How Ötzi became World Famous.
On September 19 1991 two German tourist found a corpse on the east ridge of the Fineilspitze in the Ötztal Alps on the Austrian border. The corpse turned out to be a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived around 3,which has become famous under the name ". On 19 September 1991 Ötzi was found by two German tourists in the Ötztal Alps on the Austrian border believing that the body was of a recently deceased mountaineer. When a mountain gendarme and the keeper of the nearby Similaunhütte first attempted to remove the body, it was frozen in ice below the torso It took about three days to completely extract the body from the ice and transport it to he University of Innsbruck where it was recognized to be primeval the same day of its arrival. The body and the items found with the body were then examined, measured, X-rayed and dated. It was found that Ötzi was about 1.65m and weighed about 50kg. The body was only partially deteriorated and after the analysis of the tooth enamel, the scientists concluded that Ötzi spent his childhood near the present village of Feldthurns north of Bolzano but later went to live in valleys about 50 kilometres farther north. It was also assumed that Ötzi was involved in copper smelting during his lifetime and that he performed long walks over hilly terrain which was not characteristic of other Copper Age Europeans It was then assumed that Ötzi was rather a high-altitude shepherd. A facial reconstruction has been performed with the help of 3D technologies. They figured out that Ötzi was quite old looking for his 45 years and that he had deep-set brown eyes a beard a furrowed face and sunken cheeks. He is also depicted looking tired and ungroomed. It is believed that Ötzi had an intestinal parasite and that he was sick sick three times in the six months before he died. DNA analysis in February 2012 revealed that Ötzi was lactose intolerant supporting the theory that lactose intolerance was still common at that time, despite the increasing spread of agriculture and dairying. The items found with Ötzi were a copper axe with a yew handle, a flint-bladed knife with an ash handle and a quiver of 14 arrows with viburnum and dogwood shafts. Also, he had berries with him, two birch bark baskets and two species of polypore mushrooms with leather strings through them. One of these, the birch fungus is known to have antibacterial properties and was probably 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. At yovisto, you may be interested in a video lecture on 'Great Riddles in Archaeology Lecture Series: Ötzi the Iceman' by Dr. Thomas Tartaron at Penn Museum.