How does salt mumify?
I heard that another mummuy was found in the Iranian salt mines, and wanted to ask: how (and why) does salt preserve a dead body?
I was late for work this morning, because I got stuck in Zeno's paradox.
In order for a body to become mummified naturally (as opposed to being mummified by people) it has to be kept in a dry enviroment free of bacteria in a steady warm (or extremely cold) temperature . Salt is very hygroscopic (ie it absorbs water) and most bacteria cannot grow in high salt concentrations. These characteristics of the salt combined with the constant temperature in the mine probably created conditions that allowed the bodies to mummify naturally.
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