Ötzi the Iceman

archaeology · ancient history · natural mummy · Alps

Frozen for millennia. Ötzi lived between 3350 and 3105 BC and was naturally preserved in ice high in the Austrian Alps for over 5,000 years until hikers found him in 1991.

Alpine discovery. He was found on the border between Austria and Italy in the Ötztal Alps, sitting in a glacier where the cold and dry conditions kept his body almost perfectly intact.

Europe's oldest mummy. Ötzi is the oldest known natural human mummy ever discovered in Europe, giving scientists an amazing window into how Chalcolithic (Stone Age) people actually lived and what they wore.

Still wearing clothes. His remains include leather and plant-fiber clothing, a copper axe, arrows, and other tools that show what real Stone Age people carried around with them.

Still teaching us. Scientists have studied Ötzi's body, DNA, and belongings to learn about ancient diseases, diets, and how people traveled through mountains thousands of years ago.