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The Iceman Ötzi P2 - Examining 5000-year-old survival equipment - With Dr Albert Zink (S01E08)
89 Plays3 years ago
Welcome back to another episode of 23 minutes archaeology, where we continue with part 2 of or look at Ötzi, the prehistoric Iceman. Because soon after the recovery of the mummy, and its significance was understood, the site of his discovery at the Tisenjoch-mountain was extensively researched. In the process, many parts of Ötzis equipment were found and uncovered from the ice.
And for us archaeologists, these finds are truly invaluable. Because as you may remember from last episode, Ötzi was not formally buried, but unexpectedly torn from life. Additionally, not only his body, but also his clothing and equipment was frozen in ice and therefore preserved over the millennia. This gives us the unique opportunity to get an unaltered picture of the different objects used in everyday life, over 5000 years ago. Afterwards we continue our conversation with Dr. Albert Zink and also focus more on the tattoos discovered all over Ötzis body.
Reverences:
- Maixner et al. (2018), The Iceman's Last Meal Consisted of Fat, Wild Meat, and Cereals
- Fleckinger Ed. (2011), Ötzi 2.0: Eine Mumie zwischen Wissenschaft, Kult und Mythos
- Möckli (2011), Medizinische Untersuchungen und Ergebnisse an Ötzi
website: https://23minarch.com
Support: patreon.com/23minarch
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Transcript
Discovery and Significance of Ötzi
00:00:09
Speaker
The Iceman Utsi Part 2, examining 5,000 year old survival equipment. Alright people, welcome back to another episode of 23-Minute Archaeology with me, Noah. And let's jump right in and continue with Part 2 of our look at Utsi, the prehistoric Iceman.
00:00:31
Speaker
because soon after the recovery of the mummy and its significance was understood, the site of his discovery at the Tiesnjoch mountain was extensively researched. In the process, many parts of Ötzi's equipment were found and uncovered from the ice.
00:00:50
Speaker
And for us archaeologists, these finds are truly invaluable. Because, as you may remember from last episode, Ötzi was not formally buried, but unexpectedly torn from life. Additionally, not only his body, but also his clothing and equipment was frozen in the ice and therefore preserved over the millennia.
00:01:14
Speaker
This gives us the unique opportunity to get an unaltered picture of the different objects used in everyday life over 5000 years ago.
Ötzi's Tattoos: Clues to Prehistoric Practices
00:01:25
Speaker
Afterwards, we continue our conversation with Dr. Albert Tink and focus more on the tattoos discovered all over Atsi's body, for example.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yes, so far what we know is that there are real tattoos, as you said, so they really made some incisions on their skin, kind of a needle, probably made out of animal bone. And then they wrapped in this mixture of plant residues and also ash, so it was cold in the end. It was applied, and that's why the tattoos also remained visible in this body.
00:02:03
Speaker
And so it's quite fascinating because these are the oldest tattoos we know.
Examining Ötzi's Clothing and Gear
00:02:26
Speaker
As a prehistoric archaeologist, I often wonder about the daily life of people from the Copper Age over 5000 years ago, and one factor is always the type of clothing they wore. And until the discovery of a certain mummy, this question was very hard to answer.
00:02:47
Speaker
But during the recovery of Ötzi's body in 1991, woven straw fragments were found under his head and torso. It assumed that they were part of a garment and a reconstruction as a straw cloak seems very plausible.
00:03:06
Speaker
Only about a quarter of this cloak could be recovered, but it must have been about 90 cm long, thus reaching to Ötzi's knees. And interestingly, ethnological comparisons show similar straw cloaks were worn in Europe as rain protection until the beginning of the 20th century.
00:03:28
Speaker
Under this cloak, Otzi wore a coat made of multiple suede-together goatskins. By combining brown and white strips of fur, this garment even had a color pattern, maybe displaying a sort of fashion sense of the Iceman.
00:03:48
Speaker
Most of the stitching was done very regularly and could even indicate a sort of specialized production. Other parts of the coat, however, show less careful irregular stitching and could indicate reparations done by Otzi himself.
00:04:07
Speaker
On his head, he probably wore a hat made of bear skin that was found close to his body. It consists of strips of brown bear fur sewn together with leather straps. Interestingly, he wore the fur on the visible outer side of the hat.
00:04:28
Speaker
Since this probably made the hat less warm to wear, this could have also been a decision based on stylistic preferences. And what's generally one of the most important pieces of clothing while hiking? Of course, the shoes. And when Otzi was recovered, he was still wearing one on his right foot.
00:04:54
Speaker
This shoe is very elaborately constructed, and the sole is made of bare leather, which he wore with the fur facing inward to keep his foot warm. On the edge of this sole was a leather strap to which a straw net was attached. Hay was stuffed into this mesh, probably to warm the foot more.
00:05:18
Speaker
And tests with reconstructions of these shoes have shown that they were very well suited to hike in the mountains. But as a drawback, in snow and rain, the feet got wet rather quickly.
00:05:34
Speaker
On his legs, Ötzi wore two tubes or stockings. They were made of smaller, soon-together pieces of goat leather. And multiple signs of repairs indicate that these stockings were used for a long time. Unlike pants, to keep them up and in place, they were attached to his belt with leather straps. And another leather object was identified as a loincloth.
00:06:04
Speaker
It also consists of soon-together goatskin strips. This leather cloth was pulled between the legs and also fastened to the belt.
Therapeutic Insights from Ötzi's Tattoos
00:06:16
Speaker
And speaking of his belt, it was made of calfskin and was around two meters long, meaning Ötzi could loop it around his waist twice.
00:06:27
Speaker
In the middle of this belt, an additional soon-on leather strip formed a small pouch. Inside this pouch were three small flint tools, an object of animal bone and tinder fungus.
00:06:44
Speaker
The tools could have been used to work on wood and as the name suggests tinder fungus was used to make fire because when dried it can be very easily ignited by a spark.
00:06:59
Speaker
Before we cover the other objects found next to Ötzi, which I called his, quote, survival equipment, I first want to focus on what was found under his clothing. Because, as you may remember from the episodes about the Scythians, I am very interested in prehistoric tattoos. And you can already guess it, some of the oldest tattoos ever discovered were found on Ötzi's body.
00:07:29
Speaker
Some dark markings on his skin were already recognized during the recovery of the mummy and others during the following examination in the forensic laboratory. Years later, infrared images revealed additional tattoos on his skin not visible anymore to the naked eye, raising the total number of tattoos discovered on Ötzi's body to over 60.
00:07:59
Speaker
Located on different parts of the body, like his lower back, the lower legs or the right knee, they have simple shapes in the form of different groupings of straight lines and at least two crosses. And we need to keep in mind that due to the shrinkage of the skin and the dehydration of the underlying tissue, the tattoos are no longer in the same size and shape as they were when he was alive.
00:08:29
Speaker
Tissue samples showed that the dark pigment particles are mainly soot and in that sense similar to those used in tattoos today. There are different possibilities of how these pigments actually got under Ötzi's skin, but it's probable that the skin was scratched and the soot afterwards pressed into the fresh cut wound.
00:08:55
Speaker
So, Ötzi's tattoos of simple lines are not very decorative and rather plain, at least in our sense. They were placed on somewhat hidden parts of his body and, at least for the ones on his back, could not have been done by himself.
00:09:15
Speaker
Therefore, the question of their potential meaning arose, and besides the possible personal, aesthetic or cultic interpretation, another very interesting approach has been suggested by some scholars.
00:09:32
Speaker
From ethnographic comparisons, there are examples of tattoos having rather therapeutic purposes. And in that sense, also some authors noted a remarkable correspondence between the location of Ötzi's tattoos in relation to acupuncture points of traditional Chinese medicine, since nine of his tattoos are located on the so-called bladder meridian, for example.
00:10:02
Speaker
Among other things, arthrosis of the lumbar spine is treated at the bladder meridian in today's acupuncture and indeed Ötzi's x-ray showed evidence that he suffered from arthrosis. So perhaps the tattoos were markings to indicate where Ötzi had to sting in case of pain.
00:10:25
Speaker
but these are speculations which are almost impossible to prove scientifically, so the possible meaning behind Ötzi's tattoos remains unclear. With that, let's focus on the tools he carried with him so we can get a better understanding of what equipment was used to survive in the Alpine Mountains over 5,000 years ago.
00:10:53
Speaker
and one of the most important and valuable objects found with Ötzi was his already mentioned copper axe. It was constructed with a copper axe blade which was attached to a wooden handle fixed with birch tar and leather straps.
00:11:13
Speaker
Reconstructions showed that it was possible to cut down even larger trees with this axe with relative ease. However, it could of course also have been used as a weapon. It's probable that this axe additionally served Ötzi as a status symbol since copper was very rare and valuable in this time period.
00:11:40
Speaker
Another essential tool while hiking is, of course, a knife and indeed archaeologists also found a flint dagger among Atsi's equipment. It was made of a 7 cm long sharp flintstone which was attached to a handle made of ash wood.
00:11:59
Speaker
This dagger was found in a scabbard made of twined straw and a leather strip which was attached to the scabbard and was probably used to attach it to his belt.
00:12:12
Speaker
Another object which probably was quite essential as a prehistoric hiker was a stick of yew wood found a few meters next to the body of the mummy. At 182 cm it was even taller than Ötzi himself and could soon be identified as an unfinished bow because notches from working the wood with flint tools were still clearly visible.
00:12:42
Speaker
In addition, the knocks for attaching a bow string had not been formed yet. So only a few steps were missing to make the bow ready to shoot. And as a side note, two years ago I tried to rebuild Ötzi's bow with the same materials
00:13:02
Speaker
And I can say that with enough practice, of course, it can be used very accurately as a hunting weapon even over longer distances of more than 50 meters.
Ötzi's Survival Tools
00:13:14
Speaker
Not far from his bow, archaeologists even discovered a matching quiver. It was made of a large piece of fur reinforced with a wooden stick. The quiver contained 14 arrows, but only two were armed with flint arrowheads, the other 12 were unfinished.
00:13:35
Speaker
And interestingly, even feathers were attached on the rear of the arrows. As in later times, like the medieval ages or even today, these feathers serve to give the arrow a more stable flight. To me, it is so fascinating that these were preserved in the ice and that this technological know-how was already known over 5000 years ago.
00:14:03
Speaker
Among these arrows, the quiver also contained a 2 meter long string. It wasn't until 2019 when scientists could prove that it was made of animal fibers and could therefore be classified as a bow string. So you see, all combined, few working steps were missing for Ötzi to have a functioning bow and a couple of arrows.
00:14:32
Speaker
The next object was initially a big question mark for archaeologists. An 11 cm long piece of wood, one end was cut straight and the other sharpened to a tip. In this tip was a piece of deer antler blackened by fire. So if you add it all up together, the object looks a lot like a pencil.
00:14:57
Speaker
But this could not be, since evidence for writing would not appear in Central Europe for almost another two and a half thousand years.
00:15:08
Speaker
Tests with reconstructions of this object have shown that it could have been used for working and shaping flintstone. The deer antler tip was hardened by heat and then with precise strokes used to form flint tools like arrowheads for example, which as we just learned Utsi was in need for.
00:15:32
Speaker
Very interesting is also a so-called first aid kit because Ötzi carried with him two dried mushrooms. These were birch brackets and known in natural medicine for their high antibiotic effect. They are still used today for example for stomach pains or to stop bleedings.
00:15:55
Speaker
When the question arises how fire was started in prehistoric times, people often think of striking flintstones or rubbing two sticks together. In this context, two other pieces of Ötzi's equipment are very interesting. I already mentioned the tinder fungus he carried in his belt pouch, but he was also found with two smaller oval containers made of birch bark.
00:16:25
Speaker
One of these small buckets contained charcoal and maple leaves. It is assumed that this container therefore was used for storing and transporting glowing charcoal, because tests have shown that the fresh maple leaves serve as insulation whereby the wrapped charcoal continued to glow for many hours and a new fire could be started very quickly.
Preservation of Ötzi in Bolzano Museum
00:16:55
Speaker
But how did Ötzi transport all these belongings? The answer is as simple as you may think, a backpack. Not far from his corpse, a U-shaped and debarked stick of hazelwood with three inserted wooden boards was found. This object can be addressed as a frame or carrying rack.
00:17:20
Speaker
It is unclear what kind of carrying device was attached to this frame. A leather bag or a net made of straw cords seems, however, very likely. So, all in all, you can see that Ötzi had all the equipment he needed to make fire, go hunting or try to defend himself.
00:17:43
Speaker
And with that, we continue our conversation with Dr. Albert Zink, head of the Institute for Mummy Studies at the European Academy in Bolzano.
00:18:04
Speaker
We continue our conversation with Dr. Albert Sink and I was wondering how is Ötzi being conserved today and has it more or less remained the same since the 1990s or did you have to modify some approaches in regards to optimal conversation, for example because of scientific improvements?
00:18:27
Speaker
Yeah, actually it has not changed much since he was brought to the museum in Bolzano. He was brought here in 1998 after he was in the first seven years in Innsbruck. There he was conserved a bit differently because obviously they had no experience with conserving, let's say, mummies from the ice. And so they mainly they kept him cold and wrapped him in some sheets with ice cubes in the end.
00:18:53
Speaker
And so in Bolzano in the museum, they developed this refrigeration cell with a certain temperature that is now currently at minus 6 to minus 7 degrees. And he's kept in a very high humidity, so 98% humidity, to a bit recreate the situation he was in the last 5,000 years.
00:19:16
Speaker
We actually are currently doing a study to understand better the conservation parameters and maybe in the future also to optimize the conservation system because it's quite demanding. Since 1998, he's almost kept under the same conditions. The only thing maybe is that he's also now since maybe 10, 15 years, he's always sprayed with sterile water every two to three months.
00:19:45
Speaker
so that he gets an ice layer cover that pretends that the water evaporates. But this is the question whether this is really necessary to do this. And this we try to figure out to maybe also reduce the contact we have of the money. Because every contact we have, also when we do our studies, is always a risk of bringing in some microbes to contaminate the money. And so we try to keep this at the minimum
00:20:15
Speaker
And it's always everything is kept quite sterile. So it's like in an operation room. But we will see it's still also an ongoing process and also part of our research to get really perfect conditions to keep him as long as possible, ideally forever.
Theories on Ötzi's Death
00:20:32
Speaker
In that sense, I was asking myself also when I visited the last time, are there also security measures in place in case of a power outage, for example? Do we have generators or how do you work with this possibility? Yeah, that's a very complex system of security measurements. On the one hand, there's also some companies that are
00:20:57
Speaker
let's say connected to the system so when there's a system failure they are responding immediately or immediately sending a technician and so and really if the system breaks down there are then extra energy supply that takes over if maybe the energy goes down and even if in case there's a fire
00:21:23
Speaker
The firearms, they know exactly what to do. They have our own plan to rescue the mummy, to bring it out of the building and bring it to the hospital because in the hospital there's another conservation chamber where he could then be placed in case the whole museum would be on fire. So let's say there's everything thought
00:21:45
Speaker
to keep the mummy safe in the end. That's good to know. Coming to the tattoos discovered on Ötzi's body, analysis on tissue samples showed that the dark pigment was mainly plant suit. Do you know what else was mixed into it and maybe also how it was applied under his skin?
00:22:08
Speaker
Yeah. So, so far what we know is that there are real tattoos, as you said, so they really make some, made some incisions on their skin, like kind of a needle, probably made out of animal bone. And then they wrapped in this mixture of blend residues and also ash. So it was cold in the end. It was applied. And that's why the tattoos also remained visible in this body.
00:22:35
Speaker
And so it's quite fascinating because these are the oldest tattoos we know and nobody expected actually that our region, let's say in the Alps, they already practiced these tattoos and the only big discussion is about why they were applied and what was the idea behind to do these tattoos on his body.
00:22:56
Speaker
Ja, in that sense, what is your opinion on the apparent correlation of the location of Ötzi's tattoos and acupuncture points? Well, I think it was indeed a kind of treatment that they applied maybe really to fight the health issues they had, because it's really quite obvious that all the tattoos are very close to areas in the body where he had at least some degenerative
00:23:25
Speaker
diseases, or we had probably had pain from time to time. So on this lower back, we know that the spine had some issues, he had some issues with his knees, and his ankle joints, you know, they are also tattoos. And the tattoos also know, obviously no symbol, they're just stripes and two crosses. Yeah. And so it makes sense that they were applied to as a kind of symbol, like we have in other cultures.
00:23:52
Speaker
And, uh, so I can, I really would say this highly likely that there was a kind of treatment, but I'm not sure whether it was really a kind of acupuncture because this occasion that they're close to acupuncture points is maybe could be also just a coincidence because they are, we are applied in the area where he had these, these issues. But, uh, in the end, uh, we, this, we cannot figure out really, but it would make sense to consider them as a kind of treatment.
00:24:20
Speaker
and maybe even they repeated this treatment because this we cannot tell from the tattoos whether they were all applied at the same time or they were applied in different periods because he has a total of 61 tattoos on his body and it's maybe also more likely that there were so the treatment was repeated because maybe it helped a bit because it's also known from other cultures that these incisions
00:24:49
Speaker
They can help by creating a local pain and then distracting the other pain. But then for sure you have to repeat them because the pain or the health problem does not go away from this acupuncture. But this we cannot tell because they look all the same and we cannot tell whether they were applied at different times.
00:25:09
Speaker
Ötzi was not formally buried but was probably left to die after being shot with an arrow which gives us the unique opportunity to get an unaltered picture of the equipment he used daily. Is this assessment right or do you expect that something is quote missing? Big question. So it seems that everything was left there because there's a lot of debate about it whether
00:25:37
Speaker
that why he was murdered also, where somebody tried to take away things from him. But it looks like that everything was left there because especially the copper axe, that at this time was a very precious material, was still there and any kind of robbery, they should have taken the copper with them. So it really looks like that he was killed to any other reason
00:26:04
Speaker
And they left everything there. We don't know whether he carried something also in his rucksack or in his thing he carried with him. Maybe he could have also carried some ore or whatever. But I think this is not highly likely. It looks more like that everything was just left there. Somebody wanted to kill him. And after this was done, they just left him there.
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah. And also in that sense, maybe a really speculatory question. Why do you think didn't his equipment get looted? Was the position where he was too inaccessible maybe for the shooter to get to his body and retrieve some objects? It's difficult. We discussed this also together with the police. So we've these experts for these crime scene investigations.
00:26:56
Speaker
these so-called profilers because this is their work to understand what happened based on the crime scene. And they told us it's quite common in cases where people just have the intention to kill somebody because maybe they had an argument or they, I don't know, they were jealous or whatever. There was something with women involved. It can happen that they just have the intention to kill the person
00:27:25
Speaker
And then they don't take away anything, even if they would be easy to take the money at least or something like that, because it's the goal to kill this person and then it's done and then you leave everything like it is. And if you, there are other murders that really take, I have the idea to rob or to root something and then they for sure they take everything they can get.
00:27:49
Speaker
And so I would assume from the scenery it looks like that somebody really getting after him to kill him, to finish him, and then he was satisfied. And then he said, I'm not interested in his belongings. So otherwise it's not to explain that everything's still
00:28:08
Speaker
remained there because I think even things like the arrows or even a coat made out of fur or whatever were all quite a lot of effort to produce these things. It would have made sense to take it away and use it for another occasion. But it really seems that the intention was just to kill him and nothing more.
00:28:34
Speaker
Yeah, and especially because, as you said, with the copper axe, which must have been very valuable, and even a status symbol, and also could be easily retrieved from his body, I guess. Yeah, some people think people didn't take things away because it would have been then recognized by others from his tribe, maybe, because for sure, if such a copper axe was a very special
00:29:02
Speaker
instrument that could have been recognized by others and they said you have killed them, you have taken away his eggs, but on the other hand you maybe could just also take the blade or melt the copper and produce a new piece out of it because it's such a complicated
00:29:21
Speaker
procedure at that time to produce these blades. So already the copper is an enormous value. So I think it's not likely that this was the reason. I think it was more because they were not interested in his belongings. They were interesting in killing him in the end. Thank you very much. Many things remain open, much research to be done. Thank you so much for your time and this interview. Thank you for your kind invitation.
Ongoing Research and Season Conclusion
00:30:00
Speaker
All right, that was it for our first look at the many-sided research results on the mummy of the Iceman Ötzi and the equipment he carried with him. And the field of investigation is far from being exhausted since technological development will continue to lead to new discoveries in the future
00:30:23
Speaker
and allow us to gain even more first-hand impressions of how people lived more than 5,000 years ago. And the topic is so fascinating that even Brad Pitt got an outline of Utty's body tattooed on his arm.
00:30:40
Speaker
Speaking of tattoos, remember to check out my Instagram account to see some pictures of Ötzi's mentioned equipment and his tattoos for example. And with that we end the first season of 23-Minute Archaeology. And yes, as many of you have pointed out, all the episodes ended up being longer than 23 minutes, so I'm sorry.
00:31:06
Speaker
I hope you enjoyed the diverse topics I chose to cover and hope to welcome you back for season 2 in a couple of weeks.