Otzi “The Famous Iceman” Made by Ms. Alvarez

About Otzi The Iceman is the name given to the mummified body of a was found in near a glacier near the border of Italy and Austria. He is the best-preserved prehistoric man ever discovered with his own equipment and clothing. Most ancient human remains are found in burial chambers with carefully selected objected rather than what they use in everyday life. In Europe he is called Ötzi (rhymes with Tootsie) after the Ötzal Alps where he was found. The Iceman lived in 3300 B.C., according to radiocarbon dating, which places him in between Copper and Bronze Age, when metals were first regularly used for tools and weapons. He was a man that stood five feet two. He had medium length wavy dark and wore a beard. Ötzi was likely like a farmer of a shepherd. Some speculate he was a shaman based on presence of tattoos on his body. Some have called the discovery of Otzi one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. He is oldest intact human ever found. With the exception of missing toenails, all but one fingernail and an outer layer of skin the Iceman is otherwise perfectly reserved. His body and the tools and clothes found with him have given great insight into a people and age of which little is known in details never preciously imagined. After Otzi was discovered the world became caught up in Iceman ania. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine and other major publications. T-shirts and jewelry were sold with his sunken eyed beaming out. Pop songs were written about him. A German astrologer announced she was writing a book about her seánces with the Iceman. Other women clamored to be the first to be impregnated with sperm from Ötzi's testicles. Mitochondrial DNA was extracted from Otzi's bones. A company called Oxford Ancestors, for a fee, will compare your DNA with Otzi's to see if you are related. After doing CT scans on the body and performing microscopic examinations of a piece of bone, scientists determined that Ötzi was between 40 to 50 years old. The scientists based their estimate on the presence of degenerative arthritis indicated in the bones and blood vessels. One scientist on team that did the investigation told National Geographic, "Bone and blood vessels within us constantly change throughout life. We were able to see those changes and use them to determine age."

Pictures of what Otzi may have looked like…

Iceman’s Home Studies have shown that Otzi was probably was born and lived his whole life within 60 kilometers of the site near the Austrian-Italian border where he was found. The conclusion was reached by studying different elements found in his teeth, bones and intestines and comparing them with those found in soils and water found in different place. The isotopes of element like oxygen, strontium, lead and argon match those in a valley in Italy near where he was found. Isotopes lodged in teeth enamel are good indicators of what an individual consumed as a child. Those found in bones are good indicators of food consumed in adulthood d while this in the intestines give insights into what a person consumed in his final days. Analysis of the isotopes found in Otzi seemed to indicate he spent his youth in a valley south of where he was found while those in his bones indicate he traveled both north and south of where he was found. Analysis by a team led by Wolfgang Muller of the University of London of lead, strontium and argon isotopes connected with soil type indicated that Otzi likely grew up in the Valle Isarco, an extensive north-south valley that includes the modern-day town of Bressanone. Isotope levels in his bones match those of two Alpine valleys further west---the Val Senales and Val Venosta. Mica found his intestines, likely accidently ingested with stone-ground grain also matches that found in the lower Val Venosta. Based on this evidence it seems likely that the Iceman embarked on his final journey from an area where the modern-day Senales and Adige Rivers meet near the town of Merano---or possibly the nearby Ulten, middle Eisack or lower Puster valleys between Bolzano and the Austrian border. The presence of pollen from a plant not found on the Austrian side of the mountains indicates that he spent his time on the Italian side of the mountains.

Otzi’s Tools and Possessions Among the items found with Iceman were his copper-blade ax, 14 iron-tipped arrows, a firestarter, a birch bark container, a piece of ibex meat, a grass cape, a dagger with an ash handle and flint blade and a sheath, a half-finished yew-wood long bow (longer than a man is tall), a quiver filled with mostly half-finished arrows, an arrow repair kit, medicine, and pieces of antler used to make arrows. He carried embers wrapped in maple leaves placed in a birch bark container, which shows that Neolithic people carried fire from place to place rather that started news fires from scratch. The presence of significant amounts of moss suggest he might have used it to wrap his food or even as toilet paper. The copper ax was made from malachite---a copper carbonate that appears bluish-green on rock and cliff sides---that was scraped and flaked of the rock and smelted in a crucible over a campfire. The heat of the fire was increased by blowing oxygen through bellows. The nearly pure copper was then poured into a stone mold. This ax showed that people in Alpine possessed technology that was more sophisticated than previously thought. The fact that Otzi possessed such a fine weapon indicated that he was probably an elder in his village, and perhaps a leader. Otzi also carried a bone needle and piece of fungus on a string that some believe were part of a prehistoric medicine kit. A lot was lost when Otzi was moved. His backpack for example was badly damaged and scientists are not sure how it was worn: over the shoulders or over the head. The quiver he carried has no strap to indicate how it was carried.

Clothing

The Hunter Otzi's hand slings and the design of his long, lightweight arrows indicate that he specialized in hunting ibex and mountain goats that live high above the tree line. Arrows of his design would not work well in the forest where they can get tangled up in brush. The feathers of the arrows indicate that people in Otzi's time understood that the aerodynamic principal of a rotating arrow could be shot more accurately. Otzi's ash-handled flint dagger was probably used to cut leather and slice game. X-ray, CT scans and chemical analysis showed the unfinished bow was made of a yew tree cut lower down the mountain and arrows were tied to their shafts with sinew. Evidence shows also that Otzi retied his arrows, butchered animals with his flint knife and worked to reposition his copper ax head in its handle. Otzi's curved spike, edge sharpeners for his stone tools, and quiver were made from red deer skin or antler. Red deer bones were often fond in Neolithic sites. They were are common source of meat. Some scholars have speculated that Europe's first forests were purposely cleared to create ideal conditions for hunting large red deer.

Diet

Clothes and Tattoos The "Iceman" carried a backpack and wore three layers of clothes: woven grass cape, believed to be a prehistoric raincoat, fur leggings, and goatskin undergarments, straw insulated leather shoes, a coat of leather and goat fur, and a brown-bear -fur hat. All of Otzi's clothes came from animal hides which suggest woven fabrics were not common. Almost everything that is known about Neolithic clothing has been gleaned from Otzi. Otzi's shoes had fiber and bear-skin and deer-skin leather sections and were held together with a leather strap. The soles were made of bearskins tanned with bear brains and liver Still on his foot when was found was leather boot with an upper flap sewn onto a bottom sole, a sock-like net liner and laces made of grass rope. He placed insulating grass in the net liner and then put his foot into the liner. In 2004, Petr Hlavlcek, a Czech professor of shoe technology at the Tomas Bata University in the Czech republic, made a pair of shoes like those worn by Otzi---with bearskin soles and grass insulation---and went hiking with them. Not only did he not develop any blisters he said the shoes were more comfortable and better for walking than modern hiking boots. Hlavlcek walked the 12 mile distance to the glacier where Otzi was found. He said when he stepped into a stream he felt no discomfort. He told Discover magazine, “The shoes were full of water but after three seconds it was very warm” and had a “comfortable feeling. This is because this layer of hay if full of air holes and air is the best warm insulation." The Iceman had bluish-black tattoos on four parts of his body---a set of parallel blue lines on his lower back, a cross behind his left knee, stripes on his right foot and ankle and lines on his left calf. CAT scans showed that the tattoos were located at places where Otzi had cartilage damage and probably had arthritis or joint page. The tattoos were probably made by injecting ash beneath the skin with a bone or wooden needle. Their location closely corresponds with the traditional acupuncture points for the treatment of backaches and upset stomachs.

How Otzi died… Days before he died the Iceman suffered cuts to his right hand and wrist consistent with wound made by a hatchets. Some scientists think Otzi was being pursued by people that attacked him and say he escaped his attackers and died alone. Otherwise they argue he would have been robbed of his possessions. Using ballistics evidence and reasoning like that used by CSI investigators, other scientists believe that Otzi was shot with an arrow and his attackers pulled the arrow shaft from his body and left him to bleed. Based on the markings found on Otzi's body and studies of prehistoric arrows and hunting, German archaeologist Egerter Vogl said, “I believe---in fact, I am convinced---that the person who shot the Iceman with the arrow is same person who pulled it out." The positioning of the wound indicates Otzi was shot from behind and below. The location behind the shoulder blade is the same place where prehistoric hunters aimed to bring down game in a single shot. Vogl theorized the attacker took the shaft to cover his crime and didn't take any of the Iceman's possession because he didn't want to be linked to the murder.