Ice Man
On our way home from Venice I was reading our guide book and happened to discover the little town we were about to pass through is home to a very significant archaeological find; Otzi, the 5000 year old man preserved in ice. He was discovered in 1991 by German hikers.
Apparently, it is not uncommon to find corpses in this region of the Alps, 6 bodies were discovered that year alone, so when the report came in there was no cause for "special" measures to be taken. The authorities began hacking away at the ice, but in doing so severely damaged Otzi's left side. It wasn't until day 2 of the recovery when his stone age ax was found that authorities began to suspect he was more than a few decades old.
Apparently, it is not uncommon to find corpses in this region of the Alps, 6 bodies were discovered that year alone, so when the report came in there was no cause for "special" measures to be taken. The authorities began hacking away at the ice, but in doing so severely damaged Otzi's left side. It wasn't until day 2 of the recovery when his stone age ax was found that authorities began to suspect he was more than a few decades old.
The Details
Address: Via Museo, 43, 39100 Bolzano South Tyrol, Italy
Hours: T-Sun 10am-6pm
Cost: 9e adults, 7e students, under 6 free
Time: 1 hour
Time: 1 hour
We never would have traveled out of our way to see Otzi, but since we were in the neighborhood, so to speak, we decided to stop and we were not disappointed! Long story short, Otzi, his clothing and tools were perfectly preserved in the ice and because he was "wet preserved" his skin was even pliable. Of course, there was an international bru-ha-ha over his discovery and scientists from all over Europe vied for a chance to study him. He now has a museum dedicated in his honor in Bolzano, Italy.
The whole exhibit is really impressive--to see the bow he was making, the arrows with arrow heads attached, his bag of tools, his clothing and shoes--all of it was really cool! He was even tattooed! I remember when the story broke back in 1991; Bob and I were studying Anthropology at BYU, so to see this discovery almost 20 years later was memorable! I would absolutely recommend a visit to this museum, it's worth the effort.
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