19 September: Otzi the Iceman

Ötzi the Iceman was discovered 25 years ago today. Here are ten facts about him:

By Sandstein - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21475730

1. Ötzi was found on 19 September 1991 by two German tourists, Helmut and Erika Simon, who were walking off the path between the mountain passes Hauslabjoch and Tisenjoch at 3,210 metres (10,530 ft). They thought he was a modern mountaineer who'd recently died, and called the police. It took the authorities four days to extract the body. He was taken to Innsbruck for examination where archaeologist Konrad Spindler of the University of Innsbruck declared Ötzi to be about four thousand years old.
2. Ötzi is so called because he was found in the Ötztal Alps. He has also been referred to as Similaun Man, "Frozen Fritz", Man from Hauslabjoch, Hauslabjoch mummy and Frozen Man.
3. Ötzi was approximately 1.65 metres (5 ft 5 in) tall, weighed about 50 kilograms (110 lb) and was about 45 years of age when he died.
4. How did he die? He was found to have a serious wound in his shoulder caused by an arrow, from which he would probably have bled to death, although the arrow shaft had been removed before he died. It's thought what actually killed him was a blow to the head.
5. He wasn't in great health. He had intestinal worms, and was carrying birch fungus with him, a substance known to be a remedy for worms. He had bad teeth, degeneration of the bones and Lyme disease. He was also lactose intolerant.
6. He had 61 tattoos, mostly groups of black lines. The pigment used was made from ash or soot. Some of the tattoos are placed where Ötzi's bones were wearing away, so it's speculated that the tattoos might have been part of a ritual, similar to acupuncture, for pain relief.
7. What did he do for a living? We don't know, but guesses include that he was a Copper smelter (because he had a copper axe and copper particles in his hair), a mountain shepherd (because the wearing away of his bones suggested he did a lot of walking on hilly terrain) or even a chieftain (killed as a ritual sacrifice, or in a battle).
8. The clothes he was wearing included a cloak made from woven grass, leggings, a coat, a tool belt (the belt had a pouch sewn to it that contained a cache of useful items: a scraper, drill, flint flake, bone awl) all made from leather and a bearskin hat. His Shoes generated particular interest. They had bearskin soles, deer hide top panels, and netting made of tree bark. Soft grass in the shoe probably functioned like modern Socks. The shoes were sufficiently complex that a Czech academic, who reproduced them, was sure that they had been made by a specialist cobbler. The shoes were designed for walking on Snow - waterproof and wide - and so good that a Czech company wanted to buy the rights to make and sell them for modern people.
9. Scientists have sequenced Ötzi's DNA and say he is most closely related to southern Europeans, especially to Corsicans and Sardinians. They also found, when analysing the DNA of modern Blood donors, that there are nineteen men living in the Tyrol today who are related to Ötzi.
10. A mummy wouldn't be a mummy without a curse, and Ötzi is no exception. Several people involved in the discovery, recovery and study of Ötzi have died under mysterious circumstances, including Helmut Simon and Konrad Spindler. The deaths of seven people, of which four were the result of accidents, have been attributed to the curse. However, given the hundreds of people involved in the recovery and study of the mummy the deaths are not statistically significant enough to prove a curse.