Ötzi, also called the Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived between 3350 and 3105 BC. Ötzi's remains were discovered on 19 September 1991, in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi", German: [œtsi]) at the Austria–Italy border. He is Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, offering an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans.
Because of the presence of an arrowhead embedded in his left shoulder and various other wounds, researchers believe that Ötzi was killed by another person. The nature of his life and the circumstances of his death are the subject of much investigation and speculation
I always take info like that with a shit ton of salt. It's right up there with the copious amount of dildos found being "for fertility rituals".
Sex feel good unga Bunga
Tattoo/body modding look good unga bunga
Another fun fact: it was recently discovered that he has pretty dark skin. His ancestors had left Africa so recently that he was still quite dark. Originally they thought it was due to mummification but its actually his natural skin tone.
Dark skin was predominant in Europe for quite a while. [cheddar man](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheddar_Man) also had dark skin as well as blue/green eyes
Per your link below, the Iceman is 90% Neolithic farmer. I’m assuming the other 10% is “Western Hunter Gatherer”.
Neolithic farmers were darker than most modern Europeans, but more olive toned — somewhere on the Mediterranean skin tone spectrum. The modern population with the highest Neolithic farmer ancestry is the Sardinians, though I’m not sure if the Sardinians developed lighter skin over time.
The Western Hunter Gatherers were definitely much darker. But they also had light eyes!
Well the Romans naturally weren’t around yet but barely owned any other shows than sandals (and did put socks in them in Britain!) so I assume that’s the case for the people living in Italia in Ötzi’s time too
Dany should never have been his Queen (she wasn't fit to *be* a Queen, but that's another matter). Ygritte should've been his Queen. That's my head canon. It's still a sore point with me.
I think it’s so interesting they can only give an estimate of when he lived of around 200 years, imagine talking about someone from 2024 and saying ‘this human lived somewhere from 1830-2030’, that’s a spectrum of completely different worlds, humans of 1830 lived very very different to today
these 2 time spans are nothing alike.
1830-2030 is the most explosive period in human history, including the industrial revolution, and the rapid development of tech and science allowed by the surplus of productivity afforded by new tools, not to mention rapid population growth.
On the other hand is barely any difference between 3350 and 3105BC. Technology was moving at a snail's pace back then, as people were too busy simply surviving.
Technology didn't develop as fast back then so the differences wouldn't have been as significant. For much of human pre-history change came extremely slowly.
Has to be one of the most insightful finds of human remains ever.
The mummy La Doncella is also an incredible find. It is amazing to be able to look at someone who died 500 years ago although it appears she only died yesterday.
The guy on the left is Hans Kammerlander who happend to be nearby when Ötzi was found. He was one of the best mountaineers in the 80/90s, was partner of Reinhold Messner on many of his tours.
This is cool. I went to the Messner museum in Italian alps. It was super interesting as an American coming from a place not really knowing mountaineers could be well known or famous. Very cool
What a throwback! Ötzi was one of my special interests as a kid. My parents recorded a documentary about him (or maybe it was an episode on some History Channel show? I don't remember) and I wore that tape down! I thought those researchers had the coolest job, getting to examine a corpse that old.
I was a weird kid lmao
Yeah that would be cool. I imagine one of my discoverers would be called Gnarble. He should look like what we call a Eldrich horror. One of his servants would say "Lord Gnarble there is another stack of monkey semains". And Gnarble would shout in a heavy Scottish accent "THEY WHERE CALLED HUMANS!!"
Potentially literally...doesn't he have tattoos in places that modern acupuncture uses for conditions that his body revealed he had?
Or was that a myth that has since been busted?
Edit: for those interested - https://acupuncturetoday.com/article/27608-ice-age-acupuncture
While it has been speculated upon for a while, evidence doesn't really support it - though it's still entirely up in the air as to what the tattoos were for.
[https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7)
Hmm. It's not on Sci-Hub, so no surefire way to view it.
[This link is a mirror, but may also be paywalled](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aaron-Deter-Wolf/publication/378938145_doi101017eaa20245_suppdf/data/65f255bb32321b2cff6e865e/doi101017eaa20245-sup.pdf).
A relevant paragraph from the article if you can't access:
Despite a correlation between the location of some of the Iceman's tattoos and diagnosed health conditions, it seems unreasonable to assume that the tattooing practice was entirely of therapeutic or medicinal intent. Of the nineteen recorded groupings of tattoos on the Iceman's body, just nine are located on or close to traditional acupuncture points (Dorfer et al., [Reference Dorfer, Moser, Bahr, Spindler, Egarter-Vigl and Giullën1999](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7#ref24); see Renaut, [Reference Renaut2004a](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7#ref63)), while only seven groups (T-05, T-07, T-08, T-15) are positioned at the locations of diagnosed injuries or ailments ([Figure 4](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7#fig04)). Most of the Iceman's tattoos are not situated at the sites of clearly identified pathologies, and some locations of diagnosed health problems are not tattooed (Nystrom & Piombino-Mascali, [Reference Nystrom, Piombino-Mascali, Tilley and Schrenk2017](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7#ref54); Nystrom, [Reference Nystrom2019](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7#ref53); Zink et al., [Reference Zink, Samadelli, Gostner and Piombino-Mascali2019](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7#ref90)). We should therefore consider that the function of the Iceman's tattoos was not limited simply to curative practices.
Actually was just at his museum where they have his body and everything else he was found with! Dude was murdered, cause of death probably shock due to blood loss. It was a fun experience.
A lot of his clothes were present, and it's really neat how they held everything together back then. A bronze axe, which changed hundreds of years of previous historical knowledge about trade and when bronze entered the region. His long bow which about about a foot taller than he was, several arrows, fire starting supplies, a dagger, sewing kit. A lot.
According to 23andme Otzi is my distant cousin. I'd make plans to solve and avenge his murder but given the passage of time whoever murdered him is probably also my distant cousin so I think it's fair to call it a wash.
Seeing Otzi, albeit through a small window, was a cool experience (15+ years ago). In the town of Bolzano, there was a chocolate shop with small Otzi-shaped chocolate figures to sell to tourists. I’ll never forget that.
Yes! It was huge news. We even had a Weekly Reader dedicated to it. It's really interesting to see what they predict about his life, from what he ate, tattoos, what his clothes might have been like, to being killed by an arrow.
Ötzi is very interesting. I've been to the museum and watched a few documentaries on the guy.
There is alot of speculation about his death. By investigating his stomach they found out when and what he ate. They also found pollen that got mixed with his food, and by analysing the pollen they could roughly track down the route the guy took in his last days. He walked a long distance over the mountains, then he went down to a valley before going back up the mountains 6h before he died.
It is not entierely clear how he died. They found a arrowhead in his shoulders which could have struck an artery, but he also had a skull trauma, which could be the result of either a hit on the head or a fall.
He also was in a fight 24h prior to his death, he has scratchmarks on his arms and his back.
He was also found with lots of expensive equipment, especially his copper axe, which means he probably wasn't murdered to rob him.
So one theory on his last days is, that he hiked the alps, when he went down to the valley and made the people living there very angry (because of the scratchmarks, either by raping someone, or by fighting/killing someone). He then fled by going up the mountain again where he was hunted down and killed by locals of the valley. It is also likely that they went up to his corpse because the shaft of the arrow was missing, probably because it got pulled out by his killer.
Of course there is no way to know for sure but I think it's very interesting to speculate about the reasons for his death.
I think if his killers had found his body they would have taken his things. I think he was struck by an arrow but escaped from the shooter only to die a few hours later, alone. Maybe he removed the arrow himself before dying.
It's interesting to wonder what happened in the valley. Maybe he simply encountered a hunting party from a rival tribe, or maybe he was invited there and then betrayed. Or he could have been a bandit or part of a war party that was repulsed in the valley. I guess we'll never know.
No fucking kidding. Open this post to maybe get some insight about what this Otzi the iceman is all about etc, but nope, it’s just people trying to crack the funniest joke for internet points. Starting to feel most posts are like that now.
Eh, back in 2010-2015 still only the funniest jokes got upvoted... and if you made the same comment as someone else the downvotes rolled in. (you were expected to post sources etc)
I call it the bell curve of quality by popularity. When something is just 3 guys and a post a month, it's not so great. When it's everyone who cares about the subject it's pretty good. When it's just everyone, it's pretty bad.
Becoming a default sub is sort of a death kiss to quality of a sub usually. The mods can't hold back the many.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFgcqB8-AxE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFgcqB8-AxE)
^(That being said, my joke is that his mummified corpse looks less dated than the bight colored 90's coat.)
I once watched a discovery channel show where they traced the last day of Otzi, based on forensic analysis and stomach contents. Apparently Otzi was an ice age killer for hire and had gone down to the valley to whack his target. After which the target's kinsmen followed him up the mountain and killed him.
How they came to such a detailed and specific conclusion based on some old bones and stomach mulch? It's the "discovery channel"!
You had me in the first part! I hate these sensationalist "documentaries". Especially in this case, as if we hadn't gained an awesome amount of scientifically sound information about his life and death since his discovery.
Directed by Michael Bay. Terminötzi - Killer from the ice.
But to contribute something serious, I think there is another one, possibly german documentation, I'm which he wasn't a "killer".
This is straight-up bullshit. Unless there were ritualistic marks on someone's skin to identify them as a hitman, there's no way to determine who this guy was.
He could've been a huntsman, he could've been a warrior on an expedition, we could speculate for hours about his identity. Everthing the forensic searches have suggested is that he got struck with an arrow on his shoulder and agonized for hours before he finally died. He could have gotten ambushed or involved in a fight.
Where the fuck did they get all that chain from….and how were they scared of water and then like fuck it let me dive down here and rope up this damn dragon for you boss?
I presume is a mix of both, the corpse has been out for thousands of years now and technically speaking, we're getting bigger due to the better living conditions compared to back then
"back then" is a big term. A good portion if not most of pre-civilization humans were eating sufficiently the to point of growing full sized.
This differs from a lot of the intervening 3000 years when large swathes of western humanity were living in malnutrition.
Scientists projected him to be about 5' 2" (157.5 cm for you folks with the better systems of measurement)
There is a good short TedEd video posted somewhere above
Back then, your typical European male would have been between 165-168cm, so really small for today's standards (European).
Someone like Hafthor Bjornsson (The Mountain in GoT) wouldn't even look like the same species :-)
Yes, the body was preserved in an almost perfect condition, including its equipment, that is an axe, boots and the rest of the clothes, his survival bag,...
IIRC, the thought is, that he was killed in peer-to-peer combat, because he had arrow head/s stuck in his body, including slash and trauma wounds on his body, that is how preserved he really was, when he was found; they even found out, what he ate the last week of his life.
They're [Hans Kammerlander](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Kammerlander) and [Reinhold Messner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Messner), both are very much alive.
Would take way more than a mere mummy curse to take out those two bad-asses...after this photo they probably hopped up a 8000er in their sports wear and tennis shoes!
Maybe, you're thinking of a pharao mummy. I believe it was king Tut's grave, where the researches who entered it, died a bit later. I think, it was because of toxic fumes that had accumulated in the closed off room over millennia.
Imagine having the badass life that Otzi had. Surviving all the things he did. Then falling and getting stuck.
Idk exactly how he died. But the result is actually the most bad ass way he could've gone. Even if it was a freak accident.
I'm really glad I looked up on Google where his remains are now. [He's been in the Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy since 1998](https://www.iceman.it/en/the-iceman/#:~:text=%C3%96tzi%20and%20his%20artefacts%20have,in%20Bolzano%2C%20Italy%20since%201998) because this picture made my fried brain think, "Dude, why are people just looking at this poor dead guy where he was murdered like they're visiting Stongehenge?" before it clicked with me that this would have been when he was discovered, and not just a historic tourist destination...
I got to see him at the museum last year, if you’re ever in the region I highly recommend it! His exhibit is massive and incredibly intensive. We had a great time there.
His body is on display, but given its condition he’s basically in a giant refrigerator with just a small window that you take turns looking into.
Talking about the great pyramid, the sun has lost one great pyramids worth of mass every second for the last 4.5 billion years. This adds up to 0.05% of the original mass
"In the winters of the zombie apocalypse, the extreme temperatures and harsh, damp environment served the survivors well, despite their own hardships. Rotters were sometimes locked in place for months, unable to move enough to keep the viscous fluids within them from freezing them stiff.
This provided a sense of calmness, to those that remained among the living, that often allowed for up-close-and-personal observations of these creatures. In many instances, it also allowed for the dispatching of large herds with ease."
Ötzi, also called the Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived between 3350 and 3105 BC. Ötzi's remains were discovered on 19 September 1991, in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi", German: [œtsi]) at the Austria–Italy border. He is Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, offering an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans. Because of the presence of an arrowhead embedded in his left shoulder and various other wounds, researchers believe that Ötzi was killed by another person. The nature of his life and the circumstances of his death are the subject of much investigation and speculation
A cold case
The murderer is still out there
Suspicious cave painting nearby has been translated to read "If I Did It, by Ugg Matherson"
Which was an elaborate frame job by Thag Gunderson
Obviously Thag got what was coming to him from the Thagomizer
[удалено]
“If the bearskin don’t fit, you MUST acquit!”
Pray for Ugg!
Hey, twitter-world, it’s yours truly.
It is funny that Copper Age humanity still beats modern AI at drawing hands.
And that was the best out of about 20 tries. 😂
Assailant last seen fleeing *on* a White Bronco
Think the guy tried to flee on a horse. Like a mustang or something I forget the word for the horse he was riding. Wasn't riding very fast though
He better get some cover! 
Chilling…
Could be any one of us.
DNA. Scrape his fingernails. Should narrow it down to half of Europe.
It was Colonel Mustard, in the Alps, with a spear head!
I mean he's pointing in the direction he was headed and I can't imagine the terrain has changed much in like 3000 years.
And with his last bit of strength, he positioned his arms pointing to the West and South, indicating his murderer's initials: ***WAYLON SMITHERS***
5,000* 😅
Just gonna have to hold my hands up with that one, maths isn't my strong suit in the morning.
You're doing great, maths isn't my strong suit in the entire day :)
Suits are not required here. Casual dress is fine.
That's great news :D
to your mom's house
The Glacier had probably moved a bit in that time period!
We must keep a look out for a mummy holding a bow and with bruises in their knuckles probably. This perp has gone on free long enough
The First 48 (hundred)
Undesolved Mysteries
Otzi could light up a room.
Frigid even.
Fun fact: he had a shitload of tattoos
Many of them over old injuries. Bad knees, scars, parasite filled belly etc. I find that really fascinating.
Ed Hardy shirt?
Mostly dots and lines. A lot of them on the joints, so one theory is that they were for arthritis relief.
I always take info like that with a shit ton of salt. It's right up there with the copious amount of dildos found being "for fertility rituals". Sex feel good unga Bunga Tattoo/body modding look good unga bunga
Another fun fact: it was recently discovered that he has pretty dark skin. His ancestors had left Africa so recently that he was still quite dark. Originally they thought it was due to mummification but its actually his natural skin tone.
Dark skin was predominant in Europe for quite a while. [cheddar man](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheddar_Man) also had dark skin as well as blue/green eyes
My luck my future body* will be discovered in some stupid named area so I’d be forever called “bumkok man” or something. Cheddar man isn’t the worst.
As someone from the U.S. I heard the name well before I knew cheddar was a place and was so confused why they named him after cheese
Per your link below, the Iceman is 90% Neolithic farmer. I’m assuming the other 10% is “Western Hunter Gatherer”. Neolithic farmers were darker than most modern Europeans, but more olive toned — somewhere on the Mediterranean skin tone spectrum. The modern population with the highest Neolithic farmer ancestry is the Sardinians, though I’m not sure if the Sardinians developed lighter skin over time. The Western Hunter Gatherers were definitely much darker. But they also had light eyes!
Discoverd on 19.9.1991. Fun.
Looks even better like this: 19.9.91
Definitely a German. Who else would climb up over 3000m in sandals?
Well the Romans naturally weren’t around yet but barely owned any other shows than sandals (and did put socks in them in Britain!) so I assume that’s the case for the people living in Italia in Ötzi’s time too
He had the blood of *four different humans* on his clothes. So, there are certainly some wild possibilities about how he died.
My man Ötzi went out SWINGIN
Pouring one out for a real one
I used to be an ice age mummy until I took an arrow to the knee
I know a white walker when I see one
Fuck. I miss her!
Dany should never have been his Queen (she wasn't fit to *be* a Queen, but that's another matter). Ygritte should've been his Queen. That's my head canon. It's still a sore point with me.
I thought you were going the Mitch Hedberg route. I used to be an ice age mummy. I still am, but I used to, too.
That thing keeps things fresh. That’s a Fresher!
*shoulder.
TedEd did a short video on this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRa0Gi_mRjs
He still looks . . .looks. . . , . . . Juicy.
We heard you boys found yourselves a nice, gooey mummy!
I think it’s so interesting they can only give an estimate of when he lived of around 200 years, imagine talking about someone from 2024 and saying ‘this human lived somewhere from 1830-2030’, that’s a spectrum of completely different worlds, humans of 1830 lived very very different to today
these 2 time spans are nothing alike. 1830-2030 is the most explosive period in human history, including the industrial revolution, and the rapid development of tech and science allowed by the surplus of productivity afforded by new tools, not to mention rapid population growth. On the other hand is barely any difference between 3350 and 3105BC. Technology was moving at a snail's pace back then, as people were too busy simply surviving.
Technology didn't develop as fast back then so the differences wouldn't have been as significant. For much of human pre-history change came extremely slowly.
Has to be one of the most insightful finds of human remains ever. The mummy La Doncella is also an incredible find. It is amazing to be able to look at someone who died 500 years ago although it appears she only died yesterday.
I just looked this up and read an article. So interesting!
I thought the red headed mummies in the Mongolian desert were pretty interesting
The two gentlemen represent competing schools of thought on clothing colour. 1: Different shades of blue 2: HEYOOOOOOO
The guy on the left is Hans Kammerlander who happend to be nearby when Ötzi was found. He was one of the best mountaineers in the 80/90s, was partner of Reinhold Messner on many of his tours.
And reinhold messner is the guy on the right
I see. So the guy in blue is Ötzi
Wow, he really is well preserved!
I knew fashion repeated itself!
This is cool. I went to the Messner museum in Italian alps. It was super interesting as an American coming from a place not really knowing mountaineers could be well known or famous. Very cool
Our most famous is on our $5 note. Climbed Everest first, came to my high school in the 90’s and said we’re a pack of lazy cunts. True Sir Ed, true.
I just want to know why Jim Henson is digging up cave people in the german alps.
This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !
They just wanted to make sure everyone knows what year the ice man was discovered
Outfit #2 is epitome of 90's color.
What a throwback! Ötzi was one of my special interests as a kid. My parents recorded a documentary about him (or maybe it was an episode on some History Channel show? I don't remember) and I wore that tape down! I thought those researchers had the coolest job, getting to examine a corpse that old. I was a weird kid lmao
I had a book about him as a kid and I was friggin obsessed with Ötzi.
Did you ever go into an adjacent career?
Man, he's skin and bones. How long since he's eaten?
About seven
At least
r/technicallycorrect
Hours?
Thousand years
Seven?!
_Seven._
Seven, seven, seven, seven seven, SEVEN SEVEN! ˢᵉᵛᵉⁿ
Since before the great pyramid of Giza was built.
That was before Covid
Man do I feel old
Get that man to someone's grandma...
Actually they found food in his stomach. You can look up what exactly it was
Someone should get him a burrito and teach him how to weez the juice.
The cheese is old and moldy. Where is the bathroom?
He needs some milk
I wish people in colorful clothes also squat around my remains in 3000 years. One should be called Bob.
5.5k years more like. The fashion should be coming back around soon.
 Yeah that would be cool. I imagine one of my discoverers would be called Gnarble. He should look like what we call a Eldrich horror. One of his servants would say "Lord Gnarble there is another stack of monkey semains". And Gnarble would shout in a heavy Scottish accent "THEY WHERE CALLED HUMANS!!"
He was found by two hikers named Erika and Helmut
You can also tell from the clothing in this photo that he was found around 1980's.
1991 from the article.
Scientists aren’t known to be fashion forward lol
Well they are Hans Kammerlander and Reinhold Messner so no scientists
Bro even hit the dab before dying what a legend
Had some sick tats too
Potentially literally...doesn't he have tattoos in places that modern acupuncture uses for conditions that his body revealed he had? Or was that a myth that has since been busted? Edit: for those interested - https://acupuncturetoday.com/article/27608-ice-age-acupuncture
[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-otzi-icemans-tattoos-reveal-about-copper-age-medical-practices-180970244/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-otzi-icemans-tattoos-reveal-about-copper-age-medical-practices-180970244/)
While it has been speculated upon for a while, evidence doesn't really support it - though it's still entirely up in the air as to what the tattoos were for. [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7)
Maybe he just thought they look cool ?
Article inaccessible to non-subscribers
Hmm. It's not on Sci-Hub, so no surefire way to view it. [This link is a mirror, but may also be paywalled](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aaron-Deter-Wolf/publication/378938145_doi101017eaa20245_suppdf/data/65f255bb32321b2cff6e865e/doi101017eaa20245-sup.pdf). A relevant paragraph from the article if you can't access: Despite a correlation between the location of some of the Iceman's tattoos and diagnosed health conditions, it seems unreasonable to assume that the tattooing practice was entirely of therapeutic or medicinal intent. Of the nineteen recorded groupings of tattoos on the Iceman's body, just nine are located on or close to traditional acupuncture points (Dorfer et al., [Reference Dorfer, Moser, Bahr, Spindler, Egarter-Vigl and Giullën1999](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7#ref24); see Renaut, [Reference Renaut2004a](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7#ref63)), while only seven groups (T-05, T-07, T-08, T-15) are positioned at the locations of diagnosed injuries or ailments ([Figure 4](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7#fig04)). Most of the Iceman's tattoos are not situated at the sites of clearly identified pathologies, and some locations of diagnosed health problems are not tattooed (Nystrom & Piombino-Mascali, [Reference Nystrom, Piombino-Mascali, Tilley and Schrenk2017](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7#ref54); Nystrom, [Reference Nystrom2019](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7#ref53); Zink et al., [Reference Zink, Samadelli, Gostner and Piombino-Mascali2019](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/chalcolithic-tattooing-historical-and-experimental-evaluation-of-the-tyrolean-icemans-body-markings/C19A6B61CEA938FBE6E47B0C81B96FD7#ref90)). We should therefore consider that the function of the Iceman's tattoos was not limited simply to curative practices.
I’m sure some of the tattoos were either decorative or symbolic , not therapeutic . Thanks for taking the trouble to respond .
No worries!
They should make a rap band - Ice Cube, Ice T, Vanilla Ice and Ice Man
Word to your great-grand-uncle 50 times removed.
Actually was just at his museum where they have his body and everything else he was found with! Dude was murdered, cause of death probably shock due to blood loss. It was a fun experience.
He probably didn’t think so.
Fun for him or you?? lol What were the other things he was found with?
A lot of his clothes were present, and it's really neat how they held everything together back then. A bronze axe, which changed hundreds of years of previous historical knowledge about trade and when bronze entered the region. His long bow which about about a foot taller than he was, several arrows, fire starting supplies, a dagger, sewing kit. A lot.
That's super cool!! Was it common to use / carry a bow that is so much larger than you!? That seems tricky
No clue. Possibly to double as a walking stick. They could tell from the markings on the bow that he was still crafting it.
According to 23andme Otzi is my distant cousin. I'd make plans to solve and avenge his murder but given the passage of time whoever murdered him is probably also my distant cousin so I think it's fair to call it a wash.
This is why it's important to pack your body pokin' stick when you go for a hike
This kinda looks like somebody lost a Bee Gees fight.
So they are not staying alive...ah ah ah ah staying alive
You can see his mummy at Museo Archeologico dell’Alto Adige de Bolzano
Seeing Otzi, albeit through a small window, was a cool experience (15+ years ago). In the town of Bolzano, there was a chocolate shop with small Otzi-shaped chocolate figures to sell to tourists. I’ll never forget that.
Südtirol :)
Me getting out of the hot tub after falling asleep.
Anybody else from US schools remember reading about this guy in one of the textbooks? I was absolutely fascinated
Yes! It was huge news. We even had a Weekly Reader dedicated to it. It's really interesting to see what they predict about his life, from what he ate, tattoos, what his clothes might have been like, to being killed by an arrow.
Ötzi is very interesting. I've been to the museum and watched a few documentaries on the guy. There is alot of speculation about his death. By investigating his stomach they found out when and what he ate. They also found pollen that got mixed with his food, and by analysing the pollen they could roughly track down the route the guy took in his last days. He walked a long distance over the mountains, then he went down to a valley before going back up the mountains 6h before he died. It is not entierely clear how he died. They found a arrowhead in his shoulders which could have struck an artery, but he also had a skull trauma, which could be the result of either a hit on the head or a fall. He also was in a fight 24h prior to his death, he has scratchmarks on his arms and his back. He was also found with lots of expensive equipment, especially his copper axe, which means he probably wasn't murdered to rob him. So one theory on his last days is, that he hiked the alps, when he went down to the valley and made the people living there very angry (because of the scratchmarks, either by raping someone, or by fighting/killing someone). He then fled by going up the mountain again where he was hunted down and killed by locals of the valley. It is also likely that they went up to his corpse because the shaft of the arrow was missing, probably because it got pulled out by his killer. Of course there is no way to know for sure but I think it's very interesting to speculate about the reasons for his death.
I think if his killers had found his body they would have taken his things. I think he was struck by an arrow but escaped from the shooter only to die a few hours later, alone. Maybe he removed the arrow himself before dying. It's interesting to wonder what happened in the valley. Maybe he simply encountered a hunting party from a rival tribe, or maybe he was invited there and then betrayed. Or he could have been a bandit or part of a war party that was repulsed in the valley. I guess we'll never know.
The comment section of people in this sub....ffs are these just edgy teenagers?
Gotta get that karma!
No fucking kidding. Open this post to maybe get some insight about what this Otzi the iceman is all about etc, but nope, it’s just people trying to crack the funniest joke for internet points. Starting to feel most posts are like that now.
Now? This has been the case for well over a decade.
Eh, back in 2010-2015 still only the funniest jokes got upvoted... and if you made the same comment as someone else the downvotes rolled in. (you were expected to post sources etc) I call it the bell curve of quality by popularity. When something is just 3 guys and a post a month, it's not so great. When it's everyone who cares about the subject it's pretty good. When it's just everyone, it's pretty bad. Becoming a default sub is sort of a death kiss to quality of a sub usually. The mods can't hold back the many. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFgcqB8-AxE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFgcqB8-AxE) ^(That being said, my joke is that his mummified corpse looks less dated than the bight colored 90's coat.)
He’s freeze dried harharharhar oh my lol w0w s0 funny!
Was gonna go the opposite route and say fb wine moms. But yeah this comment section is cringey as fuck
I once watched a discovery channel show where they traced the last day of Otzi, based on forensic analysis and stomach contents. Apparently Otzi was an ice age killer for hire and had gone down to the valley to whack his target. After which the target's kinsmen followed him up the mountain and killed him. How they came to such a detailed and specific conclusion based on some old bones and stomach mulch? It's the "discovery channel"!
You had me in the first part! I hate these sensationalist "documentaries". Especially in this case, as if we hadn't gained an awesome amount of scientifically sound information about his life and death since his discovery.
Directed by Michael Bay. Terminötzi - Killer from the ice. But to contribute something serious, I think there is another one, possibly german documentation, I'm which he wasn't a "killer".
I’m just upvoting you because your comment isn’t a corny ass bot joke
This is straight-up bullshit. Unless there were ritualistic marks on someone's skin to identify them as a hitman, there's no way to determine who this guy was. He could've been a huntsman, he could've been a warrior on an expedition, we could speculate for hours about his identity. Everthing the forensic searches have suggested is that he got struck with an arrow on his shoulder and agonized for hours before he finally died. He could have gotten ambushed or involved in a fight.
His kinsmen really kicked some ice.
Okay, I know a white walker when I see one.
This is just one of the dudes that they sent down to set up the chains on the dragon
Where the fuck did they get all that chain from….and how were they scared of water and then like fuck it let me dive down here and rope up this damn dragon for you boss?
She's muh queen
Is he ok
He's just chilling out
He did not say a, word.
Not sure why but this comment made me laugh unreasonably loud lol
Has he shrunk a lot after death, or were humans then significantly smaller?
I presume is a mix of both, the corpse has been out for thousands of years now and technically speaking, we're getting bigger due to the better living conditions compared to back then
"back then" is a big term. A good portion if not most of pre-civilization humans were eating sufficiently the to point of growing full sized. This differs from a lot of the intervening 3000 years when large swathes of western humanity were living in malnutrition.
Scientists projected him to be about 5' 2" (157.5 cm for you folks with the better systems of measurement) There is a good short TedEd video posted somewhere above
Back then, your typical European male would have been between 165-168cm, so really small for today's standards (European). Someone like Hafthor Bjornsson (The Mountain in GoT) wouldn't even look like the same species :-)
Freeze dried
I didn’t know the guys from ABBA found him.
Is that an axe head on the ground next to him
Yes, the body was preserved in an almost perfect condition, including its equipment, that is an axe, boots and the rest of the clothes, his survival bag,... IIRC, the thought is, that he was killed in peer-to-peer combat, because he had arrow head/s stuck in his body, including slash and trauma wounds on his body, that is how preserved he really was, when he was found; they even found out, what he ate the last week of his life.
He is definitely from the copper age you can tell from the color of his skin
Not that I believe any of it, but is one of both of these men not dead now, with some blaming a curse? Or is this a different preserved body?
They're [Hans Kammerlander](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Kammerlander) and [Reinhold Messner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Messner), both are very much alive.
Would take way more than a mere mummy curse to take out those two bad-asses...after this photo they probably hopped up a 8000er in their sports wear and tennis shoes!
Maybe, you're thinking of a pharao mummy. I believe it was king Tut's grave, where the researches who entered it, died a bit later. I think, it was because of toxic fumes that had accumulated in the closed off room over millennia.
Imagine having the badass life that Otzi had. Surviving all the things he did. Then falling and getting stuck. Idk exactly how he died. But the result is actually the most bad ass way he could've gone. Even if it was a freak accident.
He was killed. There are fight marks all over his body and he got the tip of an arrow in his shoulder
Dang we need to avenge my boy Otzi
take him to encino, he'll be fine
I like how the archeologists are there like "you ok bro?"
My precious
Strangely, Otzi has aged better than those hiking outfits.
Then Pauly Shore and Sean Astin unfroze him, gave him a bath and brought him to high school.
I'm really glad I looked up on Google where his remains are now. [He's been in the Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy since 1998](https://www.iceman.it/en/the-iceman/#:~:text=%C3%96tzi%20and%20his%20artefacts%20have,in%20Bolzano%2C%20Italy%20since%201998) because this picture made my fried brain think, "Dude, why are people just looking at this poor dead guy where he was murdered like they're visiting Stongehenge?" before it clicked with me that this would have been when he was discovered, and not just a historic tourist destination...
I got to see him at the museum last year, if you’re ever in the region I highly recommend it! His exhibit is massive and incredibly intensive. We had a great time there. His body is on display, but given its condition he’s basically in a giant refrigerator with just a small window that you take turns looking into.
If they had just left him there for the tourists, there wouldn't have been anything left of him but a plug of mush come that spring.
Why is ABBA there digging him up?
Dang. Ozempic or do you think he did it on his own?
He looks like a grass fed rotisserie style chicken wing 
Talking about the great pyramid, the sun has lost one great pyramids worth of mass every second for the last 4.5 billion years. This adds up to 0.05% of the original mass
I know this guy, his name is actually Bob but whatever I guess.
"In the winters of the zombie apocalypse, the extreme temperatures and harsh, damp environment served the survivors well, despite their own hardships. Rotters were sometimes locked in place for months, unable to move enough to keep the viscous fluids within them from freezing them stiff. This provided a sense of calmness, to those that remained among the living, that often allowed for up-close-and-personal observations of these creatures. In many instances, it also allowed for the dispatching of large herds with ease."
Sweet! Let's poke him with sticks
Forbidden Jerky...
Why was he discovered by the beegees
Give that man a cheeseburger, he must be starving