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<< Our Photo Pages >> Ötzi Memorial - Marker Stone in Italy in Lombardia

Submitted by TheCaptain on Thursday, 08 December 2011  Page Views: 19560

Multi-periodSite Name: Ötzi Memorial Alternative Name: Oetzi
Country: Italy Region: Lombardia Type: Marker Stone
Nearest Town: Solden
Latitude: 46.778900N  Longitude: 10.839700E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 5 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 2 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 3

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Ötzi Memorial
Ötzi Memorial submitted by TheCaptain : The Memorial to Ötzi the Iceman, found in 1991 on the Austria-Italy border close to the Hauslabjoch Pass. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Memorial to Ötzi the Iceman, one of the oldest and best preserved corpses in the world, found in 1991 on the Austria-Italy border close to the Hauslabjoch Pass.

"Otzi" died from a shoulder wound inflicted by an arrow, according to research into his perfectly preserved 5,000-year old body.

Otzi, the oldest mummy unearthed, was found in the Italian Alps in 1991 wearing clothing made from leather and grasses and carrying a copper axe, a bow and arrows.

Though Otzi's body underwent several scientific tests to study life in the prehistoric age, it had so far been unclear whether he died from an arrow wound, a bad fall or severe freezing while climbing the high mountains.

Using modern X-ray technology, however, an Italian-Swiss research team said on Wednesday it had proved the cause of death as a lesion on an artery close to the shoulder, caused by an arrowhead that remains in the iceman's back.

A large haematoma -- or a collection of blood due to internal bleeding -- could also be seen in the surrounding tissue, and the iceman probably died shortly after the lesion was caused, researchers concluded.

Researchers had previously suggested he was killed by a rival hunter after putting up a fight, and concluded that his final meals consisted of venison and ibex meat.

Note: Ice mummy may have smashed eye in a fall, see also link to the comprehensive Iceman Photoscan site
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Ötzi Memorial
Ötzi Memorial submitted by TheCaptain : View of the Memorial to Ötzi the Iceman, found in 1991 on the Austria-Italy border close to the Hauslabjoch Pass. (Vote or comment on this photo)

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Fineilspitze (3516 m), tztal Alps, Tyrol, Austria
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"Ötzi Memorial" | Login/Create an Account | 18 News and Comments
  
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Oetzi the Iceman film by Andy B on Thursday, 21 December 2017
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In the last month an interesting movie about Oetzi the glacier mummy was in German cinemas. It´s called in German "Der Mann aus dem Eis". I don´t know if the movie is coming in the UK, but it´s really worth to see how the life was 3000 BCE.

Here is the link to the movie: https://dermannausdemeis-film.de/
Greetings
Kai
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Oetzi the Iceman film by Andy B on Thursday, 21 December 2017
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    Hello Kai,
    I'm not sure, it might be in some art cinemas over here but it's had some coverage anyway:

    Iceman the movie: stone age survivor Ötzi is brought back to life

    Inspired by Ötzi’s cult status and much of the rich information that scientists have gathered about him and the way in which he lived, German filmmaker Felix Randau has now turned Ötzi’s struggle for survival into a feature film, which is out this month. Der Mann aus dem Eis (Iceman), a collaboration between Germany, Italy and Austria, was shot in the rugged mountains of Bavaria, South Tyrol and Carinthia.
    Advertisement

    “The figure of Ötzi, with his mythical grandeur, allowed us to look into the past to see what it tells us about the present,” Randau said in an interview. “It raises the question as to whether humans have really changed at all and developed over 5,000 years.” The film speculates why Ötzi was murdered, the exact details of which are a mystery, despite many theories offered by archaeologists and scientists.

    More here
    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/dec/03/otzi-iceman-mummy-brought-to-life-on-film

    Trailer
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgoeJ02ZHFE


    [ Reply to This ]

Ötzi the Iceman's Wild Wardrobe Revealed by Andy B on Thursday, 02 March 2017
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The 5,300-year-old iceman mummy, whose remarkably preserved body was found frozen in the Tyrolean Alps in Austria, once sported an outfit made almost completely of animal skin, new genetic evidence suggests. And scientists even know which animals were used to make this Stone Age getup.

"We have discovered that the iceman's clothes were composed of an array of different animals," said study co-author Niall O'Sullivan, a doctoral candidate in archaeology at the University College Dublin in Ireland and researcher at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman, EURAC research in Bolzano, Italy.

The new findings reveal even more about one of the best-studied mummies on Earth.
http://www.livescience.com/55804-otzi-clothing-species-identified.html
[ Reply to This ]

Iceman was a medical mess by Andy B on Friday, 02 March 2012
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Few of our ancestors have been so thoroughly poked and prodded as Neolithic Tyrolean Iceman "Ötzi," discovered melting out of an Alpine glacier in 1991. Researchers have probed his stomach and bowels for traces of his last meal and analyzed his teeth for cavities. Now, an international team has sequenced his entire genome, and it turns out Ötzi still has some surprises in store.

Earlier computer scans had revealed Ötzi's severe arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. But the new analysis shows that Ötzi had a genetic predisposition to the condition, despite the fact that as a hunter-gatherer he had none of what are currently believed to be the relevant risk factors, such as being overweight, getting too little exercise, and smoking or drinking.

Researchers now know he had brown eyes, brown hair, type-O blood, and shared the lactose intolerance that was then still the norm among Neolithic Europeans. He was also the first known carrier of Lyme disease.

More at
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/02/iceman-was-a-medical-mess.html
[ Reply to This ]
    Genetic analysis reveals Otzi Iceman predisposed to cardiovascular disease by bat400 on Tuesday, 03 April 2012
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    coldrum submitted a similar article from http://www.physorg.com.


    Includes these tidbits:

    "Apart from this genetic predisposition, the scientists were able to identify traces of bacteria from the genus Borrelia, which are responsible for causing infections and are transmitted by ticks. Carsten Pusch, who led the genetic investigations in Tübingen, comments: “This is the oldest evidence for borreliosis (Lyme disease) and proof that this infection was already present 5,000 years ago.”

    "One further aspect which particularly interested the scientists was the Iceman’s genetic. They found that Ötzi belonged to a particular so-called Y-chromosome haplogroup which is relatively rare in present-day Europe. The findings indicate that Ötzi’s ancestors had migrated from the Middle East as agriculture and cattle-breeding became more widespread. Their genetic heritage is most common today in geographically isolated areas and islands such as on Sardinia and Corsica."

    The full genome sequencing was supported by the National Geographic Society (USA), by Life Technologies (USA) and Comprehensive Biomarker Center (Germany).
    For the full article, see the link above.
    [ Reply to This ]
    More on Otzi the Iceman's Genetic Heritage: Similar to Sardinian and Corsican Moderns by bat400 on Tuesday, 11 September 2012
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    Genetic analysis of ancient 'Iceman' mummy traces ancestry from Alps to Mediterranean isle

    The Iceman mummy, also known as Otzi, is about 5,300 years old. Scientists studying his body since his discovery in the Italian Alps in 1991 have learned many things, including the cause of his death (an arrow to the back) and his last meal (ibex meat). An analysis of the corpse’s chemical composition suggested that he was born and lived his entire life in the Tyrol area where his body was found. Now they’re delving deeper to unearth more clues in the mummy’s DNA.
    On Feb. 28, European and American scientists, including Stanford School of Medicine genetics professor Carlos Bustamante, PhD, and senior research associate Peter Underhill, PhD, announced the sequencing of Otzi’s entire genome. It is the oldest human sample to undergo such an analysis. The study appeared in Nature Communications.

    The sequence revealed some things impossible to learn by studying the body: importantly, it also gave clues to where his ancestors lived and how humans may have migrated across Europe during the Copper Age, which started about 7,000 years ago. The answer surprised some people:

    “The Iceman’s ancestry most closely mirrors that of modern-day Sardinians,” said Underhill, who, with Bustamante, came to the conclusion by analyzing the mummy’s Y chromosome. “His lineage is very rare in mainland Europe — only 1 percent or less share the same sequence — but is rather frequent in northern Sardinia and southern Corsica.”

    “When we found the Iceman was most closely related with modern Sardinians, it was at first hard to believe,” said Bustamante. “It’s a real mystery. Did he or his ancestors travel to the Alps from Sardinia, or did the Europe of 5,000 years ago more closely resemble Sardinia and Corsica? It’s a fascinating question in part because it addresses how rapidly people spread across Europe, and how far they rambled.”

    Obtaining and sequencing DNA from such an ancient source was challenging. “Ancient DNA, which has been exposed to the elements for thousands of years, is plagued by contamination both from the environment and anyone who has handled Otzi since his discovery,” said Timothy Harkins, PhD, of Life Technologies who led the sequencing effort. To limit contamination, researchers used a long needle to tap the inner part of the femur.

    As it was, the researchers obtained only about 20 nanograms of genomic DNA for sequencing, which is hundreds of times less than the amount usually used for whole-genome sequencing of modern-day samples. From this, the scientists were able to identify about 2 million unique sequence variants for population studies. One small variation on the Y chromosome pointed researchers to Otzi’s island heritage.

    The finding suggests two scenarios: either the mummy’s ancestors were once more prevalent in mainland Europe than they are now (and some unknown selection process caused them to die off everywhere but the island strongholds), or they actively immigrated to the mainland from the island. Because there is little archeological evidence of the large, rapid population change required in the first possibility, the Stanford researchers favor the second.

    “It’s thought that Sardinia was first peopled about 11,000 years ago by sedentary hunter-gatherers,” said Underhill. “Some samples of volcanic glass, or obsidian, found in mainland Italy and southern France have been shown to come from Mount Arci in Sardinia. This implies that there were episodes of trading between the island and mainland.” If so, the mummy’s ancestors could have arrived in Europe as traders.

    Underhill and Bustamante are currently participating in the 1,000 Genomes Project — an international collaboration to catalog human genetic diversity. As the scientists identify increasing numbers of population-specific variants, it may become easier to track human migration and even answer questions about Otzi and other ancient spe

    Read the rest of this post...
    [ Reply to This ]

Ice Mummy May Have Smashed Eye in Fall by Andy B on Thursday, 08 December 2011
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Recent analysis says that a wound to the head may have contributed to the demise of Oetzi, the Iceman.

A sharp incision in his right eye may have contributed to the rapid demise of Ötzi the Iceman, the famous mummy who died in the Italian Alps more than 5,000 years ago.

Twenty years after two hikers stumbled upon the Iceman in a melting glacier, new analyses have revealed that a deep cut likely led to heavy bleeding in the man's eye. In the cold, high-altitude conditions where he was found, that kind of injury would have been tough to recover from.

The official opinion remains that an arrow in his left shoulder was the cause of death for Ötzi. But the new study raises the possibility -- for some, at least -- that he fell over after being shot by an arrow. And, at higher than 10,000 feet in elevation, his alpine fall may have made the situation much worse.

"Maybe he fell down or maybe he had a fight up there, nobody knows," said Wolfgang Recheis, a physicist in the radiology department at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. "With this cut alone, at 3,250 meters, it would have been a deadly wound up there. Bleeding to death in the late afternoon when it was getting cold up there, this could be really dangerous."

Ever since his discovery in 1991, Ötzi has been measured, photographed, X-rayed, CT-scanned and endlessly speculated about.

The Iceman Photoscan website http://iceman.eurac.edu allows anyone to scrutinize every inch of the body, which belonged to a 5'3", 110-pound, 45-year old man.

Read more at
http://news.discovery.com/history/iceman-oetzi-eye-injury-111121.html?ewrd=1
[ Reply to This ]

Scientists Consolidate Results of Research Into Ötzi’s State of Health and His Death by Andy B on Monday, 31 October 2011
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A Rest, a Meal, Then Death for 5,000-Year-Old Glacier Mummy: Scientists Consolidate Results of Research Into Ötzi’s State of Health and His Death

There is now broad agreement on the circumstances of Ötzi's death. Around 100 experts on mummies from nearly every single continent gathered for the "2nd Bolzano Mummy Congress" held at the European Academy of Bolzano from the 20th to the 22nd October 2011, with the aim of discussing any diseases he might have been suffering from and the events surrounding his death. From the moment of his discovery 20 years ago, Ötzi -- the 5,000-year-old glacier mummy -- has been puzzling the scientific research community, though little by little he is also revealing many of his secrets.

There was broad agreement at the Bolzano Congress about the last hour of his life. Albert Zink, Head of the Institute for Mummy Research at EURAC, reports as follows about the circumstances of the Iceman's death: "He felt safe enough to take a break, and settled down to a copious meal. While thus resting, he was attacked, shot with an arrow and left for dead." There was no evidence pointing to a possible burial as some scientists have suggested in the past. "The position of the mummified body with his arm pointing obliquely upwards, the lack of any piles of stones or other features which often accompany burial sites, runs counter to the burial theory," he continues.

But there is still the problem of what was Ötzi doing up there, at a height of 3,200 metres? At the Bolzano Congress, the Innsbruck based scientists Andreas Putzer, Daniela Festi and Klaus Oeggl refuted the theory, first put forward in 1996, according to which Ötzi was a shepherd who had taken his herd to pastures high up in the mountains to graze during the summer months. According to the latest archaeological and botanical findings, there was no seasonal migration of cattle during the Chalcolithic period, the Copper Stone Age. The so called transhumance did not start until around 1500 BC.

Ötzi was not on the run. On the contrary, between 30 and 120 minutes before his death he had settled down to a hearty meal, as evidenced by stomach samples investigated by Albert Zink and his team this past summer. Goat meat, grains of corn, pieces of leaves, apples and flies' wings were clearly discernible under the microscope.

Innsbruck Botanist Klaus Oeggl was able to detect pollen from the Hop-hornbeam in Ötzi's stomach. Oeggl had, some time ago, discovered a high concentration of such pollen in Ötzi's bowels and had concluded that Ötzi had actually died in the spring and not, as had been assumed for some time, in the autumn. Since food remains fresher in the stomach where it only stays two to four hours, the discovery of pollen in this part of the body gives further weight to this theory.

Nanotechnology used on a brain sample at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich was able to confirm a further assumption: Ötzi did in fact suffer trauma to his skull and brain. This alone would have been sufficient to cause death, but was no doubt at least a contributory factor along with his arrow wound. What is still unclear is whether he incurred the trauma through a fall or a blow to the head.

The majority of the findings are based on the examination of tissue samples from the stomach and the brain taken endoscopically by a team of scientists from Magdeburg, Bolzano and Munich in November last year. Since then, scientists from almost all disciplines have been investigating these samples from their own specific scientific angles using subject-specific methods: medics, nanotechnologists, anthropologists, biochemists, archaeologists and physicists. There are now over 100 "Ötzi researchers," and the Bolzano Mummy Congress represents a so far unique opportunity for them to discuss the present state of research face-to-face at a gathering which was specifically dedicated to the famous iceman.

Read the rest of this post...
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Crucial mummy found 20 years ago Monday by coldrum on Sunday, 23 October 2011
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Twenty years ago Monday, a German couple hiking the Italian Alps veered off a marked footpath and stumbled upon one of the world's oldest and most important archeological finds: Oetzi, "The Iceman".

Oetzi fast became a sensation, not just because he proved to be more than 5,000 years old, but because his remains were so well-preserved, allowing paleontologists to uncover new details about the Stone Age in Europe.

On September 19, 1991, Helmut and Erika Simon from Nuremburg were hiking at an altitude of 3,210 meters (10,500 feet) in the Italy's South Tyrol alps, according to an account published online by the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology.

Toward the end of a hot summer, much of the ice and snow had melted. Protruding out of a icy patch, face down on exposed rock and embedded in a gully, they noticed what looked like the top half of a human corpse.

The Simons assumed they had discovered the remains of a hiker, perhaps killed by avalanche a few years earlier. They took a picture, and headed off to report their find, according to the museum's website.

But Oetzi turned out to be what paleontologists call a "wet mummy", a rare and precious discovery, where the corpse's individual cells have retained enough humidity to allow scientists to conduct detailed investigations on the remains.

Until the Simons spotted Oetzi "such a well preserved find of a human several thousand years old - fully clothed and with numerous personal belongings - had never before been seen anywhere in the world," the South Tyrol museum says online.

"The Ice Man" was also a natural mummy, meaning his flesh was not altered by the burial rites practiced in some societies, like ancient Egypt, which further expanded the corpse's reseach potential.

Once the body was extracted and examined, experts established that Oetzi was 1.6 meters tall (five feet, two inches), weighed 50 kilograms (110 pounds), and, most importantly, that he had died more than 5,000 years earlier.

Oetzi has been studied extensively over the past two decades, and coinciding with the 20th anniversary of his discovery, the South Tyrol museum has organised an exhibit highlighting some of the crucial revelations.

"The Iceman has provided new data from prehistoric times (...) both in the natural sciences and in the humanities," the museum's online exhibit says.

"Using the Iceman as a starting point, it has been possible to conduct research into how specific organic artefacts and present-day diseases originated, to develop new diagnostic techniques and to gain information on climatic developments."

Research has also focused on the Oetzi's personal history, including a notable 2001 study that concluded he likely bled to death from an arrow wound to the shoulder that severed a major blood vessel.

His copper axe, found remarkably well-preserved near the remains, indicated that he was part of the warrior, or leadership, class. Some have suggested that he was a shaman who retired to the Alps for spiritual meditation.

While Oetzi's discovery was celebrated by the international scientific community, it also provoked a mild political controversy.

There was initial confusion about whether "The Ice Man" was found in Austria or Italy, because the border, defined by a post-First World War treaty between Austria and the Allied Powers, was difficult to identify in the glacial alps.

But an October 1991 survey put "The Ice Man" in Italy, 93 metres from the Austrian border.

He remains in Italy today, on display at the museum in South Tyrol.

http://www.france24.com/en/20110918-crucial-mummy-found-20-years-ago-monday
[ Reply to This ]

Iceman's Stomach Sampled—Filled With Goat Meat by bat400 on Thursday, 01 September 2011
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Missing until 2009, mummy's stomach found to contain lumps of last meal.

Hours before he died, "Ötzi" the Iceman gorged on the fatty meat of a wild goat, according to a new analysis of the famous mummy's stomach contents.

The circumstances surrounding Ötzi's death are not fully known, but the most popular theory—based in part on the discovery of an arrowhead in his back—is that he was murdered by other hunters while fleeing through the mountains.

Scientists previously analyzed the contents of Ötzi's lower intestine and determined that he ate a meal of grains along with possibly cooked red deer and goat meat up to 30 hours before his death.

But attempts using an endoscopic tool to sample Ötzi's stomach were unsuccessful.

The reason for the failure became clear in 2009, when scientists studying CAT scans of Ötzi discovered that the Iceman's stomach had shifted upward after death, to where the lower part of his lungs would normally be.

"Why it moved upward, we don't know," said Frank Maixner, a microbiologist at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy, who was involved in the new investigation.



The team found the stomach by examining other associated organs, which had maintained their relative positions to one another when they shifted.

The team found gallstones in the gall bladder, for instance, and from there could identify the stomach.

As a result of the natural mummification process, Ötzi's stomach had shrunk considerably. But the researchers were able to get sample of its contents, which—like the intestines—contained evidence of meat and wheat grains.

What's more, the state of the partially digested food suggests the Iceman ate a substantial meal less than two hours before his death.

"The stomach content is yellowish to brownish colored and mushy, with some bigger pieces of meat and grain," Maixner said.

DNA analysis of the meat showed that it came from an ibex, a wild goat species whose males have large, backward-curving horns. (See pictures of modern Alpine ibex scaling an Italian dam.)

Ibex would have been much more common in Ötzi's day and would have been a good source of meat for hunters.

The animals are usually skittish around humans and will flee at the first opportunity, but a skilled hunter can creep up on one under the right circumstances.

For example, "during certain periods when the males are fighting each other, you can get as close as 20 to 50 meters [65 to 160 feet]," Maixner said.

According to past studies, such a distance would have been just within range of the bow and arrows that were found with Ötzi, he added.

Thanks to coldrum for the link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/06/110623-iceman-mummy-otzi-meal-goat-stomach-science/.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Iceman Oetzi gets a new face for 20th anniversary by Anonymous on Sunday, 03 April 2011
Could Otzi simply have slipped and fell backward and stabbed his back with an arrow that was holstered pointing the wrong direction? The holder for the arrows could have been slung to low with an arrow that was positioned pointing up. Climbing upon a slippery iced over rock the arrow sling could have swung back, with him falling over backward onto the point. The high altitude locale where he was found could have contributed to faintness also.
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Iceman Oetzi gets a new face for 20th anniversary by Anonymous on Sunday, 03 April 2011
    Accidentally stabbed by his own arrow? We've all make stupid mistakes but Otzi was an adult who had been using this equipment throughout his life. The hunting bow had been a crucial part of daily life for such a long time that I'm certain these potential pitfalls had all been identified in the distant past and a bow health and safety system instinctively observed since the mesolithic. I am puzzled more by the pollen evidence. Otzi contained spring pollen but was found among summer pollen, suggesting weeks, or even months, between his death and his "burial". Did his failure to return home cause a search party to be sent over the mountains? Did his tribe, his family, finally find Otzi's now less-than-fresh remains, with his arm bent across his chest in the rigor of death? Was he then, as befit his station, interred with honour and ceremony beside the trackway he had travelled so often, among the mountains he had crossed to trade the precious red metal.
    If this is an old idea, please, someone let me know. If it's original, however, I hope it assists the debate!
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Iceman Oetzi gets a new face for 20th anniversary by Anonymous on Saturday, 17 December 2011
      I will reply to this post ( as I did some months ago, which was deleted by this post board within a hour after I had posted it.)

      Accidents actually do happen and an accident of a backward fall by Otzi that caused a piercing of his back by an arrow head is not only conceivable, but would be quite common, especially by a specimen so unique as Otzi. If one would by chance find a body, high up in the Alps, how would one commonly suppose that the body met it's fate? Deliberate violence? or accident? I say accident.

      Otzi had a head wound which would indicate a fall. No shaft of the arrow in his back has been found, which would indicate his sucessful attempt to dislodge the shaft.

      In answer to the Spring pollen found in Otzi, simple common sense should apply here. Grain then, ( as well as now ) was "stored"..Ozzie could have ate grain that was stored at anytime that grain was harvested and stored.
      [ Reply to This ]

Iceman Oetzi gets a new face for 20th anniversary by bat400 on Saturday, 02 April 2011
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Iceman Oetzi, whose mummified body was famously found frozen in the Italian Alps in 1991, will get a new face for the 20th anniversary of his discovery.

As part of a new exhibit at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano (http://www.iceman.it), two Dutch experts -- Alfons and Adrie Kennis -- have made a new model of the living Oetzi, this time with brown eyes.
Indeed, recent research has shown the Iceman, now approaching the tender age of 5,300 years, did not have blue eyes as previously believed.

The Kennis model was created based on three-dimensional images of the mummy's skeleton as well as the latest forensic technology, and will go on display on March 1 until January 15, 2012.

The Bolzano museum is also planning to improve conservation of the mummy by using pure nitrogen, which should help it keep its relatively young appearance by eliminating oxidation.


For more, see http://www.google.com/hostednews. Thanks top coldrum.
[ Reply to This ]

Swedish scientists study ice man bacteria samples by bat400 on Saturday, 02 April 2011
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A team of scientists are currently examining specimens of stomach bacteria from Ötzi the Iceman, who lived about 5,300 years ago, at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute (KI).

Ötzi was discovered by two Germans tourists in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, near Hauslabjoch in Italy close to the Austria border.

His body is usually kept frozen, but he has been thawed recently to allow experts to examine him, among them Swedish infectious disease control professor Lars Engstrand at KI.

Engstrand hopes that the samples will reveal whether Ötzi had gastric ulcer and resistant bacteria.

"We are performing DNA extraction to map the gastric and intestinal microflora from 5,000 years ago and to try out to find if he had any signs of ulcer-causing bacteria. We will probably be finished in a couple of months, that's my gut feeling," Engstrand told The Local on Wednesday.

Engstrand and his team received faecal samples, as well as a 1 square centimetre section of Ötzi's stomach, on November 8th and will disclose their findings through scientific journals.

Engstrand is working with other scientists in Germany and Bordeaux to find any possible resistant genes that Ötzi may have possessed before the antibiotic era.

"We are quite convinced that we will find something. They have been found in soil bacteria. It will be interesting to see how these genes looked like then compared with today," explained Engstrand.

"This is a scientific study for public health, antibiotic resistance and virulence as these genes may have evolved over the years," he added.

Engstrand has never worked with such dated material, but pointed out that the material was long dead when they received it and as such, there are no viable organisms, so they are only working with DNA.

"This part of the body has not been exposed to other contaminating bacteria. He has been frozen for so many years, the DNA quality is crucial to our success," said Engstrand.


For more, see http://www.thelocal.se. Thanks to coldrum.
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Previous Megalithic Portal articles on Ötzi by bat400 on Saturday, 02 April 2011
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The following are previously published articles on Ötzi that have appeared in the Megalithic Portal:

From 2003: Otzi – Warrior, tradesman, shaman or outlaw? Speculation continues.

From 2005, in best tabloid style: Alpine ice man takes revenge from beyond the grave.

From 2007 (the response?): Otzi curse a load of rubbish, says archaeologist.

Also From 2007: Prehistoric iceman.

From 2009: Iceman final days: final meal and death from head trauma, not arrow.

2009, in the "Sacred Sites" Forum: Oetzi's Acupoint Tattoos.
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Oetzi the Iceman may have been buried, says team by Andy B on Friday, 08 October 2010
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Oetzi, the 5,000 year old "Iceman" found in the Italian Alps, may have been ceremonially buried, archaeologists claim.

An autopsy showed that Oetzi had been murdered, dying of an arrow wound.

While this is not disputed, a new study suggests that months after his death, Oetzi's corpse was carried to the high mountain pass where it was found.

The discovery site therefore may not be a murder scene after all, but a burial ground.

The new study, led by Professor Luca Bondioli of the National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnology in Rome and his US-Italian team, is published in the journal Antiquity.

Oetzi was discovered on the alpine border between Italy and Austria in 1991.

Although thought at first to be the corpse of a modern climber, scientists later proved that the mummified body was more than 5,000 years old.

An autopsy in 2001 further showed that he had been killed by an arrow wound to the shoulder.

In the new study, researchers produced a detailed map of where the corpse and artefacts were found.

Based on guesses about how the artefacts had dispersed down slope over time, they inferred that the body had originated on a rock platform nearby. They argued that this was a later burial site, and not the original scene of his murder.

This "burial theory" may explain some perplexing facts about Oetzi.

For example, analysis suggests he died in the spring because the pollen of plants that bloom at that time of year is found in his gut. However, pollen within the ice suggests that the corpse was deposited in the late summer.

Professor Bondioli and his team say that these facts makes most sense if the body was deliberately carried to its site of discovery many months after death.

This suggests a burial.

Professor Bondioli elaborated: "Oetzi must have been a very important person to be taken to this high mountain pass for burial. Perhaps he was some sort of a chieftan."

Not bullet proof

However, Professor Frank Ruehli of the University of Zurich, the medical doctor who performed the original autopsy, is not totally convinced by the burial theory.

He remarked: "The left arm of the corpse is in a weird position. This must have happened at the time of death."

"If Oetzi was a chieftan, why did his people not move the twisted arm into a more natural position?" he told BBC News. "This would be expected in the burial of an important person".

Also somewhat sceptical is Dr Wolfgang Muller of Royal Holloway University of London. He studied the chemistry of Oetzi's teeth and bones to track his migration route through the Alps.

"It's an interesting new interpretation but it's not bullet proof," he said. "However, if Oetzi was buried they must have carried the body a long way because the nearby villages would have been at a low altitude."

While much remains to be learned about the enigmatic Iceman - as the mummified corpse has been dubbed - one thing is certain: This famous mummy will remain the subject of intense speculation and new research for decades to come.

Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11086027
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