Ötzi – the iceman

A discovery by accident during a mountain tour in the Ötztal Alps became an archaeological sensation: Ötzi was murdered during the Copper Age, lied more than 5,300 years in ice and was conserved as a glacier mummy. Today, the iceman can be visited in the South Tyrolean Museum of Archaeology in Bozen.

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Ötzi was found by the German married couple Simon in 1991 at Tisenjoch pass, a lower part of Schnals ridge between Mt. Finailspitze and Mt. Similaun. Due to the boiling temperatures during this summer, the ice of this area was largely melted: a part of the mummy was visible. Today, a large stone pyramid nearby indicates the finding place.

The mummy of Tisenjoch

Ötzi had lived during the Copper Age, an era that is assigned to the late Stone Age. At his violent death caused by an arrow shot he was 45 years old, 1.60 m tall and had a weight of 50 kg. 61 tattoos decorate his body. Be it for his clothes and his equipment, Ötzi was perfectly prepared to life in an Alpine environment. He had a bearskin cap, a copper axe, shoes made of bast chords, grass and deerskin.

Ötzi Museum & archeoParc

The glacier mummy I today conserved in a specifically developed cooling chamber in the South Tyrolean Museum of Archaeology in Bozen and is visible to the visitors through a small window. The equipment items and clothes have been carefully restored and allow visitors to learn more about the admirable skills of the humans during the Copper Age.

In the archeoParc Schnals, you can as well learn more about life during the Stone Age. Especially, families will love doing archery or bread baking. As well, it is very interesting to see how the people had lit their fires just with stones and tinder fungus.

The glacier mummy, its clothes and equipment are still the subjects of various research projects, as scientists are expecting many important findings about the Copper Age. As Ötzi fascinates many people, there is also an adventure movie telling the fictive story of Ötzi, the iceman.