Made of Ice: The latest reconstruction of Otzi based on 20 years of research and investigations.
While trekking in the mountains, imagine stumbling into the oldest moist mummy in the world. This is exactly what happened to a German couple in 1991 when they were hiking in the Alps in the South Tyrol region of Italy. Thinking this was possibly a crime scene, they alerted the local police. But they could not believe that the 5,300 year-old human body they discovered lived 600 years before King Chepos built his pyramid in Egypt; or to put things in our context, over 2500 years before the birth of the Buddha.
The mummy was named Otzi, after the Otzal Alps where he was found. He was carrying an axe, bear fur cap and bow and arrows, and this life reconstruction greets you at the Archeological Museum in the magnificent town of Bolzano in Italy. In the museum Otzi now “lives” behind eight centimetre thick bullet proof glass for protection. The humidity is 98 per cent and the temperature is minus six degrees centigrade to simulate the environment in the Alps where he was found. Otzi is the most popular tourist attraction in Bolzano.
From extensive radiological exams, it seems likely that Otzi died of injuries. Apparently, he was hurt in his right shoulder by a flint- tipped arrow. He had been on the run and succumbed to illness in the Otzal Alps.
This mummy has turned out to be a treasure trove for science. Geneticists, and even clinical medicine scientists, are studiously researching Otzi. It is hoped that Otzi’s DNA will shed new light on hereditary diseases, common neurological problems like Parkinson’s disease and even infertility.
Amazingly Otzi has more than 50 tattoos on his body mostly located in the joint areas. The tattooing technique seems modern with incisions in the skin where vegetal coal was rubbed. Certain communities in Asia and Africa to this day continue to use this technique of tattooing. Because these tattoos are located in the joint areas it has been postulated that tattooing may have been a form of medicinal treatment rather than a shamanistic practice. If true, some of us can sympathise with Otzi who may have had age-related painful joints (osteoarthritis) long before us.
Recently, a more careful study of the mummy in Bolzano revealed that there was a shrunken stomach with food contents which was overlooked. Albert Zink, director of the EURAC Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, who oversaw this autopsy, discovered that Otzi’s last meal consisted of a bit of unleavened bread made of einkorn wheat, one of the few domesticated grains used in the Iceman’s part of the world at this time, some other plant or herb and some meat, probably of an ibex.
From the stomach of Otzi, metagenomics (the study of genetic material derived directly from environmental samples) revealed many bacteria like campylobacter. The fascinating news for us is that when Abhilasha Karkey and colleagues from Patan Academy of Health Sciences conducted metagenomics study of the Kathmandu drinking water, some of the same related bacteria that were found in Otzi’s stomach also showed up in their samples.
Albert Zink and his colleagues continue their fascinating study of Otzi with total body investigation of the mummy involving seven separate teams of surgeons, pathologists, microbiologists and technicians. This choreographed medical intervention is going to lead to many more interesting scientific discoveries. But the story of Otzi and his violent death caused by another human being is also a sad reminder of our profound, unchanging human frailty.