: : : : This may be completely wrong, as I can't find a single source document for it, but I could have sworn that I read that the body crumbled into dust and ash. Of course, that may just be a hangover memory from reading Terry Brooks and watching Star Wars!! ;)

: : : : -RR

: : : Sauron was not tied to his body - he was unable to assume fair form after the drowning of Numenor, but was not tied to one 'hideous' shape. He was not mortal, and his 'reality' was his spirit - which fled at the loss of his ring (which held most of his power) - there would have been no body to break.
: : : He did not 'die' when the ring was cut from his finger - he just lost power.
: : : 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.....
: : : Don Q

: : If Sauron was not tied to his post-Akkalabeth body how was it that he could not re-form his finger which was cut off by Isildur?

: : Gollum says that the fingers of Sauron were only nine in number ("only four fingers has the Black Hand").

: : After all he managed to re-constitute the rest of his corporeal form.

: Metaphorical I believe - and even if literal, he would leave the finger missing as a reminder to him of what he pines most for in the world - the ring.
: Sauron did not take corporeal form as such throughout most of the T.A, but the form of a lidless eye that ever searched for his prize
: Don Q

No Gollum came directly in contact with a person that had 9 fingers If there was anyone that didn't speak in metaphores it is Gollum.