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Research out today shows the remains of Ötzi “the Iceman” are teeming with living microorganisms. Scientists in Italy conducted an extensive survey of Ötzi, a mummy naturally frozen in a mountain glacier for over 5,000 years. They found ample bacteria and fungi inside and on Ötzi’s body, some of which might have survived for millennia and appear to be active even today under tightly maintained storage conditions. Since his discovery, scientists have learned much about Ötzi’s life and the Copper Age society he was a part of. That includes his last meal and the likely possibility that he was killed...

Mountainer Reinhold Messner, right, and colleague inspect the mummified remains of Ötzi the Iceman following his discovery in 1991. The famed mummy died from an arrow to the back on a high Alpine mountain pass 5,300 years ago. Now researchers are tracing his unusual movements right before his murder.A wounded—and possibly wanted—man, Ötzi the Iceman spent his final days on the move high up in the Alps until he was felled with an arrow to the back. About 5,300 years later, archaeologists are still unraveling the mystery of his death. Now, a new analysis of mossy plant remains from the...

Living Relatives Of Iceman Mummy Found By Rossella Lorenzi/ Published October 14, 2013/ Discovery News A reconstruction of Otzi the Iceman -- a remarkably well preserved 5,300-year-old mummy sometimes lovingly called "Frozen Frit" -- created by Dutch forensic experts. (HEIKE ENGEL-21LUX / SDTIROLER ARCHOLOGIEMUSEUM / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DEUTSCHLAND) Ötzi the Iceman has at least 19 living male relatives in the Austrian Tirol, according to a genetic study into the origins of the people who now inhabit the region. Scientists from the Institute of Legal Medicine at Innsbruck Medical University analyzed DNA samples taken from 3,700 blood donors in the Tyrol...

SAN FRANCISCO — Ötzi the Iceman, an astonishingly well-preserved Neolithic mummy found in the Italian Alps in 1991, was a native of Central Europe, not a first-generation émigré from Sardinia, new research shows. And genetically, he looked a lot like other Stone Age farmers throughout Europe. he new findings, reported Thursday (Nov. 8) here at the American Society of Human Genetics conference, support the theory that farmers, and not just the technology of farming, spread during prehistoric times from the Middle East all the way to Finland. "The idea is that the spread of farming and agriculture, right now we...

Ötzi the ice mummy may have met his death in the Alps some 5300 years ago, but his descendants live on – on the Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Sardinia. The finding comes from an analysis of Ötzi's DNA, which also reveals he had brown eyes and hair, and was lactose intolerant. The ice mummy was found in 1991 on an Alpine glacier between Austria and Italy, where he met a violent end in the Neolithic.....