The Iceman — Ötzi, the Glacier Mummy is forever sleeping in a big refrigerator. The frozen mummy is stored in a specially devised cold cell, chilled to a glacial minus 6.5 degrees Celsius, or 20.3…
earthstOriez | The curse of the Iceman – Ötzi Skip to content Search for: earthstOriez travel stories of wonder & every day life – HISTORY | MYTHOLOGY | FOLKLORE Primary Menu INFOtoggle child menu+ contact uncopyright give ♡ sitemap EARTHtoggle child menu+ asia europe africa south america north america oceania STORIEZtoggle child menu+ mythology folklore ethnomedicine plant lore animal lore UNESCO World Heritage ROADSTORIEZ 20222022cultural history ethnobotany ethnomedicine etymology europe travel ITALY: Frozen in Ice – The curse of the Iceman – Ötzi TThe Iceman — Ötzi, the Glacier Mummy is forever sleeping in a big refrigerator. The frozen mummy is stored in a specially devised cold cell, chilled to a glacial minus 6.5 degrees Celsius, or 20.3 degrees Fahrenheit, and 99% humidity. We can see him through a small window in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano/Bozen. Discover the curse of the Iceman — Ötzi, his tattoos and ethnomedicne from the Copper Age. South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano/Bozen. The exhibition covers the circumstances of Ötzi’s accidental discovery on 19 September 1991, the international media response, the original findings, daily life in the Copper Age and multidisciplinary research carried out on the archaeological find of the century. A highlight of the exhibition is the life-like reconstruction of the Iceman, which vividly portrays how the mummified body may have looked during his lifetime. Credit: nat geo. Frozen in Ice: Ötzi Ötzi lived about 5300 years ago and his body was extraordinarily well preserved, because after death it was dried quickly by the alpine winds and then froze, encased in the perennial ice. The current reconstruction of Ötzi in the Museum of Archaeology (2011) was by the two Dutch artists Alfons and Adrie Kennis. It is based on CT images of his skeleton and a 3D model of his skull. Using forensic methods and fine craftsmanship, they succeeded in designing Ötzi’s face and reconstructing his body. With a lot of silicone rubber, clay, paint, and real animal hair, an image of Ötzi was created as he might have looked in his lifetime. Ötzi — a few key data: Age: Examination of the osteons (functional units of bone) in Ötzi’s femur (thigh bone) put his likely age to be around 45. This was a good age considering the short life expectancy in 3300 B.C. Height: The mummy is 1.54 m in length. In life, he must have been about 5 feet, 3 inches (1.60 m) tall. His shoe size would have been today’s equivalent of a continental 38 – the average for the population at the time. Weight: Ötzi weighs approx. 29 pounds (13.15 kg). In life, he would have weighed about 110 pounds (49.9 kg). Since there is little subcutaneous fat on the body, he must have cut quite a wiry, sporty figure. Hair: A few clumps of hair were found around the body, indicating that Ötzi had dark, medium-long hair, which he wore loose. Traces of arsenic were found in his hair, leading to the conclusion that he was sometimes present where metal ores were being smelted. Nails: Ötzi’s fingernails and toenails fell off as he decomposed. During excavations, one fingernail and two toenails were retrieved. Horizontal grooves, or Beau’s lines, were observed on the fingernail — an indication of great physical stress. Parasites: Two human fleas were found in his clothing, but no infestation on him. Scientists also found the oldest evidence of borreliosis, or Lyme Disease, an infectious disease transmitted by ticks, in Ötzi’s DNA. Deer flies (Lipoptena cervi) were found in the clothes of Ötzi. The deer fly is a blood-sucking parasite that mainly affects wild animals, but occasionally also pets and humans. DNA: Ötzi’s genome has been almost completely decoded. His haplogroup (genetic population group) is rare in modern-day Europe and is found almost exclusively among inhabitants of the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, who were isolated for long periods. The Iceman was genetically predisposed to cardiovascular disease, which manifested itself in the form of arteriosclerosis. He was probably lactose intolerant, and his blood group was 0 positive. Last meal: Ötzi’s very last meal just shortly before his death, consisted of dried, fatty ibex and deer meat (probably a kind of dried meat), along with bread made from einkorn wheat and a bit of bracken fern. This meal is preserved as about 300 g in Ötzi’s stomach. A single small piece of seed from the goosefoot herb was also found in his intestines. Etymology: The glacier mummy, Ötzi, the Iceman, Similaun Man… “Ötzi the Iceman” was originally named in German, “der Mann aus dem Eis” as Ötzi’s official name, which is “the Man from the Ice” in English. In the German-speaking countries, the name “Ötzi” is preferred, as it is used like an informal first name. The name refers to the discovery site in the Ötztal Valley Alps and is a short form for “Ötztaler Yeti”. The mummy was dubbed Ötzi by the Austrian journalist Karl Wendl, who was looking for a catchy name. In the English-speaking world, “Ötzi” is being used more often by those that know of him, but can be hard to pronounce, so he is usually referred to as “Ötzi the Iceman” or just “The Iceman”. Audio Playerhttp://www.earthstoriez.com/wp-content/uploads/De-Oetzi-pronunciation.ogg00:0000:0000:00Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. Following reports of the find by the international media, various names were coined for the mummy. Over 500 nicknames were mooted in the first few weeks. Such as: Eismann, Homo tyrolensis, Frozen Fritz and Hibernatus (French). Man from the Tisenjoch (mountain) and Schnalsi (from Schnals valley), as well as, Similaun Man and the Man from Hauslabjoch derived from the locations — near Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch, at the border between Austria and Italy where the glacier mummy was discovered. The location of the Iceman Tisenjoch. The term “Ötzi” has become internationally known. It is commonly equated with the characteristics “coming from the ice/ the Alps”, “very old”, “particularly courageous, persevering”, “persistent”, “sporty”, “cool”, or “environmentally friendly”. For this reason, it has been and is used time and time again to designate products, which (should) remember some or all of these characteristics. Examples include: Ötzi sportswear, Ötzi eco-shoes, Ötzi creams, Ötzi mountain bike by Bianchi, Ötzi Vitara (an off-road car of the Suzuki brand); Ferrero: the Ötzi’s sweets, a marathon in South Tyrol, Ötzi shoelaces and other outdoor products. Ötzi is used also for a new homeopathy according to Körbler, called Ötzi therapy; car tuning, shop names, a local supplier of electric energy, transport of refrigerators and the Ötzi finder, software by iPhone for finding avalanche victims, and much more. History: Ötzi the Iceman’s discovery Due to the warm summer of 1991, the snout of the Val Senales glacier (south Tyrol, north Italy) 10,530 feet (ca. 3,210 m), above sea level, had melted considerably, and this is why his upper body was clearly visible protruding from the ice and melt water. The corpse lay in a gully on Tisenjoch/Giogo di Tisa, and was thus protected from the destructive forces of the moving glacier. The rocky gully was probably free of ice when Ötzi died there. How? Extensive analysis of Ötzi’s body, alongside X-rays and a CT scan, showed an arrowhead had been lodged in his shoulder when he died. Subsequently, he has been covered with snow and the glacier ice. Today, a large stone pyramid stands near the discovery site to commemorate this fortuitous archaeological find. Discovery site marked by a stone pyramid. Miraculously, ice had preserved not only the body, but the equipment the Iceman had with him when he died—ordinary possessions rendered priceless by time: a bead with rawhide strings, two dried-out mushrooms on leather straps, finely stitched clothing made from animal skins, straw-lined leather shoes, an impermeable cloak made of woven grass, a bear skin cap, a pack that still had some food in it (dried deer meat and a prune), a finely worked birch bark pouch, a wooden bow, a leather quiver with a number of arrows (some unfinished), a flint-bladed knife, and a wood-handled copper-bladed axe. Hunting may have played an important role in Ötzi’s life. The fur of wild animals (bear, stag, roe deer) were used in making his clothing, the antler tips in his quiver came from a red deer and he ate wild animal meat (red deer, ibex). In addition, parts of his equipment (bows, nets, bird/game carrier) can also be used for hunting. The Iceman also gathered provisions that grew in the wild. But he belonged also to a sedentary society that practiced agriculture and raised livestock. This is suggested by the grain residues (barley and einkorn wheat) found with Ötzi. In addition, the Iceman was wearing leather and fur garments from domesticated animals (goat, sheep, and cow). Ötzi’s discovery ranks as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. His clothing and equipment is all the more important, because they were not the customary funerary offerings, well known from the archaeological excavation of thousands of tombs, but rather the objects the man used in his daily life. Ötzi’s Axe. South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. Ötzi lived in the middle of the Copper Age. It is a time between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. At that time, the techniques for metal extraction and processing were developed. Despite the discovery of copper, stone tools (stone palstaves or axes) are still used, because not everyone had access to copper, and they are functional and can be produced by most people. For this reason, the term Chalcolithic is also used for this time. In Central Europe it lasts from about 4300-2200 BC. The study of the mummy has resulted in several important and in part unexpected archaeological and medical discoveries. But so did the murmurings about a curse, built around the theory that the Iceman was angry at being disturbed after 53 centuries. MODERN MYTH: THE CURSE OF ÖTZI – The Iceman Ötzi was discovered high in the Italian alps near the Austrian border, and reports and pictures of the well-preserved Stone Age man sparked worldwide interest. Mysterious ancient curses are by no means confined to the land of the pyramids and King Tut’s tomb. Indeed, one of the recent such alleged curses can be linked to an enigmatic individual frozen in ice for millennia in the Alps, who has stirred up not only academic mysteries, but also mysteries of the unknown… Is the Iceman cursed High in a remote area of the Ötztal Alps in northern Italy, he was shot in the back with an arrow. Struck in a main artery, he likely bled to death within minutes and was near-perfectly preserved in the ice. Perhaps he is still making his mark on the lives of those disturbing his rest… We all know that every ancient mummy is cursed, so of course the Iceman has his own story. The alleged curse revolved around the deaths of several people involved with the discovery, recovery and subsequent analysis of Ötzi’s body. The head of the forensic team examining Ötzi, Rainer Henn, 64, a scientist from Innsbruck University, was the man to place Ötzi’s frozen remains into a body bag. He tragically died in a fatal car crash while travelling to a lecture about the iceman, just a year after Ötzi was discovered. The mountaineer who led Henn to the Iceman’s body, Kurt Fritz, 52, died in an avalanche in 1993, the only one of his party to be hit. Helmut Simon, 67, disappeared in the Alps in October 2004. He and his wife had discovered Ötzi 13 years prior. It took searchers eight days to find his body due to snowy conditions. Within an hour of Simon’s funeral, the head of the mountain rescue team that was assigned to find him, Dieter Warnecke, 45, died of a heart attack. The man who filmed Ötzi’s removal from his icy mountain grave, celebrated Austrian journalist Rainer Hoelzl, 47, died of a brain tumor not long after finishing the film. The Independent reported in 2005, not long after he died, that he was aware of the alleged curse, and said: “I think it’s a load of rubbish. “It is all a media hype. The next thing you will be saying, I will be next.” The seventh such person to die within a year is US-born molecular archaeologist Tom Loy, he suffered from a blood-related condition for about 12 years, his condition was diagnosed shortly after he became involved with the Iceman. He was found dead at his home in Brisbane in November 2005. An autopsy concluded he had died of natural causes, or an accident, or both. Loy was renowned for discovering human blood on the Iceman’s clothing and weapons. His work debunked the theory that Ötzi, died alone in the mountains after a hunting accident. By revealing four different types of human blood on Ötzi’s clothing, he surmised that the Stone Age man was hunting with a companion when they got into a territorial skirmish. Fatally wounded, Ötzi appears to have leaned against his companion for support. Weakened by blood loss, he put down his equipment neatly against a rock, lay down and expired. Curse or coincidence? People involved in the recovery of the mummy and the scientific investigation of the Iceman have died as a result of accidents or disease. The popular press has been quick to ascribe these deaths to the “curse of Ötzi”. However, hundreds of people have worked on the Iceman project, and many years have passed since the corpse was first discovered. It is therefore not remarkable that some of those people have since died. This is the sort of curse that starts its life as speculation and then becomes an urban legend… Could this whole “curse” simply be a journalist’s invention, sensationalism for article sales, much like the Curse of the Pharaoh Tutenkhamun? Like all good curse theories, natural death, accidents and sheer bad luck have been compressed into a single sinister hypothesis and with all this doom and gloom, there is only one piece of great news. The museum in the Italian town of Bolzano specially constructed for the Iceman is expecting an increase in curious travelers. The result of a deadly ancient curse, or circumstantial coincidences? That is for you to decide… Copper Age Ethnomedicine: Ötzi’s tattoos Show me a man with a tattoo and I’ll show you a man with an interesting past. ~ Jack London, 1883. In ”The Man in the Ice,” published in 1994, Dr. Konrad Spindler, an archaeologist at the University of Innsbruck in Austria who led the early investigation of the mummy, noted the first evidence suggesting that the Iceman might have been carrying some natural medicines. ”All folk medicine has its origins in prehistory … Over hundreds and thousands of years remedies were passed on from generation to generation. The modern pharmaceutical industry has frequently analyzed the active constituents of traditional medicines and makes use of them to this day, where synthetic forms cannot be produced. Seen in this light, the Iceman with his modest but no doubt effective traveling medicine kit, is not all that remote from ourselves.” ~ Dr. Spindler. Tattoos—Adornment or therapy? After years of work by an international team of scientists, a portrait of this mysterious time-traveler is finally emerging. Since Ötzi is a wet mummy and his tissue, bones and organs are well-preserved, numerous examinations have been carried out on him to learn more about his state of health when he was alive. Overview on the Iceman’s health problems. Ötzi was fit, but not completely healthy. His joints were worn out and his veins were calcified. He probably had stomach pain from worms in his intestines and gallstones. The teeth are heavily worn down and some are infested with tooth decay. On his left little toe there are still consequences of frostbite. What must have troubled him in the last days before his death is the deep cut wound on his right hand, which was only a few days old. The Iceman’s body holds— strange markings on the skin —tattoos 61 tattoos were found on Ötzi’s body,they are lines or crosses. Two tattoos are small crosses, they are on the right knee and on the left heel. Iceman tattoo locations. Credit Roxas H. Unlike modern tattoos, they were not made with a needle; they were fine incisions; stuck or scratched with a bone needle or a flint blade into which pulverized charcoal was rubbed. The color of the vast majority of Ötzi’s tattoos is made from soot. Only the tattoo on his right leg had ash particles found between the soot residue. This may be due to the fact that the soot was taken from a different part of the fireplace for the remaining tattoos, or that he had the tattoo done at a different time. A closer look at some of Iceman’s tattoos. Credit: EURAC. Scientists are still puzzled about the significance of the tattoos. They were located in places that would have been covered by clothing most of the time, so they don’t seem to have been made for adornment. Today, it is assumed that the tattoos served therapeutic purposes. Ötzi’s tattoos served therapeutic purposes. It is believed that the fine lines and crosses were made to sooth pain and were an early form of acupuncture. It is believed, that the tattoos were made in a bid to soothe pain. This theory is supported by the location of the tattoos on acupuncture lines that are still used today. 80% of the tattoo positions correspond to points employed to treat rheumatic illness, it seems very likely that these tattoo-punctures had the purpose of relieving the degenerative effects of Ötzi’s conditions. Small linear incisions besmirched with bluish-black carbon pigments were placed at precise locations on the body corresponding to major joint articulations. Radiographic analyses of the Iceman’s corpse revealed considerable arthrosis in many of the same regions (lower back or lumbar spine, hip joints, knee joints, and ankle joints) where the tattoos were applied. It has been proposed that Ötzi’s indelible treatments were repeated over time, because many of the Iceman’s 5300-year-old tattoos are exceedingly dark, suggesting multiple applications to the same loci. One of these tattooed regions (like the lumbar spine) must have been punctured by another individual, because the Iceman would not have been able to reach it with precision. The Iceman also possessed two lines of tattooing around one of his wrists. This bracelet-like tattoo adorns the wrist of the 5,300-year-old Iceman. Photograph © South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology-EURAC. Other researchers have added to the list of Ötzi’s indelible medical therapeutics. Dorfer indicated that markings on the mummy’s back and right leg were positioned on the gall bladder, spleen, liver, and stomach acupuncture meridians. The Eight Confluent Points of the Extra Meridian. sshen-nong.com/eng/treatment/acupuncture_confluent.html. Meridians are specific pathways that connect the internal organs with points that are located either on the epidermis, often in close proximity to nerves and blood vessels. The meridians and points are utilized by acupuncturists today to treat abdominal disorders. Moreover, as we have no other evidence for the practicing of tattooing in the alpine region or even in the Western culture of historic times, we are not able to draw any conclusions on the effectiveness and the possible success of this treatment. On the other hand, it has to be considered that the Iceman’s health problems most probably required a regular treatment and the possible application of acupuncture may have been effective. Acupuncture is a method of treatment in traditional Chinese medicine. This assumes that invisible energy lines (meridians) run in the human body, in which the qi (life energy) flows. A disturbance in this energy flow is blamed for illnesses. The treatment of meridians with fine needle stitches corrects the disorder. Ötzi’s tattoos lie along these lines in places that are also used today for pain treatment by acupuncture. yogamedicine.com-meridians If Ötzi’s tribe were pr… truncated (8,486 more characters in archive)