DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Construction workers in Iran may have unearthed the mummified remains of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the father of the country’s last monarch, nearly four decades after the Islamic Revolution toppled the dynasty.

The recent find of the gauze-wrapped body has triggered intense speculation and revived discussion of Iran’s dynastic past, which the clerically-run government has spent decades trying to suppress. A mob demolished Reza Shah’s tomb shortly after the 1979 revolution, and the family lives in exile.

The monarchy’s widespread abuses did much to fuel the revolution, but its mystique persists as Iran grapples with economic woes and calls for reform ahead of the 40th anniversary of the uprising.

Reza Shah’s grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, has tweeted that he believes the remains to be those of his grandfather even as Iran waits for forensic experts to determine whose body they found.

Workers discovered the mummified remains while on a project at the Shiite shrine of Abdul Azim, whose minarets rise behind the site where Reza Shah’s mausoleum once stood. A digger pulling away dirt and debris uncovered the body, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Pictures of the body, as well as one man posing with it, quickly ricocheted across social media in Iran.

A spokesman for the shrine dismissed the idea of a mummy being found there. However, Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council’s cultural heritage and tourism committee, was quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency on Monday as saying it’s “possible” the mummy is the body of Reza Shah.