Alpine hikers along the Austro-Italian border find a body frozen
in an icy crevass. Murdered body? A lost mountain man?
NO, A 5,300 YEAR OLD MUMMY

Investigators determine that the dead man was about 45 years old, had numerous tattoos, and was relatively well-dressed for this hostile environment. And indeed, he may have died after a violent clash.

But this was no crime statistic. Rather, this man lived 5,300 years ago. He is the oldest and best-preserved natural mummy ever found, so protected by the cold that researchers can determine how he lived, where he came from, what ailed him, what he ate for his last meal, and what ultimately must have killed him.

The man in the ice, who researchers call Ötzi, lived and died before recorded human history. But the story written in his clothes, tools, skin, hair — and even inside his immaculately preserved body — will revolutionize how we view our ancestors from the Stone Age.

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The Body

Clothing + Shoes

Tattoos + Medicine

Fire + Food

Copper Ax + Bow and Arrow + Dagger

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