For a long time it was assumed that the famous glacier mummy Ötzi was trapped by the ice around 5,300 years ago where the man had previously died. But now new analyzes of the circumstances of the find prove that this was not the case. Instead, Ötzi died in the spring when a thick blanket of snow still covered the Tisenjoch. Only when the snow melted in late summer did the corpse of the Copper Age man slide into the hollow. Contrary to what was thought, the enclosing ice also thawed again and again later.
The glacier mummy Ötzi, discovered in 1991 in a depression on the Tisenjoch in the Austrian Alps, is one of the most famous finds in glacier archeology - and one of the best studied. Preserved in the ice for over 5,300 years, this Copper Age man's body and equipment have given researchers a unique insight into how people lived at the time. The circumstances that led to the death of this man on the Alpine pass have also been investigated many times.
A new look at Ötzi's find site
According to the current theory, which was put forward by the Innsbruck archaeologist Konrad Spindler, among others, Ötzi, who had come from the south, fled to the Alps in the autumn. The Copper Age man was attacked on the Tisenjoch and died from his severe injuries. He fell into a snow-free hollow near the mountain pass, and the subsequent winter blanketed him with snow. A little later, a mountain glacier advanced to this point and preserved the corpse like in a time capsule over the millennia. It wasn't until 1991 that the ice thawed and the glacier mummy was uncovered again.
"This story of how Ötzi survived through a series of fortunate circumstances is attractive and exciting," says Lars Pilø from the Norwegian Heritage Agency. “However, I developed increasing doubts as to whether this explanation of the processes would stand up to closer scrutiny. Because it did not match what we know today about archaeological finds on glaciers.” A few years ago, more detailed analyzes of the pollen residue on the glacier mummy and its equipment also revealed that Ötzi probably did not die in autumn but in spring or early summer.
Above the valley instead of in it
A good 30 years after the ice mummy was found, Pilø and his colleagues have therefore once again examined the circumstances in which Ötzi and his equipment were found in more detail. To do this, they evaluated the results of publications on Ötzi and the place where he was found that had been published since 1991, but also findings from other glacier finds as well as meteorological and glaciological data. It turned out that the site was not exposed at the time of Ötzi's death, but must have been covered by meters of snow. Because in May to June the snow cover in this area on the Tisenjoch had not yet melted, but was still almost at its maximum height, as the researchers report.
When he died, Ötzi could not have fallen into the depression in which he was later found. Instead, he initially stayed on the snow. It was only when the snow melted during the summer that his body and most of his equipment were swept into the hollow by the meltwater. This is supported, among other things, by the fact that parts of Ötzi's equipment were found outside the depression. In addition, the pattern of grass remains stuck to his corpse shows that they swam in water before settling on the dead man's surface. That means: "Ötzi died outside the depression or, more precisely, above it," according to Pilø and his colleagues.
No time capsule in the ice
And another aspect of the current Ötzi story is probably wrong: according to common assumption, the glacier mummy remained enclosed by the ice of a mountain glacier the whole time. "Such a time capsule in the ice would be very unusual for glacier archaeology," Pilø and his team explain. "Because glaciological sites typically accumulate their material over time, rather than conserving just a single, isolated event -- certainly not on mountain passes." Indeed, radiocarbon dating of material from the site suggests that this depression has been repeatedly exposed, thawed, and new material was washed in.
Climatological data also indicate that Ötzi was by no means covered by ice the entire time. "These melting phases also explain the damage to his body and equipment," the team said. The overall but still cold high mountain environment ensured that Ötzi was mummified and largely preserved. “Ötzi remains the most important archaeological find from the ice. But the circumstances of its discovery and preservation were not as unique as first assumed,” Pilø and his colleagues state. They assume that due to the retreat of the mountain glaciers, more glacier mummies will be found in the future - also in the Ötztal Alps.
Source: Innlandet Fylkeskommune/ Secrets of the Ice; Article: The Holocene, doi: 10.1177/0959683622112613