According to a report on the website of Russia's Komsomolskaya Pravda on October 14, the legendary "Iceman" Ötzi, who lay in a high-altitude glacier for 5,300 years, has found his family. Researchers from the Institute of Legal Medicine at Innsbruck Medical University conducted genetic analysis to help locate his relatives.
The researchers identified genetic mutations in his DNA that are also found in modern residents of Austria. In other words, they are his direct descendants. So far, 19 descendants have been found among 3,700 tested individuals. But related work is still ongoing in Italy and Switzerland.
Ötzi the Iceman is a Stone Age mummy that was accidentally discovered in 1991 in the Italian Alps (on the border between Austria and Italy), and he is one of the most important archaeological finds in the world. He was discovered by a German named Helmut Simon. Near the mummy were found a stone axe, a dagger, a quiver with arrows, a grass mat, and a fur hat. The discoverers named the mummy Ötzi and called him the "Iceman." The frozen body was remarkably well-preserved in the ice, and at first, Helmut Simon didn’t think Ötzi lived in the "Stone Age," even speculating at first that it was the body of a mountaineer.
Many experts are fascinated by the study of Ötzi's cause of death. For years, it was believed that he might have died of exposure to the cold. Research led by Dr. Eduard Egarter Vigl of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology uncovered new evidence suggesting a very different cause of death for this prehistoric human. On August 11, 2003, in Bolzano, Italy, Dr. Egarter Vigl and Dr. Thomas Loy, a molecular archaeologist from the University of Queensland, announced new DNA evidence showing that the Iceman had been involved in a fatal fight before his death.
Recent studies show that Ötzi did not die where his body was found but rather died somewhere in the valley in April of that year. He was brought to the mountains for burial, which occurred in August along with all his belongings. By analyzing the plant pollen in Ötzi’s stomach, scientists deduced these details.
Twenty years after the discovery of the "Iceman," three-dimensional imaging technology has improved, and the latest reconstructed face reveals that the Iceman was a thin, weathered, and scruffy-looking older man. But at the same time, the new face is also distinctive and unforgettable: long hair, a large beard, rough skin with wrinkles, and brown eyes. The Iceman died at the age of 46 and was likely already a father at the time.
Archaeologists analyzing the remains of food in Ötzi’s intestines found that he had eaten two large meals shortly before his death, which could be considered his last feast eight hours before dying. One meal consisted of ibex meat, and the other of red deer meat. Along with the meat, there were grains and fruits. Seeds of flax and poppy were also found in his digestive tract, as well as the pits of wild plums. From the analysis of pollen, archaeologists believe he ate the ibex meat in a mid-elevation coniferous forest. Archaeologists have determined that Ötzi died in spring. The wheat in his stomach was a late-summer grain, while the wild plums were autumn fruits. This indicates that people at the time already had the ability to store food.