Ötzi the Iceman

Ötzi the Iceman (pronounced ), Frozen Fritz, and  Man are modern nicknames of a well-preserved natural of a man from about  (53 centuries ago), found in 1991 in the   in the, near  on the border between  and. 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 ans.

Discovery


Ötzi was found by two tourists from, Helmut and Erika Simon, on ,. The body was at first thought to be a modern, 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 n authorities using a small (which punctured the hip of the body) and s using non-archaeological methods. In addition, before the body was removed from the ice, people were allowed to see it, and some took portions of the clothing and tools as souvenirs. The body was then taken to a morgue in, where its true age was subsequently ascertained. However, during a press conference that was held, people were allowed to take photographs and touch the body. As a result of this, fungus began to grow on the Iceman's skin.

Subsequent surveys in October 1991 showed that the body had been located 92.56 meters inside territory (46.77889°N, 10.83972°W). Since 1998 it has been on display at the Museum of Archaeology in,.

Disputes over the discovery
In 2003, the Simons filed a lawsuit which asked a court in Bolzano, Italy, to recognize their role in Ötzi's discovery and declare them his "official discoverers". Under Italian law, this 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 in the Simons favor, and at the end of December 2003, the Simons announced that they were seeking US$300,000 as their fee.

Provincial government officials decided to appeal. In 2004, Helmut Simon died. 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 expenses it had incurred to establish a museum and the costs of preserving the Iceman should be considered in 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.

Since the discovery of Ötzi in 1991 and the Simons' lawsuit, two other people 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: 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. In 2005, Mrs. Simon's lawyer 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." However, the story about his discovery by Rastbichler-Zissernig can has been online 2001. In the publication, neither of the women were present on the mountain that day.
 * Magdalena Mohar Jarc, a n actress, who 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 is apparently appearing as a witness for her.
 * Sandra Nemeth, from, who contended that she found the corpse before Helmut and Erika Simon, and that she spat on Ötzi to make sure that her 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.

Scientific analyses of Ötzi
The body has been extensively examined, measured, ed, and dated. Tissues and intestinal contents have been examined microscopically, as have the items found with the body. In August 2004, frozen bodies of three soldiers killed during the   were found on the mountain of  in the  region of. 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.

The body


By current estimates, at the time of his death, Ötzi was approximately 165 cm (5 ft. 5 in.) tall, weighed about 38 kg (84 lbs., or 6 ), and was about 45 years of age. Because the body was covered in ice shortly after his death, it only partially deteriorated. Analysis of pollen and dust grains and the composition of his  indicate that he spent his childhood near the present village of  (Velturno), north of, but later went to live in valleys about 50  further north. Analysis by 's group at the has shown that Otzi's  belongs to the K1 subcluster of the mitochondrial, 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 meat, the other of  meat. Both were eaten with some as well as some roots and fruits. The grain from both meals was a highly processed wheat bran, quite possibly eaten in the form of bread. There were also a few kernels of sloes (small plum-like fruits of the tree). 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 forest, and other pollens indicated the presence of wheat and s, which may have been domesticated crops. Also, pollen grains of 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, which places the event in the spring. Interestingly, einkorn wheat is harvested in the late summer, and s in the autumn; these must have been stored since the year before.

The body is missing the and most of the.

High levels of both particles and  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.

By examining the proportions of Ötzi's, and , Christopher Ruff has determined that Ötzi's lifestyle included long walks over hilly terrain. This degree of mobility is not characteristic of other Europeans. Ruff proposes that this may indicate Ötzi was a high-altitude shepherd.

Health
He apparently had (Trichuris trichiura), an intestinal. During scans, it was observed that three or four of his right ribs had been squashed when he had been lying face down after death, or where the ice had crushed his body. Also, it was found that his, the outer skin layer, was missing, a natural process from his mummification in ice.

Tattoos
He had approximately 57 carbon s consisting of simple dots and lines on his lower spine, behind his left knee, and on his right ankle. Using, it was determined that the Iceman may have had arthritis in these joints. Some scientists suggest that the designs might have been used to mark the passage from youth to manhood, or it has been speculated that they may be related to.

Clothes and shoes


Ötzi's clothes were quite sophisticated. He wore a made of woven grass and a vest, a belt, a pair of leggings, a loincloth and s, all made of leather. He also wore a bearskin cap with a leather chin strap. 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 vest, belt, leggings, and loincloth were constructed of vertical strips of leather sewn together with sinew. His belt had a pouch sewn to it that contained a cache of useful items: a scraper, drill, flint flake, bone arrow, and a dried fungus to be used as tinder.

The shoes have since been reproduced by experts, and found to constitute such excellent that there are plans for commercial production. However, a more recent theory by British archaeologist says that Ötzi's "shoes" were actually the upper part of. According to this theory, the item currently interpreted as part of a is actually the wood frame and netting of one snowshoe and animal hide to cover the torso.

Other equipment
Other items found with the Iceman were a  with a  handle, a  knife with an  handle, a  of 14 bone-tipped arrows with  and  shafts and flint heads (two arrows were finished, twelve were not), and an unfinished yew  that was 3 feet 2 inches (one metre) tall. Also found were and two birch bark baskets.

Among Ötzi's possessions were two species of s 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, 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 for creating sparks.

Cause of death
Initially it had been believed that Ötzi died from exposure during a winter storm. Later it was speculated that Ötzi had been a victim of a, perhaps for being a. This explanation was inspired by theories previously advanced for the first millennium B.C. recovered from, such as the  and the. In 2001 and a  scan revealed that Ötzi had an  lodged in one shoulder when he died, and a matching small tear on his coat. The discovery of the arrowhead prompted researchers to theorize Ötzi died of from the wound, which would likely have been fatal even with modern medicine. Further research found that the arrow's had been removed prior to death, and close examination of the body found s and cuts to the hands, wrists and chest and  indicative of a blow to the head. One of the cuts was to the base of his thumb that reached the down to the bone but had not had time to heal before his death. Currently it is believed that death was caused by a blow to the head, though researchers are unsure if this was due to a fall, or from being struck with a rock by another person. 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. Interpretations of the findings was that Ötzi killed two individuals with the same arrow, and was able to retrieve it on both occasions, and the blood on his coat was from a wounded comrade he may have carried over his back. Ötzi's unnatural posture in (frozen body, face down, left arm bent across the chest) suggests that theory of a solitary death from blood loss, hunger, cold and weakness is untenable. Rather, before death occurred and set in, the iceman was turned onto his stomach in the effort to remove the arrow shaft.

The DNA evidence suggests that he was assisted by companions who were also wounded, pollen and food analysis suggests that he was out of his home territory. The copper axe could not have been made by him alone. It would have required a concerted group tribal effort to mine, smelt and cast the copper axe head. This may indicate that Ötzi was actually part of an armed raiding party involved in a skirmish, perhaps with a neighbouring tribe, and this skirmish had gone badly. It may also indicate that he was ambushed or attacked by a rival tribe's raiding party on his way to deliver the axe. When the iceman's has been analyzed by Franco Rollo and his colleagues, and it was discovered that he had genetic markers associated with reduced fertility, possibly affecting his social acceptance.

"Ötzi's Curse"
Influenced by the "" and the media theme of cursed mummies, claims have been made that Ötzi is d. The allegation centers around the deaths of several main 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; and Konrad Spindler, the first examiner of the mummy in Austria at a local morgue in 1991. 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 artifacts found with it; thus it may not be surprising that a few of them have died since the mummy's discovery.

Articles

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