Radiocarbon dating - which measures carbon 14, an isotope, or version of carbon - determined that the iceman was about 5,300 years old, dating to 3300 B.C. In addition to extremely cold environments, natural mummification can occur in arid environments or places that are devoid of oxygen, such as bogs and swamps.Ī subsequent radiocarbon analysis performed on Ötzi's tissues found that he was even older than 4,000 years. This process involves preserving organic tissue without the aid of human intervention, such as is the case with some ancient Egyptian mummification, or deliberately applied chemicals. The ice had preserved the body through a process of natural mummification. There, Konrad Spindler, an archaeologist at the University of Innsbruck, examined the remains and announced that the mummy was not a mountaineer but was "at least 4,000 years old," Scientific American reported.Ī view of the Ötzal Alps glaciers, where hikers stumbled upon Ötzi's mummy hidden in the ice. The rescue effort took longer than anticipated, but five days after Ötzi's discovery, the mummy was freed from the ice and fully exposed.Ī helicopter carried the mummy off the mountain, and the iceman was transported to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Innsbruck Medical University in Austria. The first attempt to free the body from the ice was thwarted by bad weather, so the authorities tried again the next day. In the process, parts of the mummy - including the left hip and thigh and a few of his tools, including his bow - were damaged, Smithsonian Magazine reported. Using axes and jackhammers, the rescuers attempted to dig Ötzi out of the ice, despite the fact that none of them were trained archeologists. This assumption prompted a hasty attempt the next day to extract the body from the ice. The German hikers alerted the Austrian authorities, who assumed the body was the victim of an unfortunate mountaineering accident. Related: Frozen in time: 5 prehistoric creatures found trapped in ice "So it was not pure white but covered with red sand and melted even quicker." "There had been a warm Sahara wind that brought sand to the glacier in which Ötzi was stuck," she said. That summer had been particularly warm, Hersel said, and the high temperatures aided in exposing Ötzi's remains. "The left arm was strongly angled to the right and lay under the chin." "The mummy was found lying outstretched on his stomach," Hersel said. The hikers were skirting a glacier on the border of Austria and Italy when they noticed the upper part of a human body protruding from the ice. Ötzi the Iceman was discovered by two German hikers who were crossing the Tisenjoch Pass at an elevation of 10,530 feet (3,210 meters) above the Ötztal Valley in western Austria in September 1991.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |