The Mummy That Came in From the Cold

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN ITALY

At first sight it might have seemed like the scene of a crime. A dried-​out corpse lay facedown, half trapped in the ice. An accidental death? A revenge killing? Or simply another mountain-​climbing victim? In any case, what was he doing there in the silence of the Tirolean Alps 10,500 feet [3,200 m] above sea level? Who was he? And how did he die?

THE “Iceman,” as he was immediately named, or Homo tyrolensis, as scientists call him, was found by chance in September 1991 by a German couple hiking on Mount Similaun (in the Ötztaler Alps), on the Austria-​Italy border. The particularly hot summer that year had melted most of the snow, bringing to light remains that would otherwise have lain hidden​—for who knows how long? After investigators resolved some initial uncertainty about the find, the body was crudely hacked out of the ice, suffering damage in the course of the extraction. It soon became clear, however, that it was not an ordinary corpse. Near the body lay several objects that were very different from those normally used by modern hikers who venture to such altitudes.

Some realized that the corpse was very old. After the first tests, Konrad Spindler, of Innsbruck University, Austria, made a surprising statement​—that the mummified body found on Mount Similaun was some thousands of years old! Further analysis and research on the site led scholars to conclude that the corpse they were examining was “by far the most ancient human being ever found virtually intact.” (Time, October 26, 1992) Archaeologists believe that the Iceman, nicknamed Ötzi (from Ötztal, the German name of a nearby valley), died about 3000 B.C.E.

Once the importance of the find was appreciated, archaeologists returned several times to Mount Similaun to search for other artifacts useful in trying to understand what had happened to that man all those centuries ago. What have they discovered? Why has there been so much interest in a mummy entombed in the ice? Has it been possible to unravel any of the mystery surrounding him?

[Picture on page 3]

Ötzi, the Iceman

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Foto: Archiv Österreichischer Alpenverein/​Innsbruck, S.N.S. Pressebild GmbH