More than two decades have passed since the discovery of Oetzi, the Ice Man (or the Ice Mummy), but many of his secrets still haunt scientists. This Cro-Magnon man, whose mummified remains are still being studied by experts, is considered one of the first victims of first-degree murder known to science. His body with traces of a fight was found in the Ötztal valley (according to another transcription - Ötztal) on the border of Austria and Italy. That is why he got the nickname Etzi (Otzi).
Acupuncture for Ötzi
At the beginning of 2009, another riddle of Oetzi related to his tattoos was solved. Researchers from the very beginning drew attention to the fact that the body of the ice man was covered with multiple "drawings" - a total of 57 complex images of points and lines. These symbols were found on the lower spine, right ankle, and the inside of the left knee. For a long time, it was believed that drawings are elements of the initiation process - the rite of initiation of a young man into a man and his transition into adulthood.
In addition, tattoos were associated with the professional activities of Oetzi - the Austrian ethnographer Hans Hyde, based on indirect facts, suggested that the Cro-Magnon was a sorcerer or priest. Indeed, soon after the discovery of the mummy, a previously unknown prehistoric sanctuary was opened nearby, and the caveman could well have gone there. This assumption is also supported by his age - about 46 years old - and an amulet found on a deceased person.
However, contrary to this opinion, recent studies by Austrian scientists have shown that the main purpose of ice man tattoos was health care.
Most of the drawings applied to the Cro-Magnon man's body are located directly on the acupuncture points, and the order of their arrangement is the same as the acupuncture doctor might choose when treating arthritis. The presence of this disease in Ötzi was revealed by analysis of bone tissue almost immediately after the mummy was removed from the glacier. Oetzi also suffered from back pain.
Due to the nature of the alleged activity, the primitive priest was forced to make long journeys over the hilly terrain. and this is shown by the proportions of the bones of the legs, formed, as can be seen, from an early age. Although, in general, wandering was not typical for Cro-Magnons, therefore diseases of the joints of the legs were not common.
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Maybe Ötzi himself or the healer of the tribe performed acupuncture to relieve pain symptoms. According to the assumption of Austrian ethnographers, the one who covered Ötzi's body with medical markings made rather deep punctures and cuts on the skin.
By analyzing the tattoos, it was found out that they were made with a silicon tip covered with soot - microscopic fragments of silicon and double carbon atoms arising from the burning of wood were found on the tissues of the skin.
For the research, the specialists used an electron microscope, with the help of which they studied both the tattoos of the caveman and the areas of the skin free from drawings - for comparison. The discovery of such a clear correspondence of tattoos with acupuncture points came as a surprise to scientists - after all, for many years it was believed that the practice of acupuncture appeared in China a thousand years later!
First meeting with Ötzi
1991, September 19 - at the Hauslab Pass at an altitude of 3,210 m. German climbers Erica and Hemus Simon, who were about to climb one of the alpine peaks, noticed a human body bound by ice. Seeing the corpse, the couple decided that they had found the remains of one of the unlucky modern climbers (this kind of finds happened more often than usual in the Alps that season).
The gendarmes called from Innsbruck carried out the usual criminal examination of the body in such cases. Its result amazed everyone - this man died at least several centuries ago. Next to the body, there are shoes made of goatskin and something like a cloak made of grass. A copper ax and a quiver with arrows were also found there.
Closer research has shown that the man found at the pass died about 5,200 years ago. According to the name of the local town and the valley under the pass, the found mummy was dubbed Etsi, or the Ice Man. He is sometimes called the Tyrolean man.
He is now at the Institute of Anatomy Innsbruck. The storage temperature is the same as inside the glacier - 6 ° C. Ötzi lies wrapped in a plastic-coated cloth, under several layers of crushed ice. Every two to three weeks, a special procedure is performed that does not allow the ice to melt. At this time, scientists are transferring the mummy to a laboratory equipped with special devices to take x-rays or take the smallest particles of the body for analysis.
Research and finds
We were able to learn a lot about our distant European ancestor. His age was determined - about 46 years old, height - 158 cm, weight - at least 50 kg. The Tyrolean's health was deplorable: rotten teeth, damaged spine and joints, a broken nose, a frostbitten little toe, and broken ribs.
Oetzi's remains were studied by an army of experts. Using X-rays, tomography and endoscopy, they were able to examine the mummy from the stomach to the very tips of the nails.
By the time the Cro-Magnon man died, the civilizations of Ancient Mesopotamia were already engaged in agriculture and trade and possessed writing, and Egypt was a powerful empire. Lagging behind for several centuries, the Europeans have just begun to move from harvesting and hunting to farming and cattle breeding, as well as to a sedentary lifestyle. They made the first attempts to sculpt pottery. During the Oetzi era, Eastern Europeans could breed goats, sheep, cattle, and pigs. They plowed their fields with a wooden plow, cultivated wheat, barley, flax, peas and lentils.
Thanks to the ice man, it was possible to fill in many gaps in our knowledge about the life and clothing of ancient people. It turned out that representatives of this distant era could already make shoes from leather, and they used dry grass as a heater.
The primitive Tyrolean wore a wide loincloth supported by a belt. The upper part of the body was covered by a shirt sewn from thin strips of color of leather. For protection from the cold, he wore a fur hat and sleeveless braided straw cape, similar to those worn by all European and Asian shepherds from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the 19th century. In addition, Ötzi had 2 more woven items: a sheath for a dagger and a net. Previously, scientists believed that in the late Neolithic era, people already owned the weaving technique, but as it turned out that the ice man's skill was limited to a simple interweaving of stripes.
The Tyrolean man was well equipped to survive the harsh climate. He wore a belt with a pocket made of calfskin, which contained a bone awl, a flint, consisting of tinder and a piece of pyrite, and three silicon tools - a scraper, an awl, and a sharp blade that looked like a razor. In addition to the dagger, a tool was found on the belt for minor repairs: a plate made of a very hard antler, inserted into the handle and shaped like a modern industrial diamond for cutting glass. Two mushrooms with the properties of modern antibiotics were found in a first-aid kit. And in one of 2 vessels Ötzi kept coals covered with fresh maple leaves.
The Cro-Magnon ax blade was made of copper. This fact has caused a lot of speculation. According to the latest archaeological data, this metal was first smelted in Anatolia between the 7th and 6th millennia BC. BC, and its production contributed to the development of the Sumerian city-states in the fourth millennium BC. e. In Western Europe, copper appeared only in the third millennium. The blades of such daggers were found in Italy, southern France and Spain at the sites of settlements that existed for 2500 BC. e.
Who killed Ötzi?
Despite many years of research of the Cro-Magnon man, the secret of his death is still open. At first, the researchers decided that Ötzi left his village as a result of a quarrel, was ambushed on the way, was pierced by an arrow and died due to heavy blood loss. And a snowstorm, not uncommon in these parts, hastened its end.
Now scientists believe that Ötzi died as a result of a fight that lasted for two days. On the body of the mummy and the objects found nearby, traces of the blood of 4 people were found. The blood of 2 people was found on a quiver with arrows, there is also the blood of Oetzi himself, and the cloak found near the body is impregnated with the blood of the fourth person. Criminologists agreed that Ötzi was carrying him on his shoulder to save his wounded comrade.
In addition, with the help of new methods of forensic medicine and data from computed axial tomography, it was established that the loss of blood caused by injury led only to loss of consciousness. And Ötzi died from a blow to the head with a blunt object. That is, either he himself broke his head, hitting a stone when falling, or he was finished off by an opponent's blow, who was not satisfied with the sight of a man pierced by an arrow and bleeding.
T. Mansurova