Everything about Tzi totally explained
Ötzi the Iceman,
Frozen Fritz, and
Similaun Man are modern nicknames of a well-preserved natural
mummy of a man from about
3300 BC (53 centuries ago), 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.
Discovery
Ötzi was found by two
German tourists from
Nuremberg, Helmut and Erika Simon, on
19 September 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. 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
Innsbruck, 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
Italian territory .
Since 1998 it has been on display at the
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
in
Bolzano,
Italy.
Scientific analyses of Ötzi
The body has been extensively examined, measured,
X-rayed, 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
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. 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 tall, weighed about and was about 45 years of age. 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 can't 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).
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. 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, which 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.
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 isn't characteristic of other
Copper Age Europeans. Ruff proposes that this may indicate Ötzi was a high-altitude shepherd.
Health
He apparently had
whipworm (
Trichuris trichiura), an intestinal
parasite. During
CT scans, it was observed that three or four of his right ribs had been squashed when he'd been lying face down after death, or where the ice had crushed his body. Also, it was found that his
epidermis, the outer skin layer, was missing, a natural process from his mummification in ice. However, a more recent hypothesis 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.
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 tall. Also found were
berries and two
birch bark baskets.
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.
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
ritual sacrifice, perhaps for being a
chieftain. This explanation was 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. and a matching small tear on his coat. The discovery of the arrowhead prompted researchers to theorize Ötzi died of
blood loss from the wound, which would likely have been fatal even if modern medical techniques had been available. Further research found that the arrow's
shaft had been removed prior to death, and close examination of the body found
bruises and cuts to the hands, wrists and chest and
cerebral trauma indicative of a blow to the head. One of the cuts was to the base of his thumb that reached down to the bone but hadn't had time to heal before his death. Currently it's 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. 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. Interpretations of the findings were 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.
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 couldn't 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 neighboring 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
mitochondrial DNA was analyzed by Franco Rollo and his colleagues, it was discovered that he'd genetic markers associated with reduced fertility. It has been speculated that this may have affected his social acceptance.
Legal dispute over Ötzi's 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
Court of Cassation.
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:
- Magdalena Mohar Jarc, a Slovenian 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 Reinhold Messner is apparently appearing as a witness for her.
- Sandra Nemeth, from Switzerland, who 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's 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. This position is supported by a detailed description of the Iceman's discovery by Austrian researcher Elisabeth Rastbichler-Zissernig. 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." 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.
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