



Otzi The Iceman









Otzi. also called Otzi the Iceman, the Similaun Man, the Man from Hauslabjoch, Homo tyrolensis, and the Hauslabjoch mummy, is a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived around 3,300 BCE. Otzi was discovered in Europe 1991 in the Otztal Alps on the Austrian-Italian border. He is Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and has offered an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic Europeans. His body and belongings are displayed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy.

Otzi was found by two German tourists, Helmut and Erika Simon, on September 19, 1991. The body was at first thought to be a modern corpse, like several others which had been recently found in the region. It was roughly recovered by the Austrian authorities and taken to Innsbruck, where its true age was finally discovered. Subsequent surveys showed that the body had been located a few meters inside Italian territory. It is now on display at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bozen-Bolzano, Italy.









The body has been extensively examined, measured, x-rayed, and dated. Tissues and gut contents were examined microscopically, as was the pollen found on his gear. At the time of his death, Otzi was a 30-to-45-year old man, approximately 160 cm (5'3") tall.









Facial Reconstruction

Using modern 3-D technology, a facial reconstruction has been created for the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy. It shows Otzi looking old for his 45 years, with deep-set brown eyes, a beard, a furrowed face, and sunken cheeks. He is depicted looking tired and ungroomed.



Discovery - February 25, 2011

Brown-eyed, bearded, furrow faced, and tired: this is how Otzi the Iceman might have looked, according to the latest reconstruction based on 20 years of research and investigations. The model was produced with the latest in forensic mapping technology that uses three-dimensional images of the mummy's skull as well as infrared and tomographic images. The new reconstruction shows a prematurely old man, with deep-set eyes, sunken cheeks, a furrowed face and ungroomed beard and hair. Although he looks tired, Otzi has vivid brown eyes. Indeed, recent research on the 5,300-year-old mummy has shown that the Stone Age man did not have blue eyes as previously thought. Believed to have died around the age of 45, Otzi was about 1.60 meters (5 foot, 3 inches) tall and weighed 50 kilograms (110 pounds).









Blood

In May 2012, scientists announced the discovery that Otzi still had intact blood cells. These are the oldest blood cells ever identified. In most bodies this old, the blood cells are either shrunken or mere remnants, but Otzi's have the same dimensions as living red blood cells and resembled a modern-day sample.



Oetzi the Iceman's blood is world's oldest BBC - May 2, 2012

Researchers studying Oetzi, a 5,300-year-old body found frozen in the Italian Alps in 1991, have found red blood cells around his wounds. Blood cells tend to degrade quickly, and earlier scans for blood within Oetzi's body turned up nothing.









Genetics

A recent DNA study conducted by Walther Parson of Innsbruck Medical University revealed Otzi has 19 living genetic relatives.



Scientists say Otzi the Iceman has living relatives, 5,300 years later NBC - October 15, 2013

A researcher examines the 5,300-year-old body of Otzi the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy. No next-of-kin was around to claim the frozen 5,300-year-old body of Otzi the Iceman when it was found in the Italian Alps in 1991, but researchers now report that there are at least 19 genetic relatives of Otzi living in Austria's Tyrol region.



Link to Oetzi the Iceman found in living Austrians BBC - October 10, 2013

Austrian scientists have found that 19 Tyrolean men alive today are related to Oetzi the Iceman, whose 5,300-year-old frozen body was found in the Alps. Their relationship was established through DNA analysis by scientists from the Institute of Legal Medicine at Innsbruck Medical University. The men have not been told about their connection to Oetzi. The DNA tests were taken from blood donors in Tyrol.



Oetzi the Iceman's nuclear genome gives new insights BBC - February 28, 2012

New clues have emerged in what could be described as the world's oldest murder case: that of Oetzi the "Iceman", whose 5,300-year-old body was discovered frozen in the Italian Alps in 1991. Oetzi's full genome has now been reported in Nature Communications. It reveals that he had brown eyes, "O" blood type, was lactose intolerant, and was predisposed to heart disease. They also show him to be the first documented case of infection by a Lyme disease bacterium. Analysis of series of anomalies in the Iceman's DNA also revealed him to be more closely related to modern inhabitants of Corsica and Sardinia than to populations in the Alps, where he was unearthed.



Gene Map to Give Insight into 5,200-year-old Iceman Live Science - August 5, 2010

Iceman, the Neolithic mummy found accidentally in the Eastern Alps by German hikers in 1991, has offered researchers all sorts of clues to life 5,200 years ago, from his goat-hide coat to the meat and unleavened bread in his stomach to the arrow wound in his shoulder.









Travels



Analysis of pollen and dust grains and the isotopic composition of his teeth's enamel indicate that he spent his childhood near the present village of Feldthurns, north of Bolzano, but later went to live in valleys about 50 km further north.



Deciphering the Origin, Travels of "Iceman" October 30, 2003 National Geographic

A 46-year-old man entombed by a glacier about 5,200 years ago high in the mountains that border Austria and Italy probably spent his entire life within a 37-mile (60-kilometer) range south of where he came to his final rest, according to a new study.









Health

Otzi apparently had whipworm (Trichuris trichiura), an intestinal parasite. During CT scans, it was observed that three or four of his right ribs had been cracked when he had been lying face down after death, or where the ice had crushed his body. One of his fingernails (of the two found) shows three Beau's lines indicating he was sick three times in the six months before he died. The last incident, two months before he died, lasted about two weeks.

Also, it was found that his epidermis, the outer skin layer, was missing, a natural process from his mummification in ice. Otzi's teeth showed considerable internal deterioration from cavities. These oral pathologies may have been brought about by his grain-heavy, high carbohydrate diet. DNA analysis in February 2012 revealed that Otzi was lactose intolerant, supporting the theory that lactose intolerance was still common at that time, despite the increasing spread of agriculture and dairying.



Otzi the iceman used Acupuncture: Europe's oldest mummy is covered in prick-marks that were a primitive form of joint pain relief 5,300 years ago Daily Mail - September 24, 2018

Otzi the Iceman may have benefited from a form of prehistoric healthcare, tattoos on his remains suggest. Strange patterns discovered around some of the joints on his body may be evidence of a surprisingly sophisticated system of medicine, researchers say. Some of these lines and dots are focused around points traditional used in acupuncture and could have relieved pain in his aging ankles and wrists. The 5,300-year-old mummified man known as Otzi was found in a glacier in the Alps in 1991, between what is now Austria and Italy. Since his discovery, the copper-age hunter has been examined by multiple teams of scientists, with new discoveries coming to light each time.



Neolithic Iceman Otzi Had Bad Teeth Science Daily - April 10, 2013

Periodontitis, Tooth Decay, Accident-Related Dental Damage in Ice Mummy - The latest scientific findings provide interesting information on the dietary patterns of the Neolithic Iceman and on the evolution of medically significant oral pathologies.









Diet

Analysis of Otzi's gut contents showed two meals, one of ibex meat, the second of red deer meat, both consumed with some grain. Pollen in the first meal showed that it had been consumed in a mid-altitude conifer forest.

Analysis of Otzi's intestinal contents showed two meals (the last one consumed about eight hours before his death), one of chamois meat, the other of red deer and herb bread. Both were eaten with grain as well as roots and fruits. The grain from both meals was a highly processed einkorn wheat bran, quite possibly eaten in the form of bread. In the proximity of the body, and thus possibly originating from the Iceman's provisions, chaff and grains of einkorn and barley, and seeds of flax and poppy were discovered, as well as kernels of sloes (small plumlike fruits of the blackthorn tree) and various seeds of berries growing in the wild. Hair analysis was used to examine his diet from several months before.

Pollen in the first meal showed that it had been consumed in a mid-altitude conifer forest, and other pollens indicated the presence of wheat and legumes, which may have been domesticated crops. Pollen grains of hop-hornbeam were also discovered. The pollen was very well preserved, with the cells inside remaining intact, indicating that it had been fresh (a few hours old) at the time of Otzi's death, which places the event in the spring. Einkorn wheat is harvested in the late summer, and sloes in the autumn; these must have been stored from the previous year.

In 2009, a CAT scan revealed that the stomach had shifted upward to where his lower lung area would normally be. Analysis of the contents revealed the partly digested remains of ibex meat, confirmed by DNA analysis, suggesting he had a meal less than two hours before his death. Wheat grains were also found.



Iceman Oetzi's last meal was 'Stone Age bacon' PhysOrg - January 22, 2017

Oetzi the famous "iceman" mummy of the Alps appears to have enjoyed a fine slice or two of Stone Age bacon before he was killed by an arrow some 5,300 years ago. His last meal was most likely dried goat meat, according to scientists who recently managed to dissect the contents of Oetzi's stomach.









Daily Life

High levels of both copper particles and arsenic were found in Otzi's hair. This, along with Otzi's copper axe which is 99.7% pure copper, has led scientists to speculate that Otzi was involved in copper smelting. By examining the proportions of Otzi's tibia, femur and pelvis, Christopher Ruff has determined that Otzi's lifestyle included long walks over hilly terrain. This degree of mobility is not characteristic of other Copper Age Europeans. Ruff proposes that this may indicate that Otzi was a high-altitude shepherd.









Tattoos

Otzi had 57 tattoos, some of which were located on or near acupuncture points that coincide with the modern points that would be used to treat symptoms of diseases that Otzi seems to have suffered from, such as digestive parasites and osteoarthrosis. Some scientists believe that these tattoos indicate an early type of acupuncture.

Otzi had several carbon tattoos including groups of short, parallel, vertical lines to both sides of the lumbar spine, a cruciform mark behind the right knee, and various marks around both ankles. Radiological examination of his bones showed "age-conditioned or strain-induced degeneration" in these areas, including osteochondrosis and slight spondylosis in the lumbar spine and wear-and-tear degeneration in the knee and especially the ankle joints. It has been speculated that these tattoos may have been related to pain relief treatments similar to acupressure or acupuncture. If so, this is at least 2000 years before their previously known earliest use in China (c. 1000 BCE).



Otzi iceman's tattoos came from fireplace MSNBC - July 17, 2009

The 57 tattoos sported by Otzi, the 5300-year-old Tyrolean iceman mummy, were made from fireplace soot that contained glittering, colorful precious stone crystals, according to an upcoming study in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The determination supports prior research that the tattoos were associated with acupuncture treatments for chronic ailments suffered by the iceman, whose frozen body was found remarkably well preserved in the Similaun Glacier of the Alps in 1991. The findings also suggest how prehistoric people were tattooed in the days before commercial inks and electric tattooing machines.









Clothing His clothes, including a woven grass cloak and leather vest and shoes, were quite sophisticated.

Otzi's shoes were waterproof and wide, seemingly designed for walking across the snow; they were constructed using bearskin for the soles, deer hide for top panels, and a netting made of tree bark. Soft grass went around the foot and in the shoe and functioned like warm socks. The shoes have since been reproduced by experts and found to constitute such excellent footwear that there are plans for commercial production.



Here's What the Iceman Was Wearing When He Died 5,300 Years Ago National Geographic - August 18, 2016

Clothes worn by Otzi the Iceman 5,300 years ago include (clockwise from top left): hay-stuffed shoes, goat- and sheepskin coat, goatskin leggings, bear fur hat, grass matting and sheepskin loincloth. Since the discovery of Otzi the Iceman in a European glacier in 1991, scientists have recovered a wealth of information from his 5,300-year-old mummified remains: The brown-eyed, gap-toothed, tattooed man most likely spent his 40-odd years farming and herding, and was probably suffering from a painful stomach ache at the time that he died a quick - albeit violent - death in the Oztal Alps.