"Ötzi": Bald, brunette from Anatolia

2023-08-18 21:34:00, Blog CNA

Bald, black-eyed and very dark-skinned: genome analysis reveals what the man found in Ötzi, named after the place where the mummy was found in the valley, looked like when he was alive Ötztal. According to this genetic analysis, the human ancestral line, which lived in the Alps around 3250 BC, is directly descended from the first peasants who came to Europe from the Middle East about 8000-9000 years ago.

Analysis of the "Ötzi" mummy

This was announced by a team of researchers from Germany, Italy and Austria in the journal Cell Genomics.

Farmers from the Middle East

Genome segmentation shows that more than 91 percent of Ötz's genome comes from Anatolian immigrants. These early farmers came from the Middle East about 9,000 years ago and brought with them genes previously unknown to Europe. The remaining nine percent of the genome is derived from Europeans, who lived by hunting. So the research team concludes that "Ötzi" came from a relatively isolated population in the Alps that had little contact with other European groups.

"Ötzi" was discovered in 1991 in the Italian Alps at Tisenjoch, in an area where alpine ice had melted

"Genetically he looks as if his ancestors came directly from Anatolia," says study co-author Johannes Krause, director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. According to genetic analysis, "Ötzi" had very dark skin - much darker than that of today's southern Europeans. According to the authors, the dark color of the mummy's skin does not come as a result of tanning from millennia in the ice.

There has been hair loss ever since

Even the fact that almost no hair was found on the mummy's head is apparently not caused by being in the ice. But the dark-eyed and black-haired Ötzi had a strong genetic tendency for hair loss, so he had very little hair left.

In the Archaeological Museum of South Tyrol in Bolzano "Ötz" is shown with long hair

The alpine ice mummy is in the South Tyrol Archaeological Museum in Bolzano, which also contains a reconstruction of "Ötz" as he lived, with fair skin and long hair. "We will not immediately change the reconstruction," museum spokeswoman Katharina Hersel told the German Press Agency.

Museum spokeswoman Katharina Hersel with "Ötzin"

"While genetic predispositions are clearly analyzable, the research team is very cautious about the likelihood of whether, when, and to what extent these genetics will play out during an individual's lifetime."

The discovery was made more than 30 years ago

"Ötzi" was discovered in 1991 in the Italian Alps at Tisenjoch, in an area where the Alpine ice had melted. The discovery of the well-preserved mummy was an archaeological sensation. Since then scientists have tried through the most modern techniques to trace his life and death about 5300 years ago.

According to scientific evidence, the Alpine Iceman was about 1.60 meters tall, an average height for his time. He weighed about 50 kilograms and was about 45 years old when he was killed by an arrow. The last meal he ate before he died may have been dried goat meat./ DW