Since its discovery on December 19, 1991 by German hikers, Ötzi (the artist’s impression) has offered a window into the early history of humanity.
Since its discovery on December 19, 1991 by German hikers, Ötzi has opened a window into the early history of humanity.
His mummified remains were discovered in a melting glacier on the mountainous border between Austria and Italy.
Analysis of the body has told us that he was alive during the Copper Age and died a gruesome death.
Ötzi, who was 46 years old at the time of his death, had brown eyes, relatives in Sardinia, and was lactose intolerant.
Experts discovered a total of 61 tattoos on Ötzi’s body using different wavelengths of light to distinguish them on the mummy’s dark skin.
And in December 2015 they were confirmed to be the world’s oldest hit marks on an unidentified South American Chinchorro mummy.
Experts had thought the South American mummy with a mustache-like tattoo on his face died around 4,000 BC, before realizing he was younger than Ötzi, who was murdered around 3250 BC.
While researchers can’t be sure why Ötzi got the tattoos, many think they served as a form of acupuncture.
“We know they were real tattoos,” said Albert Zink, director of the Mummy and Iceman Institute in Bolzano, Italy. LiveScience.
The old tattoo artist who applied them “made incisions in the skin and then put charcoal mixed with some herbs.”
The tattoos, found primarily on Ötzi’s lower back and legs, between his knee and his food, may have been a way to alleviate the effects of pain or chronic injuries.
Experts discovered a total of 61 tattoos on Ötzi’s body using different wavelengths of light to distinguish them on the mummy’s dark skin and in December 2015 they were confirmed to be the oldest in the world.
It was thought that Ötzi walked a lot in the Alps, which could cause pain in his knee and ankle joints.
Tattoo number 61, found on the ribcage, has baffled researchers who suggest Ötzi could also suffer from chest pain.
If tattoos didn’t have a therapeutic benefit, researchers say they could have had symbolic or religious meaning.
Alternatively, they may simply be geometric shapes without any hidden meaning.
In March 2018, figurative tattoos were discovered on 5,000-year-old Egyptian mummies at the British Museum.
Experts said these were the world’s first figurative tattoos.
The tattoos are of a wild bull and a Barbary sheep on the upper arm of a male mummy, and S-shaped motifs on the upper arm and shoulder of a female.
The finding dates tattoos containing images rather than geometric patterns 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.
The researchers said the discovery “transforms” our understanding of how people lived during this period.