When the skeletal body of a 45-year-old, five feet five inches tall man weighing 50kg was found in the Alps between Italy and Austria in September 1991, by two German tourists, they thought that it was of a mountaineer who had died some years ago. They were right except for the estimate of the time, for Otzi — as he has since been called — died more than 5,300 years ago. Preserved by the ice on the mountains, this first natural mummy is now known as Otzi the Iceman and he provides valuable knowledge and insight about Europe around 3,300BC.
For instance, his leather shoes suggest that there may have been cobblers in those days who made footwear according to specifications. Otzi’s clothes, too, were not those of a pauper, for he wore a cloak of woven grass, a coat, a pair of leggings made of leather, a loincloth also of leather, and a bearskin cap. His exact cause of death is unknown, for he may have died of a fall or after a fight, for he suffered a blow on his head (which may have been caused by the fall) and an arrowhead was lodged in his left shoulder.
But, even as he died, he was not to be the last of his line. For, researchers now say that there are at least 19 genetic relatives of his living in Austria’s Tyrol region. “These men and the Iceman had the same ancestors,” according to Walther Parson of the Institute for Forensic Medicine at Innsbruck. The 19 Austrian men are certainly not the only ones who share their ancestry with Otzi. Scientists expect to find other relatives as well in the nearby regions of the Swiss and Italian Alps. As Otzi set out on his last fatal journey with his copper axe, a knife and quiver of 14 arrows, he could not have known that many centuries later, science would discover his lifestyle and trace his descendants.