The mummy pulled from a melting glacier in the Alps in 1991 called Iceman (or Otzi, or Similaun Man, or Hauslabjoch Man, or even Frozen Fritz) has been intensively studied since then--and no wonder. How many times does a 5,300 year old man walk into your office, plump down in the chair and explain his life to you?
Reconstruction of the Iceman's Clothing and Equipment at the Museum Bélesta, Ariège, France
Photo Credit: Gerbil
A recent paper in the journal Vegetation History and Archaeobotany describes the implication of four mosses found inside Otzi's intestines. Together, the mosses illuminate the man's wanderings, and bring us yet more insight into his last days.
Archaeologists now know that Otzi was a late Neolithic/Chalcolithic herder who was born and lived his life near where he died. He was about 45, stood about 5'2" tall and weighed about 135 lbs. He was stocky and had strong legs--probably from a life led tramping regularly up and down from the mountains and valleys of the Tyrolean Alps, if not every day. For more on what we understand about the Iceman, see the Iceman glossary entry.
Four important mosses found in Otzi's intestines illustrate his last few days of life. Mosses are not food. They're not tasty, they're not nutritious. So what were they doing there?
Neckera complanata and Anomodon viticulosus
These two species of moss are found on lime-rich, shady rocks in woodlands, growing close to and south of where Otzi was found, but not north. The presence of them inside Otzi probably came from their use as food-wrapping and suggests that Otzi wrapped his last meal south of where he died.
Hymenostylium recurvirostrum
This species of moss is known to hang about on marble. The only outcrop of marble in the vicinity of Otzi's body is on the Pfelderer Tal, suggesting that at least on of his last journeys, Otzi climbed into the Alps westwards up the Pfelderer Tal.
Sphagnum imbricatum Hornsch
Sphagnum moss doesn't grow in the South Tyrol where Otzi died. It's a bogmoss, and the only likely location within walking distance of where he died, is the broad, low-lying valley of Vinschgau, where Otzi resided for his adult life. Sphagnum moss has a specific ethnographic use as dressings for wounds, because it is soft and absorbent. Otzi's hand was deeply cut three-eight days before he died, and researchers think it's possible that this moss was used to staunch his wound, and was transferred to his food from the dressings on his hand.
So, from 17 years of research, we know where and when Otzi was born, where he lived, what he likely did for a living, what he spent his last days doing, and what killed him. What we don't know, and probably never will, is why after spending his life peacefully herding sheep and goats in the Tyrolean Alps, he was chased, beaten, shot with arrows and left to die on a mountain top.
- Iceman: The Glossary Entry, with a fairly extensive bibliography
- Dickson, James H., et al. 2009 Six mosses from the Tyrolean Iceman’s alimentary tract and their significance for his ethnobotany and the events of his last days. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 18(1):13-22.
Added 16 January 09: I am hopeless about geography, especially when I've never been to a place, and archaeologist Reinhard Maag was kind enough to send along information about the implications of the moss findings, implications I missed. His email was funny and informal, and I didn't want to change a word, so I asked his permission to print it here:
From Reinhard Maag:
South slope of the Alps: anything from the Alpine crest toward Italy. That can mean aside from Italy in the centre/west the Swiss Alps with Italian speaking Ticino Canton and the southern, Italian speaking valleys of Grisons/Graubuenden Canton (where I currently reside). In the east it means Caryntia (Austria) and Slowenia.
The Alpine crest is a weather barrier like the Rocky Mtns, Chinook type winds included.
Yes, down stream from Meran/Merano Vinschgau widens to a plain similar to the valley it joins with major place Bozen/Bolzano (rail and the Brenner freeway Munich-Venice).
Showing up on the Hauslab Joch means quite a trek from places south of Meran and a many days hike from the Eisack/Rienz confluence (north of Brixen/Bressanone). A direct route west from there would imply crossing several passes. - But these chaps seemed to have thought little of clambering up and then giving up all the altitude again only to climb the next pass.
This is so all over the Alps! Many an old route (cattle treks to southern markets) leads over several passes in order to be a short route, while today round abouts by following river courses are the norm. For cars... And difficult passages like the Viamala and Roffla gorge on the San Bernardino freeway do not matter.
Vinschgau today is Italy's apple orchard. From Meran up to Glurns near the Swiss border, orchard after orchard. It used to be Retoromansch speaking, all the place names to my ear have a Romansh ring. Politics lead to the death of the language and thus there is this gap between Mustair in Switzerland (famous monastery with Carolingian frescoes) and the eastern hinterland of Bolzano where Romansh still is spoken (Val Gardena/Groedental). However, they barely understand each other's dialects.
In WW 1 there was bitter fighting here between Austro-Hungary and Italy. The Swiss were spared then too. In the subsequent peace South Tyrol being on the sourthern Alpine slope was taken from Austria and handed to Italy. Years of resistance followed because some parts are exclusively German speaking. Meanwhile Alto Addige / Suedtirol is an autonomous region with three languages... Yeahh, thems those Europeans.
Comments
Maybe he was messing with the chiefs daughter or wife.
Is it possible he was made taboo,cast out, and chased down and killed after losing his genetals in an accident or conflict? That could explain why nothing was taken, as well. Many old ones had such a taboo, look in the Bible.
Lepercan
Well, there’s a confusion wrt geography in this report. Vinschgau / Val Venosta or in Retoromansh (died out here c. 1750 AD) Val Vnuost THAT IS South Tyrol. However, Vinschgau is not aptly described as broad and low lying, that’s farther down, below Meran and onward around Bozen and down the Etsch / Addige river.
Hauslabjoch is above 3000 m, Schnalstal / Val Senales lies way belo said Joch i.e. saddle and gives to the yet much lower Vinschgau. – And all of it Suedtirol or South Tyrol.
Living next door, as it were… greetings Sursilvan
The wound to his hand was three days’ old when the other wounds were inflicted. It occurred where there was sphagnum moss to bind it. A badly injured hand is serious. Yet instead of returning to a village or home, he takes off over the mountain! Could his rambling, wide-ranging path mean, perhaps, that he was being pursued?
Well, I just to speculate (hah!) but, gosh the evidence is compelling about how beaten up he was.
Kris
While of course the reason for his violent death may never be known, many pastoral cultures have exhibited a relatively high degree of violence and feuding, as Malcolm
Gladwell describes in an insightful chapter in his book, “Outliers.”