SCIENCE

Otzi the Iceman, a frozen mummy from the Italian Alps, may have died with a wicked stomach ache—which helps date migration waves from Africa and Asia. (Nat Geo News)

Use our resources to learn more about Otzi.

Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources, including a link to today’s simple MapMaker Interactive map.

Discussion Ideas

• Take a look at the photograph above. Why has Otzi’s 5,000-year-old body been so well-preserved? Take a look at today’s MapMaker Interactive map for some help.
  • Otzi was covered in ice shortly after his death, and remained frozen in an Alpine glacier until a thaw left part of his body uncovered. Otzi was so well-preserved that the people who found him thought he was a fellow hiker who had fallen down the mountain or frozen in a lake the year before. When scientists looked at the body, they were surprised to find out he was more than 5,000 years old!

• Have other icemen or natural mummies been identified and studied?
  • Yes, many! For example:
    • Much like the glacial ice of the Alps created the “Iceman”, the freezing steppe of central Russia created the “Siberian Ice Maiden” about 2,000 years ago.
    • The peat bogs of northern Europe have preserved the bodies, clothes, and even hair of dozens of prehistoric “bog bodies.” Take a look at our terrific video to better understand the phenomenon.
    • The deserts of the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, preserved the bodies of 19th-century cholera victims.

• Scientists were originally curious about Otzi’s stomach contents, but found only an “earth-like mash.” Yet we know some of Otzi’s last meals were fairly rich—deer meat, wheat bread, root vegetables, and fruits. How do we know this?
  • The stomach is only part of the digestive tract. Scientists had previously studied the contents of his intestines and colon.

• According to Nat Geo, Otzi is “one of science’s most carefully studied cadavers.” What else do we know about him?
  • Quite a bit. Some highlights:
    • The most ghastly thing we know about Otzi is the circumstance of his death. He bled to death after being shot with an arrow in the shoulder. Wounds on his hands and feet indicate he had been in a fight shortly before death and was probably on the run from his attackers.
    • Otzi had extensive tattoos! The 61 linear tattoos, which were made by rubbing incisions with charcoal or fireplace ash, are found on his legs, ankles, wrists, and back.
    • Otzi was about 45 years old at the time of his death.
    • Analysis of Otzi’s teeth indicates he grew up near what is now the lovely Italian village of Feldthurns. Click here to learn more about how teeth can offer clues to people’s origin.
    • Speaking of teeth, Otzi had a lot of cavities! Scientists think this may have been a result of his high-carbohydrate diet. He also didn’t floss.
    • Otzi was probably lactose-intolerant.
    • Otzi, the most famous citizen of the Copper Age, may have been involved in copper smelting himself. Otzi’s ax is made of nearly pure copper, and scientists detected high levels of copper and arsenic in Otzi’s hair. (Arsenic dust is a byproduct of copper smelting.)
    • Otzi has relatives! DNA revealed that at least 19 living, breathing Austrians are related to the Iceman.

• How have bacteria discovered in Otzi’s stomach helped scientists track ancient human migration patterns?
  • Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium found in Otzi’s stomach, is a quick-change artist. According to Nat Geo, “[t]he bacterium accrues mutations more quickly than human DNA, helping geneticists precisely track changes in how the bacterium—and the humans carrying it—diversified and moved across Earth over thousands of years.”
    • Modern H. pylori strains suggest at least six ancestral branches to the bacterium’s family tree, each growing to dominate a different region of the globe. Here is a great map of H.pylori in the pre-Columbian world.

• What has Otzi’s gut revealed about ancient migration patterns?
  • Modern European stomachs feature a strain of H. pylori from two ancestral strains, AE1 and AE2. AE1 evolved in Central Asia, while AE2 evolved in Northern Africa. Otzi’s “H. pylori is a nearly pure representative of the bacterial population of Asian origin that existed in Europe before hybridization, suggesting that the African population arrived in Europe within the past few thousand years.”
    • Interestingly, the study’s authors hint that the African strain did not come with human migration from Africa. Instead, their finding “suggests that it may have been the first farmers, who brought the agricultural revolution to Europe from the Middle East starting about 8,000 years ago, who were the carriers of the African strain.”
    • In any case, minute amounts of the African strain in Otzi’s gut show that “‘[t]here were continuous waves of migration—and continuous mixture of the bacteria,’ said Albert Zink, the leader of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman and one of the study’s senior authors. ‘It wasn’t just a single wave [of humans] or two.’”

TEACHERS’ TOOLKIT

Nat Geo: Iceman’s Gut Holds Clues to Humans’ Spread into Europe

Nat Geo: ‘Otzi the Iceman’ Discovered

Nat Geo: Where was Otzi the Iceman Unearthed? MapMaker Interactive map

Nature: Distribution of Helicobater pylori genotypes map

South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology: Ötzi – the Iceman

(extra credit!) Science: The 5300-year-old Helicobacter pylori genome of the Iceman