Posted on 07/26/2003 2:56:45 PM PDT by blam
Iceman cometh - from Italy
By Jo McAllister in Vienna
July 25, 2003
A BITTER row between Austria and Italy over which country can claim to be home to the world's oldest ice mummy has been settled thanks to the work of a scientist
from an Australian university. The 5300-year-old mummy, known as Oetzi after the Oetz Valley region between the two countries where he was found, was at the centre of the bizarre ownership row after his corpse was found on the mountainous border region separating the two, in the disputed region of South Tyrol.
The question of whether Oetzi was an Austrian heading to Italy or an Italian heading to Austria has been the source of heated debate, especially since the ice mummy has proven to be a multi-million dollar tourist attraction.
Oetzi's corpse was discovered under a melting glacier in Tyrol in 1991 and, although he is now housed in Italy's Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, both countries had claimed ownership of the frozen corpse.
A deal was eventually agreed that allowed Austria to have the body for a few years before allowing the Italians to take it for a while. But neither had given up their claim to being home to Oetzi.
But now Dr Wolfgang Mueller from the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra has found Oetzi was in fact from South Tyrol in Italy, and definitely did not come from North Tyrol in Austria.
He was able to prove it after examining the iceman's dental enamel and bone and comparing the minerals he found with isotopes found to the north and south of the main Alpine ridge dividing Austria from Italy.
Dr Mueller said the results showed the late Neolithic man had spent his life in what is now Italy, and had probably never been further north than the spot where he was found.
The evidence from the iceman's teeth was so clear, Dr Mueller was able to conclude Oetzi's home during his childhood had been the Eisack Valley in South Tyrol.
He said that in childhood, mineral deposits were built into a person's dental enamel that stayed for their entire lives.
In addition, using similar tests on the iceman's leg bone, Dr Mueller was able to find that in the last 10 to 20 years of his life he had remained in the Lower Vinschgau in the west of South Tyrol in Italy.
"From the enamel it is possible to reconstruct the composition of the water Oetzi drank and get clues about the earth where his food was grown," Dr Mueller said.
"As a result we now know Oetzi came from near to where he was found from the Eisack Valley. He spent his childhood there. And he spent his adulthood in Lower Vinschgau."
Dr Mueller also concluded that Oetzi had not made any extensive hikes through Europe and did not spend any long periods in high mountains regions, despite the height of the remote spot where he had been found.
The findings are the latest in a wealth of information that has been yielded from studying the corpse.
Other researchers, for example, have discovered arrow wounds on the body that suggest the iceman may have been on the run from enemies, or wounded in a hunting expedition that went wrong.
And tattoos found on his body have shown that Europeans practised acupuncture some 2,000 years before the Chinese. There were 15 groups of simple tattoos on the back and legs which tallied with those used in modern acupuncture.
The iceman, who is thought to have died of exhaustion at the age of about 45, suffered from acute arthritis, worms and diarrhoea.
When he died he was carrying a wooden-handled copper axe, small bow and 14 arrows made of viburnum and dogwood stored in a fur quiver.
A framed backpack contained food for the journey, including a few berries and mushrooms and gnawed bones, as well as a flint knife.
Because he suffered from arthritis he had stuffed his shoes with straw to keep out the cold. A grass net that may have served as a sack hung from his belt, and a leather pouch was strapped to the frame of the backpack to carry this gear.
He died in the rock cranny where he had crawled to escape the winds and was covered in snow a thousand years before Abraham was even heard of.
Oetzi is now on display in a special glass walled fridge and kept at a temperature of minus six degrees centigrade at a humidity of 98 per cent in the Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano.
Not only did the corpse survive in pretty good shape, but all his clothes and equipment are on display. Very interesting. The collection on exhibit documents the entire history of South Tyrol from the Palaeonlithic and Mesolithic Age (15,000 BC) to the Carolingian period (around 800 AD).
Lucky you. I'm envious. (My son just left Florence)
I'm sure it's known but, I don't know.
I think some where along the line they said he had an element (arsenic?) in his hair and they thought he may have been involved in copper working. They assumed the copper was local.
I haven't heard anything about the flint but it was thought to be highly traded commodity so I doubt that would pinpoint his origins.
I was under the impression that Italy got him based on where he was found but also the vegitation found on him and in him were from the south. This sounds like further evidence to support Italy's claim.
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