AncestorEbooks.com remembers the discovery of the mummy, known as Otzi, in 1991 by two German hikers, Helmut and Erika Simon, who were vacationing in northern Italy. A Chalcolithic or Copper Age mummy, Otzi was well preserved within the glacier of the Tisenjoch Pass. Because of the bad weather when Otzi was found, and their mistaken thought that he was a climber who had died, his removal from the glacier was not very scientific.
In a formal dig, according to the Learn North Carolina, archaeologists study what is known about an era and people before they begin. That preparation would have prevented Otzi’s bow from being used as a pry-bar to remove him from the glacier, pulling & shredding his clothing & the use of a jackhammer, which accidentally drilled a hole in Otzi's hip.
Since 1991‘Scientists have pieced together an incredibly detailed picture of the iceman’...from where he lived to what he ate and how he died,’ according to LiveScience.com.
The animal hair from his clothing, goatskin leggings, a bear fur cap, and shoes made from hay, deerskin and bearskin, suggests that Otzi herded sheep, cows and goats.
Over 50 tattoos, created by making incisions and rubbing in charcoal, covered Otzi’s body and because they are near joints and back, were probably placed during pain-relieving treatments and follow acupuncture lines.
‘Otzi’s body was so well preserved that the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology commissioned two reconstruction artists, Dutch brothers Adrie and Alfos Kennis, to recreate the mummy’s face using both art and forensic science. They created an ‘extremely lifelike’ replica of how he would have looked like at his death.
According to LiveScience, by analyzing Otzi’s stomach contents, equipment, and isatopes researchers have determined he grew up in either the Isack or Puster Valleys of Northern Italy, and lived SW of there the last 10 years of his life. Most likely a shepherd, Otzi died when he was about 45 years old, had bad knees, was lactose intolerant, had type O blood, and had been infected with Lyme Disease.
As interesting as these forensic discoveries are, it is the decoding of Otzi’s DNA that is truly exciting. Albert Zink, Head of the EURAC Institute for Mummies and the Iceman, together with Carsten Pusch, from the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Tübingen and Andreas Keller from the biotech firm febit in Heidelberg have ‘pooled’ their skills to decode the building blocks of Otiz’s genome to create a DNA library which contains the largest data set ever recovered.
Through studying Otzi’s mitochondrial DNA, scientists discovered he shares a common ancestry with at least 8% of modern Europeans, a genetic group thought to be extinct. His Y chromosome has mutations most commonly found among men from Sardinia and Corsica. “That makes sense, says Eske Willerslev, a palaeogenomicist at the University of Copenhagen. “Sardinians are a group that people have considered distinct from other Europeans, and in this regard it would be interesting if they were more widely distributed in the past.”
“At the recent Southern California Genealogical Society’s Jamboree the three day event focused on the theme of DNA in Genealogy” said Cristina Besendorfer, owner of AncestorEbooks.com. “Dr. Spencer Wells, leader of The Genographic Project spoke of analyzing DNA samples from around the world to find out where our ancestors lived on Earth.” [bit.ly/13q6aei]
AncestorEbooks.com is in the business of helping families share their family history through interactive Ebooks and DNA research is becoming a big part of that. Mrs. Besendorfer suggests, “If you would like reasons for using DNA in family history research you should read Roberta Estes’ Blog, at DNA-explained.com. Ms. Estes’ has written 15 reasons for using DNA in family history research that are easy and fun to read.”
