?tzi the Iceman
?tzi the Iceman (also spelled Oetzi), Frozen Fritz, and Similaun Man are modern nicknames of a well-preserved natural mummy of a man from about 3300 BC,[1] found in 1991 in a glacier of the ?tztal Alps, near the border between Austria and Italy. The nickname comes from ?tztal, the region in which he was discovered. He is Europe's oldest natural human mummy, and has offered an unprecedented view on the Chalcolithic (Copper-stone Age) Europeans.
Discovery
?tzi memorial -
?tzi was found by two German tourists, Helmut and Erika Simon, on September 19, 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. It was taken to Innsbruck, where its true age was subsequently ascertained. Subsequent surveys showed in October 1991 that the body had been located 92.56 meters inside Italian territory (46? 46′44″N, 10? 50′23″E).[2] Since 1998 it has been on display at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy.
Disputes over the discovery
In January 2003, the Simons asked a court in Bolzano, Italy, to recognize their role in ?tzi's discovery and declare them his "official discoverers". Under Italian law, winning the lawsuit 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 the Simons the official finders of ?tzi, and at the end of December 2003, the Simons announced that they were seeking US$300,000 as their finders' fee.
Provincial government officials decided to appeal. By this time, Helmut Simon had died in 2004. 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 high expenses it had incurred to establish a museum and the costs of preserving the Iceman should be considered when 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 ?tzi in 1991 and the Simons' lawsuit, two other persons have come forward to claim that they were part of the same mountaineering party that came across ?tzi and that they discovered the body first. They are:
Magdalena Mohar Jarc, a Slovenian actress, who has alleged that she discovered the corpse first, and shortly after returning to an alpine house asked Helmut Simon to take photographs of ?tzi. Mountaineer and explorer Reinhold Messner is apparently appearing as a witness for her.[citation needed]
Sandra Nemeth, from Switzerland, who has contended that she found the corpse before Helmut and Erika Simon, and that she spat on ?tzi 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 is 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. Mrs. Simon's lawyer has 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 ?tzi was found."
Scientific analysis of ?tzi
The body has been extensively examined, measured, X-rayed, and dated. Tissues and intestinal contents were examined microscopically, as was the sperm found on his gear.
The body
At the time of his death, ?tzi was approximately 166 cm (5' 5") tall, and about 30 years of age by current estimates. Because the body was covered in ice shortly after his death it only partially deteriorated. Analysis of pollen and dust grains and the isotopic composition of his tooth enamel indicate that he spent his childhood near the present village of Velturno, north of Bolzano, but later went to live in valleys about 50 km further north. 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 cannot be categorized into any of the three modern branches of that subcluster.
Analysis of ?tzi'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).
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 ?tzi's death. This find 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 ?tzi's hair. This, along with ?tzi's copper axe which is 99.7% pure copper, has led scientists to speculate that ?tzi was involved in copper smelting.[5]
Health
?tzi seems to have suffered from intestinal cancer. He also apparently had whipworm (Trichuris trichiura), an intestinal parasite. Professor Sara Cibralic was first to discover this.[citation needed]
Tattoos
He had approximately 52 tattoos. These consisted of simple dots and lines, for which there exists speculation that they may be related to acupuncture.
Clothes and shoes
?tzi's clothes, which included a woven grass cloak and leather vest and shoes, were quite sophisticated. The shoes were waterproof and wide, seemingly designed for walking across the snow; they were constructed using bearskin for the soles, deer hide for top panels, and a netting made of tree bark. Soft grass went around the foot and in the shoe and functioned like warm socks.
The shoes have since been reproduced by experts and found to constitute such excellent footwear that there are plans for commercial production.[6]. However, a more recent theory by British archaeologist Jacqui Wood says that ?tzi'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 3 feet 2 inches (one metre) tall.[7] Also found were berries, a bucket and a knife.
Among ?tzi'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 medical 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
An ancient crime?
A CAT scan revealed that ?tzi had what appeared to be an arrowhead lodged in one shoulder when he died, matching a small tear on his coat. The arrow shaft had been removed, apparently by a companion. He also had bruises and cuts on his hands, wrists, and chest. 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.
This may indicate that Otzi was actually part of an armed raiding party, and had gotten into a skirmish, probably with a neighboring tribe, and this skirmish had gone badly for the attackers.
The biological evidence suggests that he was out of his home territory. The DNA evidence suggests that he was assisted by companions who were also wounded. The repairs he had made to his clothing are very crude compared to the original stitching. The copper axe could not have been made by him alone. It would have required a concerted group tribal effort to mine and smelt and cast the copper axe head. This all shows foresight, planning and preparation on a large scale with a certain goal in mind.
He was wounded in the conflict, and (according to CT scan findings) probably died within several minutes due to massive blood loss, as a result of a flint arrowhead severing his left subclavian artery.
Ritual sacrifice
Before the latest evidence, it was speculated that ?tzi had been a victim of a ritual sacrifice, perhaps for being a chieftain. This explanation may have been inspired by theories previously advanced for the 1st millennium BC bodies recovered from peat bogs, such as the Tollund Man and the Lindow Man.
Weather
It has also been hypothesised that ?tzi was the victim of a storm caused by the Priora oscillation, a sudden cooling of the Earth's environment, as indicated by the surge of the nearby Priora Glacier.
"?tzi's Curse"
Influenced by the "Curse of the Pharaohs" and the media theme of cursed mummies, claims have been made that ?tzi is cursed. The allegation centers around the deaths of several people connected to the discovery, recovery and subsequent examination of ?tzi. It is alleged that they have died under mysterious circumstances. These persons include co-discoverer Helmut (but not Erika) Simon; 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 ?tzi and are still involved in studying the body and the artefacts found with it; thus it may not be surprising that a few of them have died since the mummy's discovery.[8]
Other ancient frozen corpses
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.[9] 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 ?tzi's past and future evolution.
In August 1999, three First Nation hunters found the frozen remains of an ancient person at the edge of the Samuel Glacier in the Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, British Columbia, Canada, which is within the traditional territory of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations. Named Kw?day D?n Ts??nchi (meaning "Long Ago Person Found", and often abbreviated to KDT), it was determined that he had died about 550 years ago and that his preserved remains were the oldest ever discovered in North America.[10]
Notes
Neill, James (last updated 2004-10-27). Otzi, the 5,300 Year Old Iceman from the Alps: Pictures & Information. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
Val Senales - Schnalstal, Carta Topografica per Escursionisti 1:25.000, Tabacco, 1996. It is a topographic map.
Deem, James M. (last updated 2007-02-27). ?tzi: Iceman of the Alps: The Finder's Fee Lawsuit. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
Pisa, Nick. "Cold Case Comes to Court ? After 5,300 Years", The Daily Telegraph, 2005-10-22. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
"Iceman's Final Meal", BBC News, 2002-09-16. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
Hall, Allan. "Shoemaker Pursues the Ultimate Sole Mate", 2005-07-18. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
Davies, Norman (1996). Europe: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198201710.
The Curse of the Ice Mummy, a television documentary screened on UK Channel 4 on 8 March 2007. See also Marks, Kathy. "Curse of Oetzi the Iceman Claims Another Victim", New Zealand Herald, 2005-11-05. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
"WWI Bodies are Found on Glacier", BBC News, 2004-08-23. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts, British Columbia. Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi. Retrieved on 2007-03-08. See also Lundberg, Murray (1999-08-25, news updated on 2001-07-24). Kwaday D?n Sinchi, The Yukon Iceman. ExploreNorth. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
References
Morelle, Rebecca. "Infertility Link in Iceman's DNA", BBC News, 2006-02-03. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
External links (
visit page to access these)
Photo of ?tzi at Mesa Community College, Arizona.
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology - official website about ?tzi
BBC programme summary and other useful links
PBS web site for their Otzi program
?tzi links (German/Italian/English)
Plants and the Iceman, ?tzi's Last Journey
All about ?tzi
Detailed Radiological Studies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi_the_Iceman
