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Tissues and intestinal contents have been examined microscopically, as have the items found with the body. The corpse has been extensively examined, measured, X-rayed, and dated. Since 1998, it has been on display at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol. The province of South Tyrol claimed property rights but agreed to let Innsbruck University finish its scientific examinations. Near Tisenjoch, the glacier (which has since retreated) complicated establishing the watershed and the border was drawn too far north. Border disputeĪt the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye of 1919, the border between North and South Tyrol was defined as the watershed of the rivers Inn and Etsch. More specific estimates stated that there was a 66% chance he died between 32 BC, a 33% chance he died between 33 BC, and a 1% chance he died between 32 BC. Tissue samples from the corpse and other accompanying materials were later analyzed at several scientific institutions and their results unequivocally concluded that the remains belonged to someone who had lived between 33 BCE, or some 5,000 years ago. He dated the find to be "at least four thousand years old" on the basis of the typology of an axe among the retrieved objects. On 24 September, the find was examined there by archaeologist Konrad Spindler of the University of Innsbruck. It was transported to the office of the medical examiner in Innsbruck, together with other objects found nearby. The body was extracted on 22 September and salvaged the following day. Within a short time, eight groups visited the site, among who were mountaineers Hans Kammerlander and Reinhold Messner. The next day, a mountain gendarme and the keeper of the nearby Similaunhütte first attempted to remove the body, which was frozen in ice below the torso, using a pneumatic drill and ice axes, but had to give up due to bad weather. When the tourists, Helmut and Erika Simon, first saw the body, they both believed that they had happened upon a recently deceased mountaineer. Ötzi was found on 19 September 1991 by two German tourists, at an elevation of 3,210 m (10,530 ft) on the east ridge of the Fineilspitze in the Ötztal Alps on the Austrian–Italian border, near Similaun mountain and the Tisenjoch pass.
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His body and belongings are displayed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy.Ĭlass=notpageimage| Discovery site marked on a map of the Alps He is Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, offering an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans.
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The nature of his life and the circumstances of his death are the subject of much investigation and speculation. Ötzi is believed to have been murdered, due to the discovery of an arrowhead embedded in his left shoulder and various other wounds. Ötzi, also called the Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived some time between 33 BC, discovered in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi") on the border between Austria and Italy. Oldest natural mummy of a Chalcolithic (Copper Age) European man Similaun Man ( Italian: Mummia del Similaun) Ötztal Alps, near Tisenjoch on the border between Austria and Italy
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