Technicians and miners in a salt quarry in the central province of Zanjan have unearthed the remains of an ancient man, with some members of his body still intact.

While bulldozing salt into trucks, they discovered the skeletons of the man, now nicknamed the Twin Salt Man, reminiscent of another similar discovery in 1994.

“Some bones of his skull, jaw, hands and feet have been dug out and they are almost intact and wear hair and nails,” said a local official in Zanjan Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO).

Some pieces of clothing and a hand-woven thatch rug with a unique texture were discovered beside the Salt Man, who was 180-185 cm tall and aged between 35-40, as initial forensic tests indicate.

The bones have been transferred to the provincial capital city of Zanjan for further studies. The Hamzelou salt quarry, some 75 km away from Zanjan, would also be expeditiously excavated in a bid to find possible artifacts around him, found just 30 to 40 meters away from the place where the first Salt Man was unearthed.

Experts estimated the first find, aged 35-40 and measuring 165-170 in height, dated back to the Sasanid era, some 1700 years ago.