The 61 Tattoos of Ötzi, the 5,300-Year-Old “Iceman”

Scientists have mapped the body art of one of archeology’s biggest super stars in hopes to better understand the role tattoos played in early civilization

n the nearly 24 years since he was discovered, Ötzi has provided a virtual treasure trove of information on the lives and times of Stone Age humans. Mummified by the ebb and flow of glacial ice and discovered in the European Alps, the “Iceman” is the oldest intact human body ever found. He died around 3,500 B.C.

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(ROBERT PARIGGER/epa/Corbis)

The naturally mummified body of Ötzi is seen in a cooling chamber at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano.

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Anthropologist Albert Zink is trying to solve a classic "cold case": the death of Ötzi the Iceman, the famous mummy preserved in the frozen Italian Alps for millennia.

For Zink, the real mystery lies in the ways Ötzi's remains might inform modern-day studies of heart disease.

 

Ötzi 5,300-Year-Old Iceman Mummy Has 61 Tattoos.