was buried under thick layers of salt, have remained intact,' Mr Sobuti said. Preliminary studies put the corpse's age at 2,600 years and pieces of pottery from the sixth or seventh century BC were found nearby, he added.