By Katie Hunt, CNN 8/17/2023
Ötzi the Iceman, whose frozen remains were found in a gully high in the Tyrolean Alps by hikers in 1991, is perhaps the world’s most closely studied corpse.
The mystery over his violent death, who he was and how he ended up on a mountain pass has sparked fascination far beyond the field of archaeology. Each year, thousands visit his mummified remains contained in a special cold cell at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy.
A new study of ancient DNA extracted from Ötzi’s pelvis suggests he still has some secrets to give up. The analysis of his genetic makeup has revealed the 5,300-year-old mummy had dark skin and dark eyes — and was likely bald. This stands in contrast to the reconstruction of Ötzi that depicts a pale-skinned man with a full head of hair and a beard.
“It was previously believed that his skin has darkened during the mummification process,” said Albert Zink, head of the Institute for Mummy Studies at Eurac Research, a private research center based in Bolzano.
“It seems that the dark skin color of the mummy is quite close to the Iceman’s skin color during (his) lifetime,” said Zink, who is a coauthor of the research published Wednesday in the scientific journal Cell Genomics.
It’s not that surprising that Ötzi was dark skinned, said Zink via email, noting that many Europeans at that time likely had darker skin pigmentation than many present-day Europeans.
“Early European farmers still had a quite dark skin, that changed with time to a lighter skin, as an adaption to the changes in climate and diet of the farmers. Farmers consume much less vitamin D in their diet compared to hunter-gatherers,” he explained.
“It seems that the Iceman still consumed quite a lot of meat, that was also confirmed by our analysis of his stomach showing the presence of ibex and deer meat,” he added.
More:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/europe/otzi-the-iceman-physical-traits-scn/index.html
