W.A.L.T. Write facts about Otzi the iceman.
I am a descendant of Otzi the iceman and i have some facts for you!
Ötzi, also called the Iceman, is the well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived between 3400 and 3100 BCE.[3] The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal
Alps, hence the nickname "Ötzi", near Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy.[4] He is Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and has offered
an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans. His body and belongings
are displayed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy.
Now the facts about Otzi's discovery.
Ötzi was found on 19 September 1991 by two German tourists, at an elevation of 3,210
Austrian–Italian border. The tourists, Helmut and Erika Simon, were walking off the path
between the mountain passes Hauslabjoch and Tisenjoch. They believed that the body
was of a recently deceased mountaineer.
[5] The next day, a mountain
gendarme and the
keeper of the nearby Similaunhütte first attempted to remove the body, which was frozen
in ice below the torso, using a pneumatic drill and ice-axes, but had to give up due to
bad weather. The next day, eight groups visited the site, among whom were mountaineers
September and officially salvaged the following day. It was transported to the office of the
medical examiner in
Innsbruck, together with other objects found. On 24 September, the
He dated the find to be "about four thousand years old", based on the
typology of an axe among the retrieved objects.
[6][7]
was defined as the
watershed of the rivers
Inn and
Etsch. Near Tisenjoch the (now retreated)
glacier complicated establishing the watershed at the time, and the border was established
too far north. Although Ötzi's find site drains to the Austrian side, surveys in October 1991
showed that the body had been located 92.56 metres (101.22 yd) inside Italian territory as
delineated in 1919
″E.
[8] The province of South Tyrol therefore claimed property rights, but
agreed to let Innsbruck University finish its scientific examinations. Since 1998, it has
Now the facts about his body and what he carried!
By current estimates (2016), at the time of his death, Ötzi was 160 centimetres (5 ft 3 in)
tall, weighed about 50 kilograms (110 lb), and was about 45 years of age.
[11] When his
body was found, it weighed 13.750 kilograms (30 lb 5.0 oz).
[12][13] Because the body was
covered in ice shortly after his death, it had only partially deteriorated. Initial reports
claimed that his
penis and most of his
scrotum were missing, but this was later shown
to be unfounded.
[14] Analysis of pollen, dust grains and the
isotopic composition of his
tooth enamel indicates that he spent his childhood near the present village of
Feldthurns, north of Bolzano, but later went to live in valleys about 50 kilometres farther north.
[15]
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.
[16] It is believed that Ötzi most likely had a
few slices of a dried, fatty meat, probably bacon, which came from a wild goat in South
Tyrol, Italy.
[17] Analysis of Ötzi'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 roots and fruits. The grain also eaten with both meals was a
highly processed
einkorn wheat bran,
[18] 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 plum-like fruits of the blackthorn tree) and various seeds of berries
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
(estimated about two hours old) at the time of Ötzi's death, which places the event in
the spring or early summer. Einkorn wheat is harvested in the late summer, and
sloes in the autumn; these must have been stored from the previous year.
[20]
High levels of both copper particles and
arsenic were found in Ötzi's hair. This, along
with Ötzi's copper axe blade, which is 99.7% pure copper, has led scientists to speculate
By examining the proportions of Ötzi's
tibia,
femur and
pelvis, Christopher Ruff has
determined that Ötzi'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 Ötzi was a high-altitude shepherd.
[22]
Using modern
3D scanning technology, a facial reconstruction has been created for the
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy. It shows Ötzi 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.
[23]
That is all the facts that I have about Otzi the iceman for now!
