The most studied mummy in the world continues to make people talk. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its discovery, in 1991, researchers from around the world gathered at a congress in Bolzano (Italy) have revealed the latest news about this European who lived 5,300 years ago . Among the new surprises, the first is that perhaps it was not from the Alps, as was believed until now, but from Tuscany, in central Italy . The second is that he probably did not work metal, as was apparent from the high levels of arsenic and copper found in his hair. And the third, that he was surely assassinated because of a personal conflict that he maintained a few days before his death. Experts have also revealed that although his weight was normal and he led an active life, he suffered from widespread vascular calcification.
According to the anthropologist Albert Zink, from Eurac Research, scientific head of the congress, Ötzi is so well preserved that it serves as a model to develop study methods that can later be used in other mummies. But who was this “ice man”? What was your role in the society of your time? What happened to him in his last days of life? A surprising new piece of information just discovered alludes to the powerful copper ax he carried. Apparently, the metal used to make the blade did not come from the Alpine region or the Tyrol, but from central Italy. According to Gilberto Artioli, from the University of Padua, the copper came from a mineral mined in southern Tuscany . To establish its origin, Italian scientists took a small sample of the leaf and compared the proportion of lead isotopes – the imprint of mineral deposits that remains unaltered in any object made from the mineral – with data from other deposits. of minerals in Europe and the Mediterranean region. The undoubted conclusion pointed to southern Tuscany.
In that case, which is to be confirmed in a second analysis, was Ötzi a merchant from the region around present-day Florence? What commercial links did the inhabitants of the Alpine region have with the south?
On the other hand, until now the experts argued that Ötzi should have beeninvolved in the copper smelting process, due to the levels of arsenic and copper found in the mummy’s hair, which could be due to having breathed the smoke that is released when the metal is melted. But now Wolfgang Müller of the University of London has examined Ötzi’s hair but also nails, skin and organs using laser mass spectrometry and other novel techniques to check for a possibleheavy metal contamination.
His findings, until now provisional, suggest that it cannot be assured that Ötzi worked the metal himself. There were high arsenic values in the nail, but not in other tissue samples. As for copper, it was only present in the limbs, so it is possible that the levels of this material in his body could have been due to environmental influences during the more than 5,000 years since his death.
In addition, anew computed tomography of the icemanhas detected that, apart from thevascular calcificationin the arteries of the stomach and legs, it showed three small areas of calcification near the outflow tracts of the heart. This supports the idea that Ötzi had a genetic predisposition to cardiovascular disease, which had caused him a generalized arteriosclerosis. As for his death, alreadywe knew that Ötzi was killed by an arrowhead stuck in his left shoulder. But recently Alexander Horn, chief inspector of the Munich Criminal Investigation Department, has investigated the case using the latest forensic methods. According to his hypothesis, it does not seem likely that he felt previously threatened, because his position in the place of Tisenjoch where he was found indicates thathad been resting after enjoying a good meal.
Everything indicates that he did not imagine what awaited him. In the days before the murder, he had suffered an injury to his right hand, perhaps from having to defend himself during the course of an altercation with another individual. No further injuries appear, which seems to indicate that he was not defeated in that match.The deadly arrow he received must have been thrown from afar and from behind. Since valuables such as the ax were found next to the body,theft must be excluded as a possible motive. Rather, the previous confrontation had to influence, a pattern of behavior that prevails today in most murder cases, according to Horn.
