Ötzi the Iceman

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Ötzi the Iceman (also spelled Oetzi), Frozen Fritz, and Similaun Man are modern nicknames of a well-preserved natural mummy of a man from about 3300 BC,^[1] found in 1991 in the Schnalstal glacier in the Ötztal Alps, near Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy. The nickname comes from Ötztal, the region in which he was discovered. He is Europe's oldest natural human mummy, and has offered an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Discovery 1.1 Disputes over the discovery 2 Scientific analysis of Ötzi 2.1 The body 2.2 Health 2.3 Tattoos 2.4 Clothes and shoes 2.5 Other equipment 3 Cause of death 3.1 An ancient crime? 3.2 Ritual sacrifice 3.3 Weather 4 "Ötzi's Curse" 5 Other ancient frozen or naturally-preserved corpses 5.1 Frozen corpses 5.1.1 Naturally frozen 5.1.2 Mummified and frozen 5.2 Corpses preserved by other natural means 6 Notes 7 Further reading 7.1 Articles 7.2 Books 7.2.1 In English 7.2.2 In other languages 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] Discovery

Ötzi was found by two German tourists from Nuremberg, 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. Lying on its front and frozen in ice below the torso, it was crudely removed from the glacier by the Austrian authorities using a small jackhammer (which punctured the hip of the body) and ice-axes using non-archaeological methods. It was taken to Innsbruck, where its true age was subsequently ascertained. Subsequent surveys showed in October 1991 that the body had been located 92.56 meters inside Italian territory ( 46°46′44″N, 10°50′23″E).^[2] Since 1998 it has been on display at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy.

[edit] Disputes over the discovery

In January 2003, the Simons asked a court in Bolzano, Italy, to recognize their role in Ötzi's discovery and declare them his "official discoverers". Under Italian law, winning the lawsuit would entitle them to a finders' fee of 25% of the value of the discovered item from the authorities. In November 2003, the court declared the Simons the official finders of Ötzi, and at the end of December 2003, the Simons announced that they were seeking US$300,000 as their finders' fee.

Provincial government officials decided to appeal. By this time, Helmut Simon had died in 2004. In June 2006, the appeals court affirmed that the Simons had indeed discovered the Iceman and were therefore entitled to a finder's fee. It also ruled that the provincial government had to pay the Simons' legal fees. After this ruling, Mrs. Erika Simon reduced her claim to €150,000. The provincial government's response was that the high expenses it had incurred to establish a museum and the costs of preserving the Iceman should be considered when determining the finder's fee. It insisted it would pay no more than €50,000. In September 2006, the authorities appealed the case to Italy's highest court, the Court of Cassation.^[3]

Since the discovery of Ötzi in 1991 and the Simons' lawsuit, two other persons have come forward to claim that they were part of the same mountaineering party that came across Ötzi and that they discovered the body first. They are:

• Magdalena Mohar Jarc, a Slovenian actress, who has alleged that she discovered the corpse first, and shortly after returning to an alpine house asked Helmut Simon to take photographs of Ötzi. Mountaineer and explorer Reinhold Messner is apparently appearing as a witness for her.^{[citation needed]}
• Sandra Nemeth, from Switzerland, who has contended that she found the corpse before Helmut and Erika Simon, and that she spat on Ötzi to make sure that her DNA would be found on the body later. She has asked for a DNA test on the remains but experts believe that there is little chance of finding any trace.

The rival claims are now being heard by a court in Bolzano, Italy. The legal case has angered Mrs. Simon, who alleges that neither woman was present on the mountain that day. Mrs. Simon's lawyer has said: "Mrs. Simon is very upset by all this and by the fact that these two new claimants have decided to appear 14 years after Ötzi was found."^[4]

[edit] Scientific analysis of Ötzi

The body has been extensively examined, measured, X-rayed, and dated. Tissues and intestinal contents were examined microscopically, as was his gear.

[edit] The body

At the time of his death, Ötzi was approximately 166 c.m. (5 ft. 4 in.) tall, and about 30 years of age by current estimates. Because the body was covered in ice shortly after his death it only partially deteriorated. Analysis of pollen and dust grains and the isotopic composition of his tooth enamel indicate that he spent his childhood near the present village of Velturno, north of Bolzano, but later went to live in valleys about 50 km further north. Analysis by Franco Rollo's group at the University of Camerino has shown that Otzi's mitochondrial DNA belongs to the K1 subcluster of the mitochondrial haplogroup K, but that it cannot be categorized into any of the three modern branches of that subcluster.

Analysis of Ötzi's intestinal contents showed two meals (the last one about eight hours before his death), one of chamois meat, the other of red deer meat. Both were eaten with some grain as well as some roots and fruits. The grain from both meals was a highly processed einkorn wheat bran, quite possibly eaten in the form of bread. There were also a few kernels of sloes (small plum-like fruits of the blackthorn tree).

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. Also, pollen grains of hop-hornbeam were discovered. The pollen was very well preserved with even the cells inside still intact, indicating that it had been fresh (a few hours old) at the time of Ötzi's death. This find places the event in the spring. Interestingly, einkorn wheat is harvested in the late summer, and sloes in the autumn; these must have been stored since the year before.

High levels of both copper particles and arsenic were found in Ötzi's hair. This, along with Ötzi's copper axe which is 99.7% pure copper, has led scientists to speculate that Ötzi was involved in copper smelting.^[5]

[edit] Health

He apparently had whipworm (Trichuris trichiura), an intestinal parasite.

[edit] Tattoos

He had approximately 52 tattoos consisting of simple dots and lines. Some scientists suggest that the designs might have been used to mark the passage from youth to manhood,^{[citation needed]} or it has been speculated that they may be related to acupuncture.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Clothes and shoes

Ötzi's clothes, which included a woven grass cloak and leather vest and shoes, were quite sophisticated. The 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.^[6] However, a more recent theory by British archaeologist Jacqui Wood says that Ötzi's "shoes" were actually the upper part of snowshoes. According to this theory, the item currently interpreted as part of a backpack is actually the wood frame and netting of one snowshoe and animal hide to cover the torso.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Other equipment

Other items found with the Iceman were a copper axe with a yew handle, a flint knife with an ash handle, a quiver of 14 bone-tipped arrows with viburnum and dogwood shafts and flint heads (two arrows were finished, twelve were not), and an unfinished yew longbow that was 3 feet 2 inches (one metre) tall.^[7] Also found were berries, a bucket and a knife.

Among Ötzi's possessions were two species of polypore mushrooms with leather strings through them. One of these (the birch fungus) is known to have antibacterial properties, and was likely used for medicinal purposes. The other was a type of tinder fungus, included with part of what appeared to be a complex firestarting kit. The kit featured pieces of over a dozen different plants, in addition to flint and pyrite for creating sparks.

[edit] Cause of death

[edit] An ancient crime?

A CAT scan revealed that Ötzi had what appeared to be an arrowhead lodged in one shoulder when he died, matching a small tear on his coat. The arrow shaft had been removed, apparently by a companion. He also had bruises and cuts on his hands, wrists, and chest. DNA analysis revealed traces of blood from four other people on his gear: one from his knife, two from the same arrowhead, and a fourth from his coat.

This may indicate that Otzi was actually part of an armed raiding party, and had gotten into a skirmish, probably with a neighboring tribe, and this skirmish had gone badly for the attackers.

The biological evidence suggests that he was out of his home territory. The DNA evidence suggests that he was assisted by companions who were also wounded. The repairs he had made to his clothing are very crude compared to the original stitching. The copper axe could not have been made by him alone. It would have required a concerted group tribal effort to mine and smelt and cast the copper axe head. This all shows foresight, planning and preparation on a large scale with a certain goal in mind.

He was wounded in the conflict, and (according to CT scan findings) probably died within several minutes due to massive blood loss, as a result of a flint arrowhead severing his left subclavian artery.

[edit] Ritual sacrifice

Before the latest evidence, it was speculated that Ötzi had been a victim of a ritual sacrifice, perhaps for being a chieftain. This explanation may have been inspired by theories previously advanced for the first millennium B.C. bodies recovered from peat bogs, such as the Tollund Man and the Lindow Man.

[edit] Weather

It has also been hypothesized that Ötzi was the victim of a storm caused by the Priora oscillation, a sudden cooling of the Earth's environment, as indicated by the surge of the nearby Priora Glacier.

[edit] "Ötzi's Curse"

Influenced by the "Curse of the Pharaohs" and the media theme of cursed mummies, claims have been made that Ötzi is cursed. The allegation centers around the deaths of several people connected to the discovery, recovery and subsequent examination of Ötzi. It is alleged that they have died under mysterious circumstances. These persons include co-discoverer Helmut Simon;^[8] and Konrad Spindler, the first examiner of the mummy in Austria at a local morgue in 1991.^[9] To date, the deaths of seven people, of which four were the result of some violence in the form of accidents, have been attributed to the alleged curse. However, hundreds of people were involved in the recovery of Ötzi and are still involved in studying the body and the artefacts found with it; thus it may not be surprising that a few of them have died since the mummy's discovery.^[10]

[edit] Other ancient frozen or naturally-preserved corpses

See also: Mummy (natural mummies)

[edit] Frozen corpses

[edit] Naturally frozen

• In August 2004, frozen bodies of three Austro-Hungarian soldiers killed during the Battle of San Matteo (1918) were found on the mountain of San Matteo in the Trentino region of Italy.^[11] One body was sent to a museum in the hope that research on how the environment affected its preservation will help to find out about Ötzi's past and future evolution.

• In August 1999, three First Nation hunters found the frozen remains of an ancient person at the edge of the Samuel Glacier in the Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, British Columbia, Canada, which is within the traditional territory of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations. Named Kwäday Dän Ts’ínchi (meaning "Long Ago Person Found", and often abbreviated to KDT), it was determined that he had died about 550 years ago and that his preserved remains were the oldest ever discovered in North America.^[12]

• In October 1972, eight remarkably-preserved mummies were discovered at an abandoned Inuit settlement called Qilakitsoq, in Greenland. The oldest preserved human remains found in Greenland to date, the "Greenland Mummies" consisted of a six-month old baby, a four-year-old boy, and six women of various ages, who had died about 500 years earlier. Their bodies had been naturally mummified by the sub-zero temperatures and dry winds in the cave in which they were found.^[13]

• On 10 November 1644, diarist John Evelyn recorded that when he was at the villa of Prince Ludovisio^[14] in Rome there was "a man's body, flesh and all, petrified and even converted to marble, as it was found in the Alps, and sent by the Emperor to one of the Popes; it lay in a chest or coffin lin'd with black velvet, and one of the armes being broken, you may see the perfect bone from the flesh which remains intire."^[15] (There was no mention of the body having been frozen, but this might perhaps be inferred from its discovery in the Alps.)

[edit] Mummified and frozen

• In the summer of 1993, a team of Russian archaeologists led by Dr. Natalia Polosmak discovered the Siberian Ice Maiden in a sacred area known as the Pastures of Heaven, on the Pontic-Caspian steppe in the Altay Mountains near the Mongolian border. Mummified, then frozen by freak climatic conditions in the fifth century B.C. around 2,400 years ago along with six decorated horses and a symbolic meal for her last journey, she is believed to have been a shaman of the lost Pazyryk culture. Her body was covered with vivid blue tattoos of mythical animal figures. Together with the body of a man nicknamed "Conan" which was subsequently discovered, she provides clues to the role and power of women in the nomadic peoples of ancient Siberia. The Ice Maiden has been a source of controversy, as alleged improper care after her removal from the ice resulted in rapid decay of the body; and since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Altai Republic has demanded the return of various "stolen" artifacts, including the Ice Maiden, who is currently stored in Novosibirsk in Siberia, Russia.^[16]

[edit] Corpses preserved by other natural means

• Bog bodies are preserved human bodies found in sphagnum bogs in Northern Europe, Britain and Ireland. Due to the unusual conditions of preservation in bogs, their skin and internal organs are usually well-preserved. A famous case is that of the Haraldskær Woman, who was discovered by labourers in a bog in Jutland, Denmark in 1835. She was erroneously identified as an early medieval Danish queen, and for that reason was placed in a royal sarcophagus at the Saint Nicolai Church, Vejle, where she remains though the identification was subsequently proven to be wrong.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Neill, James (last updated 2004-10-27). Otzi, the 5,300 Year Old Iceman from the Alps: Pictures & Information. Retrieved on March 8, 2007.
2. ^ Val Senales - Schnalstal, Carta Topografica per Escursionisti 1:25.000, Tabacco, 1996. It is a topographic map.
3. ^ Deem, James M. (last updated 2007-02-27). Ötzi: Iceman of the Alps: The Finder's Fee Lawsuit. Mummy Tombs. Retrieved on March 8, 2007.
4. ^ Pisa, Nick. "Cold Case Comes to Court – After 5,300 Years", The Daily Telegraph, 2005-10-22.
5. ^ "Iceman's Final Meal", BBC News, 2002-09-16.
6. ^ Hall, Allan. "Shoemaker Pursues the Ultimate Sole Mate", The Sydney Morning Herald, 2005-07-18.; Krosnar, Katka. "Now You Can Walk in Footsteps of 5,000-Year-Old Iceman – Wearing His Boots", The Daily Telegraph, 2005-07-17.
7. ^ Davies, Norman (1996). Europe: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198201710. 
8. ^ Reuters. "Iceman's Finder Missing", The Guardian, 2004-10-19.; Goodwin, Stephen. "Helmut Simon : Finder of a Bronze Age Man in the Alpine Snow [obituary]", The Independent, 2004-10-25.
9. ^ McMahon, Barbara. "Scientist Seen as Latest 'Victim' of Iceman", The Guardian, 2005-04-20.
10. ^ The Curse of the Ice Mummy, a television documentary screened on UK Channel 4 on 8 March 2007. See also Marks, Kathy. "Curse of Oetzi the Iceman Strikes Again", The Independent, 2005-11-05. (also reported as Marks, Kathy. "Curse of Oetzi the Iceman Claims Another Victim", New Zealand Herald, 2005-11-05.) and Squires, Nick. "Seventh Victim of the Ice Man's 'Curse'", The Daily Telegraph, 2005-11-05.
11. ^ "WWI Bodies are Found on Glacier", BBC News, 2004-08-23.
12. ^ Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts, British Columbia. Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi. Retrieved on March 8, 2007. See also Lundberg, Murray (1999-08-25, news updated on 2001-07-24). Kwaday Dän Sinchi, The Yukon Iceman. ExploreNorth. Retrieved on March 8, 2007.
13. ^ Deem, James M. (last updated 2007-03-15). World Mummies: Greenland Mummies. Mummy Tombs. Retrieved on March 16, 2007. See also Hart Hansen, Jens Peder; Jørgen Meldgaard; Jørgen Nordqvist (eds.) (1991). The Greenland Mummies. London: British Museum Publications. ISBN 0714125008. 
14. ^ Possibly Ludovico Cardinal Ludovisi.
15. ^ Evelyn, John; William Bray (ed.) (1883). Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn. London: George Bell & Sons. 
16. ^ The Siberian Ice Maiden. ExploreNorth. Retrieved on March 17, 2007.; Vanaeon, Elkin. Siberian Ice Maiden (5 B.C.E.). Retrieved on March 17, 2007.; Campbell, Matthew (June 1994), Ice Maiden of the Steppes, vol. 41, World Press Review; Polosmak, Natalya (October 1994), A Mummy Unearthed from the Pastures of Heaven, National Geographic Magazine.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Articles

• Carroll, Rory. "How Oetzi the Iceman was Stabbed in the Back and Lost His Fight for Life", The Guardian, 2002-03-21.
• Carroll, Rory. "Iceman is Defrosted for Gene Tests : New Techniques May Link Copper Age Shepherd to Present-Day Relatives", The Guardian, 2000-09-26.
• Dickson, James Holms (2005-06-28). Plants and the Iceman : Ötzi's Last Journey. Division of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow. Retrieved on March 17, 2007.
• Fowler, Brenda (last updated November 2002). The Iceman's Last Meal. NOVA Online, PBS. Retrieved on March 17, 2007.
• Hooper, John. "DNA Detective Uncovers Violence of Bronze Age Ice Mummy's Last Hours", The Guardian, 2003-08-13.
• Irwin, Aisling. "Ice Age Man's Hair Showed He Was Vegetarian", The Daily Telegraph, 1998-10-29.
• Kennedy, Frances. "Oetzi the Neolithic Iceman Was Killed by an Arrow, Say Scientists", The Independent, 2001-07-26.
• Macintyre, Ben. "We Know Oetzi Had Fleas, His Last Supper Was Steak... and He Died 5,300 Years Ago", The Times, 2003-11-01.
• Morelle, Rebecca. "Infertility Link in Iceman's DNA", BBC News, 2006-02-03.
• Murphy, William A., Jr.; Dieter zur Nedden & Paul Gostner et al. (2003-01-24), The Iceman : Discovery and Imaging, vol. 226, Oak Brook, Il.: Radiology, ISSN: 0033-8419 (on-line pre-publication version).
• Owen, Richard. "Iceman Cometh from Italy", The Times, 2003-10-31.
• Seenan, Gerard. "Oetzi the Iceman Gives Up His Secrets : He Froze to Death 5,000 Years Ago, but Scientists Find He Was Arthritic and Suffered From Diarrhoea", The Guardian, 1999-07-22.

[edit] Books

[edit] In English

• Bortenschlager, Sigmar; Klaus Oeggl (eds.) (2000). The Iceman and His Natural Environment : Palaeobotanical Results. Wien ; New York, N.Y.: Springer. ISBN 3211826602. 
• Fowler, Brenda (2000). Iceman : Uncovering the Life and Times of a Prehistoric Man Found in an Alpine Glacier. New York, N.Y.: Random House. ISBN 0679431675 (hbk.). 
• Spindler, Konrad; translated from the German by Ewald Osers (2001). The Man in the Ice : The Preserved Body of a Neolithic Man Reveals the Secrets of the Stone Age. London: Phoenix. ISBN 0753812606. 

[edit] In other languages

• De Marinis, Raffaele C.; Giuseppe Brillante (1998). La Mummia del Similaun : Ötzi, l’Uomo Venuto dal Ghiaccio. Venice, Italy: Marsilio. ISBN 883177073X. 
• Fleckinger, Angelika; Hubert Steiner (1998 (2000 printing)). L’Uomo Venuto dal Ghiaccio. Bolzano, Italy: Folio. ISBN 8886857039 (pbk.). 

[edit] See also

• Bog bodies
• Incorruptibility
• List of fossil sites (with link directory)
• List of hominina (hominid) fossils (with images)
• Mummy

[edit] External links

• "Death of the Iceman" – a synopsis of a BBC Horizon TV documentary first broadcast on 7 February 2002
• Ötzi, Iceman of the Alps – from the Mummy Tombs website
• Ötzi Links... Der Mann aus dem Eis vom Hauslabjoch – a list of links to websites about Ötzi in English, German and Italian (last updated 2006-01-28)
• Otzi, the 5,300 Year Old Iceman from the Alps: Pictures & Information (last updated 2004-10-27)
• Ötzi, the Glacier Man – information about Ötzi in Dutch and English (last updated February 2006)
• South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology – official website about Ötzi
• Photograph of Ötzi from the Mesa Community College, Arizona, USA