Ötzi: The 5300 Year Old Iceman
Two hikers are trekking along a towering
glacier ridge in the Ötzal Alps. They see something brown contrasting the
glistening white snow and ice. They go investigate. It's probably just a tree,
or an old piece of rubbish. No, they have made a horrifying, appalling
discovery. What is it? A body.
Yes, this really happened. In 1991, Erika and
Helmut Simon came across a dead body that was so well preserved, they thought
it was a recent death. The authorities were promptly notified, and the long and
tedious extraction process began. Thinking it was recently dead (one of the
effects of being encrusted in ice) the team working on extracting the body
damaged it's hip.
The team realized that the body was wearing
some very “old fashioned” clothes (leggings, loincloth, bearskin cap, woven
cape, and shoes). The body was also found with an axe, dagger, and tinder kit.
Once the body was extracted, it was flown to the Innsbruck Institute of
Forensic Medicine. An archaeologist named Konrad Spindler from Innsbruck
University was called in to investigate. Spindler soon found that the body was
at least 4000 years old.
Since the discovery was made very close to the
Austrian-Italian border, and due to the fact that there are so many glaciers in
that area, a challenge was posed in determining which country the iceman was
discovered in. Finally, the conclusion was made that it was just inside the
Italian border, 92 metres from Austria to be exact. This meant that the body
was officially property of the South Tyrol province in Italy.
Professors/scientists from Innsbruck Institute of Forensic Medicine asked the
province for permission so that the first procedures to investigate the corpse
could take place in Austria. The OK was given and the scientists began their
research.
The first discovery they made was that Ötzi
(as the scientists named him because he was found in the Ötzal Alps) is a “wet”
corpse. This means that Ötzi's cells are not desiccated: he is not dust and
bones like many Egyptian/ South American mummies. They continued with their
procedures, and made cuts to Ötzi's
torso, back, skull, and legs. These were dubbed the “Austrian Windows” Because
it was an invasive procedure. During this session they discovered that he was
around 45, which is fairly old for a Neolithic man. He also had no tooth decay
and he had tattoos – marks and crosses in some spots where aches and pains are
common. The tattoos were in areas that are also known today as acupuncture
points. Another interesting discovery was Ötzi had Beaus Lines (small indents in the fingernail where the nail has
stopped growing during a period of stress or illness) across his fingernails.
This means he was ill or stressed 8 weeks, 13 weeks and 16 weeks before he
died. Ötzi had a whipworm infestation, and carried birch fungus on hide strips
to use as medicine. Also, they determined Ötzi was approximately 5300 years old (circa 3300 BCE).
In 2001, Paul Gostner and Eduard Vigl reached
a fascinating revelation in the story of how Ötzi died. From studying x-rays,
they found that Ötzi had an arrowhead in his left shoulder. Later, they also
discovered a stab wound in his hand. This lead them to the conclusion that Ötzi
may have been shot and bled to death, because it was likely that the arrow hit
a major artery and damaged some nerves. The stab wound also meant he was
possibly on the run because the stab wound suggests he had been in a fight
shortly before his death. Gostner, however, wanted a definitive conclusion. He
studied CT scans of Ötzi, and speculated that what was perceived to be Ötzi’s
(empty) stomach was actually his empty colon, and stomach Ötzi’s was
actually pushed up under Ötzi’s rib cage. Plans were made to further
investigate this, and it was confirmed that Otzi’s stomach was underneath his
ribcage. It was also confirmed that Otzi had eaten a meal of ibex. This is a
factor that ruled out the “on the run” theory because he would not have had
time to eat if he was running away. During the investigation, 149 new samples
were taken, and Ötzi’s genome was sequenced too. It was found that he was 5
feet 2 inches tall, had brown hair and eyes, and was related to many modern
Europeans. Some ailments he had were being lactose intolerant, having lime
disease, and having congenital risk factor for heart disease and stroke.
Even though we now know all this information
about Ötzi, there is
still much to find out about him and life in the Copper Age. Was he a farmer,
shaman, shepherd, hunter, trader, or prospector? How did he die? Was he killed,
did he die naturally, or from frostbite? What was his daily life like? There is
many twists and turns in Ötzi’s story, and maybe someday we will know what life
was like in the Neolithic Period.
References: The Man In The Ice The Amazing
Inside Story of the 5000 Year old Body Found Trapped in a Glacier in the Alps
by Konrad Spindler (leader of the scientific investigation) 1993 (German
edition) 1994 (English translation) Phoenix
Discovering Our Past A History Of The World by
Jackson J. Spielvogel, Ph.D. 2013 McGraw-Hill
Stuff You Missed In History Class- Ötzi:
Everyone’s Favourite Copper Age Man from howstuffworks.com
by Deblina Chakraborty and Sarah Dowdey
