Scientists expand Ötzi research into environment and disease

Research on the roughly 5,300-year-old Iceman Ötzi is continuing 35 years after his discovery, with scientists increasingly studying the environment, biodiversity and diseases of his time, ORF reported.

Frank Maixner, head of the Institute for Mummy Research at Eurac in Bolzano, said Ötzi’s genetics also remained incompletely understood. Researchers can already largely determine what he ate on the day he died from analysis of his stomach contents, but further work could reconstruct the genomes of individual foods and examine the history of grain in the region.

Maixner said increasingly precise micro-sampling methods could reveal regional and ecological differences in the Alpine environment of the period. Analysis of Ötzi’s final meal has also shown that he ate ibex meat before his death. This could provide clues about biodiversity at the time. According to Maixner, the ibex populations now found in the Alps probably do not descend from those animals.

Researchers are also focusing more closely on historical diseases. A detailed analysis of Ötzi’s antibody profile could show the immune responses he developed during his lifetime and indicate which diseases he was exposed to over the years.

Maixner said every new sample had to be carefully justified because Ötzi must be preserved for future generations. Samples would therefore be taken using minimally invasive methods.

New sampling was not always necessary, he added. Existing Ötzi data could be reanalysed using new reference data. The Iceman is expected to remain a subject of scientific research for several more decades.