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Otzi the Ice Man
Otzi, unlike other
accidental mummies, was not sacrificed. He died during his
daily routine; he was taking
a nap. Although no one is sure why he was so high up in the mountains
without food, he has a lot to talk about after his 5200 year long
nap. The copper ax he carried made historians to rethink the dates
they had estimated for the beginning of the copper age. His ax
told them they were off by 1000 years! His tattoos (the oldest
known) told about early acupuncture. His small bark box is the
earliest fire kit known to exist and his bag of remedy’s contained
a wealth of information including mushrooms (full of antibiotics),
fungus (for fuel), and moss (for toilet paper). His stomach told
about his diet and his tapeworms. He had no cavities, his grass
cape was still in good condition and his leather outfit was still
in tack. In fact, his remaining boot was still stuffed with grass
(beats looking for clean socks). His body has much left to tell
us about his life.
He now resides in the
south Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano Italy.
Pictures courtesy
of San Francisco Museum of Man
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As found
After Reconstruction
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Icemania Hits Bolzano!
Icemania is everywhere!
Store fronts display his picture and shops and museums sell such
things as: Iceman books, postcards, Iceman T-shirts and baseball
caps, badges, pins, cigarette lighters, and key rings. Why there
is everything from "Otzi ice cream," to "Otzi cake"
and "Otzi wine."
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Otzi's Last Lunch
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Examination has shown that his final
meal consisted of grain, meat and burned bones. Although he had
no cavities, his teeth were shot! It’s not hard to figure out
why.
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FRANKLIN
MUMMIES
Many ice mummies didn't
set out to be mummified so perfectly.
Take the Franklin Expedition for example:
132 of Britain's top sailors were excited to be a part of the expedition
to find the Northwest Passage, a shortcut between Europe and the Orient.
The Franklin crew sailed from Greenland in 1845.
 A
determined Sir John Franklin , his crew and two ships mysteriously disappeared
and only recently have researchers solved the mystery.
“Buried in Ice” by Owen Beattie and John
Geiger, describes in detail the search for answers of what happened
to the lost expedition. They discovered that after the ships were frozen
in ice for two years, the survivors decided to leave their ships and
walk out. Weakened by scurvy and the two long, harsh Arctic winters
they had endured, they laid frozen where they fell and died. A trail
of belongings and bodies told how and why they perished.
Earlier when the men died, they were buried.
The perfectly preserved bodies of these men, the tales of Inuits natives,
and the belongings of the men found along their death march path, helped
unwrap the mystery of their disappearance.
On August 17, 1984, Beattie, Carlson, and
their research crew started their first autopsy on John Torrington,
one of the first sailors to die. After they defrosted him they started
the examination process. Hair on the back of his neck revealed that
he had ingested large quantities of lead during the exhibition. Later,
they found out that the 8,000 tin cans they took with them were improperly
soldered, which meant that the lead could leak into the food. Lead poisoning
leads to mental weakness and death. These cans quite probably contributed
to some of the crews costly errors
in judgment.
Three sailors who died early in the expedition
“came alive” to tell their story before they were returned to their
graves. Frozen bodies are still occasionally being found but Franklin's
body has still to be located.
Siberian
Mummies - Straight from the Freezer.
The Egyptians took their
cats, birds and beetles to the grave with them.
These
guys took their horses.
A man and his horse
A Siberian man and his horse
who were discovered after the Ice Princess (below), have stirred up
some anger. After Russian archaeologists found him, they took him to
their lab in Moscow for preservation and research. This angered the
Altai Republic officials. They accused the Russians of “spiriting away
a piece of their national heritage.” Officials have banned any further
Russian digging. Since his horse is buried with him, he has been nicknamed
the Horseman. This is the description given in “Archaeology Online”:
“The Horseman, 25
to 30 years old, had been impaled by an enemy’s weapon or animal’s
horn. His face and hands have not survived well, but the rest
of his skin and muscles and his braided hair are in good condition,
as is a tattoo of a deer on his right shoulder. He was wearing
a thick wool cap, high leather boots, and a marmot and sheepskin
coat. The horseman was buried with his bow, arrows, ax and knife.
The horse wore a harness richly decorated with griffins and animals
carved in wood and covered in gold foil.”
The Ice Princess
Russian archaeologists found an ancient
Pazyryk tomb. Time stood still inside because water had seeped in and
froze everything perfectly into one big tomb-cicle.
In 1993 the Ice Princess, also known as
"Ledi" for lady, was found near the border of Mongolia in
Russia. She is said to be around 2,500 years old! She was buried in
a 20 foot underground loghouse. The
Pazyrak's believed that when you die you have an afterlife so they buried
food water and anything else you would need with you. Apparently
wealthy,
her headdress was so high, her coffin was 8 feet long. Also found with
Ledi, were 6 horses and a 40 year man.
The six horses buried with her are
believed to be warriors with some
relationship to each other and the horses were meant to carry them into
battle in their next life.
Herodotus
This fellow sure traveled a
lot. His records have survived to tell us about the Egyptian mummification
process as well as others. His writings survive about the Scythians
and describe in detail how they prepared a king for burial. After they
removed his insides and covered him in wax, they paraded him through
his kingdom where men were commanded to perform rituals after he passed
them__including cutting their hair, cutting off a piece of their ear,
poking a hole in their forehead and piercing their left hand with an
arrow.
And as if this wasn't bad enough,
after he had visited all his subjects, his servants were strangled and
buried with him. But the most important part came a year later when
50 of his best horses and 50 of his best attendants were also strangled
and placed in his grave. Talk about dedicated followers!
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