Posted on 02/05/2006 10:53:53 AM PST by nickcarraway
ROME - New DNA analysis indicates that a 5,000-year-old mummy found frozen in the Italian Alps may have been sterile — a hypothesis that would support the theory that he may have been a social outcast, officials said Friday.
Franco Rollo, an anthropologist and ancient DNA specialist, also determined that the man's genetic makeup belonged to one of the eight basic groups of DNA occurring in Europe, although his particular DNA belonged to a subgroup that has been identified for the first time, officials said.
The South Tyrol Archaeological Museum in Italy's northern Alto Adige region, where the remains are housed, announced the findings of Rollo's research Friday. Rollo's findings also appear in the February issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the statement said.
A group of hikers discovered the well-preserved body in 1991. Since then, the mummy and his clothing and tools have opened a window on the previously little known world of copper-age Europe.
Rollo, of the University of Camerino, in Marche, Italy, and his team carried out tests on mitochondrial DNA on tissue samples taken from the mummy in 2000 and found two typical mutations that are common among men with reduced sperm mobility, the statement said. While not all men with reduced sperm mobility are sterile, a high percentage are, the museum said.
"The possibility that he was unable to father offspring cannot be eliminated," Rollo reported. "This not improbable hypothesis raises new questions concerning his social rank within his society."
Since offspring are typically associated with high social prestige, a sterile man would tend to be rejected by society, the statement said. Previously, researchers have suggested the mummy may have been a social outcast and the new findings support that hypothesis, Rollo said.
X-rays have also that the man was killed by an arrow, with the flint arrowhead remaining in his left shoulder. That has led to speculation ranging from death in battle to ritual killing.
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Hard to be flaccid when you are frozen stiff !
He was sterile so OBVIOUSLY he was an outcast. Well, that or he was fooling around with the arrow shooter's wife, or ate the last New York Strip, or put his girlfriend's puppy in the microwave, or cheated on his boyfriend with a cowboy, or ran up the smoke signal bill, or the tribe finally got tired of him sitting around the cave all day whining about ME! ME! ME! all day.
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Where was it. I tried searching for something on this.
Really
What nonsense! They have no idea what his society was like. I've never heard of a society that casts men out for being sterile, indeed such a man would be more valuable to a tribal group since he could hunt and would not produce children that had to be provided for. The results would be a gain in food for the group, though they probably wouldn't even consider this. While it's possible he could have left from shame after he realized he was sterile (if he was) there's no way to know. He clearly wasn't alone in the mountains.
Hmm. Good question. Oh, here it is. I was doing the search wrong.
Infertility link in iceman's DNA
BBC | 2/3/2006 | By Rebecca Morelle BBC News science reporter
Posted on 02/03/2006 12:16:35 PM PST by Red Badger
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1571167/posts
Next, someone will figure out that he was gay, schizophrenic, and the first tattoo artist. ;')
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