It was quite a shock for the hikers who found a frozen mummy in a European alpine valley in 1991.
The victim of the murder, who is now approximately 5,200 years old, has not been seen since. Ötzi the Iceman, has continued surprising people – including the archaeologists now studying him.
The Neolithic mummy was thought to have been preserved by a freak event that’s unlikely to reoccur – that he was freeze-dried and encased in a glacier right after he was fatally shot in the back with an arrow.
But after a fresh analysis, archaeologist Lars Pilø from the Department of Cultural Heritage at the Innlandet County Council in Norway and colleagues now believe otherwise.
Ötzi (which rhymes with “tootsie”.)The oldest European natural human mummy is. In the thirty years since his discovery, he has been extensively researched. We now know What he woreThat is, he Several tattoos, His last mealAnd even more What he might have sounded to you.
But had Ötzi been continuously frozen after his death, trapped in a kind of time capsule as originally thought, he would have been better preserved, Pilø and team argue in a new study.
However, his lower half is now in poor condition. His skin on his neck has bled to expose the cranial bones, and his fur cape was ripped, leaving his back exposed.
What’s more, an artifact found with the frozen mummy was originally thought to have been damaged during conflict prior to its owner’s death, but Pilø and colleagues have concluded that the damage is consistent with something that could occur after the materials were deposited, especially if the surrounding ice repeatedly melted and refroze.
Ancient skis, arrows, and hunting equipment unrelated to this find also show similar breakages and wear as the artifacts found with Ötzi, suggesting they commonly occur during ice melt tumblings or the forces created by sliding ice.
“This evidence strongly suggests the existence of the upper body on multiple occasions before the 1991 discovery,” Send your research to researchers.
Pilø and colleagues explain that as the man’s belongings had been found scattered up to 6 meters away, Ötzi may not have died where he was later found. He was likely to have died above the gully.
“During hot summers, Ötzi and his artifacts were probably periodically exposed in the 1,500 years following his death,” Pilø and team Send them a note in your paper.
Over the last few decades knowledge about such icy finds have substantially increased, allowing the researchers to see Ötzi’s circumstances in a new way.
“A string of unusual circumstances is not required for the preservation de this type of finds, and the relevant locations have been affected by heavy melting events,” said the team. ConclusionThis means that mummification may be more common than previously thought.
Climate changeThe remains of a glacier induced melt has been exposed already. people decades buried, artifacts,These ancient animals are incredibly well preserved. Like bearsAnd Wooly rhinos.
We don’t know what lies below, but we are waiting for the thaw.
This research was published in The Holocene.
