A team of geneticists and archaeologists from Ireland, France, Iran, Germany, and Austria has sequenced the DNA from a 1,600-year-old sheep mummy from an ancient Iranian salt mine, Chehrābād.
This remarkable specimen has revealed sheep husbandry practices of the ancient Near East, as well as underlining how natural mummification can affect DNA degradation.
The incredible findings have just been published in the international, peer-reviewed journal
Biology Letters.
The salt mine of Chehrābād is known to preserve biological material. Indeed, it is in this mine that human remains of the famed “Salt Men” were recovered, dessicated by the salt-rich environment. The new research confirms that this natural mummification process – where water is removed from a corpse, preserving soft tissues that would otherwise be degraded – also conserved animal remains.
Germany
Chehr
Kermanshah
Iran
Bochum
Nordrhein-westfalen
Austria
Ireland
Dublin
France
Zanjan
Iranian