TEHRAN, May 14: Archaeologists at a dig on a farm in western Iran have uncovered a skeleton with a solid gold mask in a bronze coffin in what could be the first of a fresh wave of Parthian-era discoveries. “This finding is without precedence in our province,” the head of the Lorestan cultural heritage organisation, Sirous Ebrahimi, said.

“We were told by locals that some people were searching the area with metal detectors, so we rushed to the area, and sealed it off,” he explained. He said the coffin, found near the city of Khoramabad, dates back to between 1,700 and 2,200 years. The Parthian Empire occupied all of modern Iran, Iraq and Armenia and parts of modern Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine and Pakistan from 247 BC to 224 AD.

The empire was one of the most enduring in the Middle East, and limited the eastward expansion of the rival Roman Empire. Ebrahimi said the skeleton appeared to be of a “very affluent person”, who had suffered a broken leg which subsequently became infected.

The gold mask was a two-piece item, with one part covering the eyes and the other the mouth, while the coffin itself was described as being similar to a bathtub and featured four handles.—AFP