(ORDO NEWS) — Archaeologists from the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Innlandet County Council in Norway have disproved the theory about the reasons for the preservation of the remains of the Iceman Ötzi.
In 1991, a couple of tourists stumbled upon the perfectly preserved remains of a man frozen in ice in the Ötztal Alps.
Researchers from the Leopold and Franz University of Innsbruck found that the man lived about 5.3 thousand years ago and was killed during the struggle.
They put forward a theory why the corpse did not decompose over such a long period of time.
According to their version, the man died in the fall, his body first turned into a mummy due to freezing, and then was locked under a glacier, which saved him from decomposition.
Warming forced the glacier to leave, which contributed to the discovery of the body.
However, scientists now question the accuracy of this theory. First, the analysis of the remains of food in the stomach of Ötzi indicated that the man died in the spring.
Secondly, the study of the landscape showed that the remains were not covered by an eternal glacier, the body froze and melted every year for 1500 years after death.
According to archaeologists, if it had been covered with an eternal glacier, the body would have been much better preserved (the skin on the neck of an ancient man had peeled off, and the fur cape had rotted).
Moreover, the researchers found that the body was even several times in the water.
Scientists are sure that the ancient man did not die in the ravine where he was found, but on the top of the mountain, from where he was blown down.
According to experts, no special conditions are required to preserve finds of this type, this kind of mummification may be more common than previously thought.
Scientists expect climate change could reveal more of these mummified animal and human remains.
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