Tourists stumbled across dead body on mountain that turned out to be 5,300-year-old man

[Judi Lynn]

Gerrard Kaonga

Published 14:46, 04 March 2024 GMT
| Last updated 15:16, 04 March 2024 GMT


Tourists managed to find one of the greatest archeological discoveries ever after stumbling across a dead body that just happened to be 5,300 years old.

The monumental discovery has been called the ‘holy grail’ of glacial archaeology and came to be known as Ötzi or the Iceman.

He is now recognised as the oldest known natural human glacier mummy and provided a great look into the Europeans of the Copper Age.

Ötzi was found on September 19 in 1991 by two German tourists who were hiking towards Tisenjoch saddleback in the Ötztal Alps, a mountain range in Italy.

More:
https://www.unilad.com/news/oldest-mummy-europe-otzi-iceman-243091-20240304

[getagrip_already]

1. I've been wondering what will turn up as ice retreats......

Hopefully a ufo taco truck or maybe taxi.

[Cheezoholic]

4. I call shotgun on either ;) n/t

[Bayard]

2. Preserved remarkedly well

Thanks, Judi Lynn. That whole page has several interesting pieces.

[Judi Lynn]

6. So glad you mentioned other articles on the page. Went back, saw one I'd never heard, looked up 2 more articles on it.

There were multiple stories published all at the same time, and I hadn't seen any of them.

I've just posted them at ths forum, at this link. I'm stunned by the estimated age of the discovery!

Link:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/122910795

Thank you, Bayard!

[brewens]

3. If I belonged to one of those churches that teach the earth is 6000 years old and fossils aren't real,

my life would suck! Since I was a kid, I've been thrilled by dinosaurs and ancient history.

It's great that it's all changing because there is more to learn. I started out with the World Book encyclopedia entry on dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. I'm sure i would still instantly recognize any pics from those.

[tornado34jh]

5. I actually had visited Bolzano, the place they hold Otzi, back in 2011 on the way up to Germany. It was incredible

The area around the Province of Bolzano (known as Südtirol or South Tyrol to the inhabitants there) of northern Italy is mostly German speaking, it fact, it's more like Austria than Italy. There in fact was a separatist movement in the 1970s and 1980s when they wanted South Tyrol to be part of Austria. The historical Tyrol (Tirol in German) included what is now the modern state of Tyrol (split between North and East Tyrol) along with the aforementioned province of Bolzano/Alto Adige (Alto Adige means "upper Adige", and refers to a river that originates near there).

Ice is a very good preserver because the cold temperatures prevent decomposition from bacteria, especially if it is preserved in a very rural area.