: : : Similarly, he did not die when the ring was destroyed. Unfortuantely, so much of his power was tied to the ring (unfortunate for him, not the good guys), that he couldn't take shape or wield power, and became a formless and weak spirit of hatred doomed to float around the ether.....

: : Yes, but he did at one point have a boddy . . . the question, I believe, was "What happened to the [corporeal] body?" The more I think about it, I think I was wrong in my initial post.

: : -RR
: If we are talking about the end of the Second Age, he simply abandoned it/lost the power to hold it when the ring was cut off.
: No spirit in Maiar 'body' = no body to dispose of - it disappeared (look at Sarumans 'demise') similar concept
: Don Q

This is an interesting point - was Sauron still inhabiting his body when Isildur amputated?

If not then:
I don't think (given the nature of Sauron's form - hot etc.) that a simple extrapolation from Saruman's dissolution can be made. Sauron's corpse could have been somewhat more durable.