- 04/06/2025
🌍 **Welcome to our deep dive into the enigmatic world of Ötzi, the Iceman!** Discovered in the Ötztal Alps in 1991, Ötzi's remarkably preserved remains have sparked a captivating murder mystery that continues to intrigue researchers and history enthusiasts alike. In this video, we will explore the fascinating details surrounding Ötzi's life, the circumstances of his death, and the groundbreaking forensic techniques that have been employed to unravel the secrets of his past.
🔍 **What You Will Learn:**
- **Ötzi's Life:** Discover what life was like for Ötzi over 5,000 years ago. We’ll delve into his diet, clothing, tools, and the cultural practices of the Copper Age.
- **Circumstances of His Death:** We will examine the evidence surrounding Ötzi's violent end, including the injuries found on his body and the theories that have emerged from these findings.
- **Forensic Techniques:** Learn about the cutting-edge forensic methods used to analyse Ötzi's remains, including DNA analysis, CT scans, and isotopic studies that provide insights into his health and lifestyle.
- **Theories and Debates:** Join us as we discuss various theories regarding Ötzi's demise, from murder to ritual sacrifice, and the ongoing debates among scholars about what his story reveals about prehistoric life.
🧬 **Why Ötzi Matters:** Ötzi's discovery has not only provided a glimpse into the life of our ancient ancestors but has also raised important questions about human evolution, migration, and the social structures of early civilizations. His story is a testament to the resilience of humanity and the mysteries that still lie beneath the ice.
📅 **Don't Miss Out!** Whether you're a history buff, a science enthusiast, or simply curious about the past, this video promises to be an intriguing exploration of one of archaeology's most enigmatic figures. Hit that subscribe button and turn on notifications so you never miss an update on our latest discoveries!
🔍 **What You Will Learn:**
- **Ötzi's Life:** Discover what life was like for Ötzi over 5,000 years ago. We’ll delve into his diet, clothing, tools, and the cultural practices of the Copper Age.
- **Circumstances of His Death:** We will examine the evidence surrounding Ötzi's violent end, including the injuries found on his body and the theories that have emerged from these findings.
- **Forensic Techniques:** Learn about the cutting-edge forensic methods used to analyse Ötzi's remains, including DNA analysis, CT scans, and isotopic studies that provide insights into his health and lifestyle.
- **Theories and Debates:** Join us as we discuss various theories regarding Ötzi's demise, from murder to ritual sacrifice, and the ongoing debates among scholars about what his story reveals about prehistoric life.
🧬 **Why Ötzi Matters:** Ötzi's discovery has not only provided a glimpse into the life of our ancient ancestors but has also raised important questions about human evolution, migration, and the social structures of early civilizations. His story is a testament to the resilience of humanity and the mysteries that still lie beneath the ice.
📅 **Don't Miss Out!** Whether you're a history buff, a science enthusiast, or simply curious about the past, this video promises to be an intriguing exploration of one of archaeology's most enigmatic figures. Hit that subscribe button and turn on notifications so you never miss an update on our latest discoveries!
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TVTranscript
00:00Frozen for more than 5,000 years on a remote mountain pass, and now lying in a refrigerated tomb, the Iceman, a survivor from the Stone Age.
00:16A messenger from the past, bearing secrets of how humans lived nearly 1,000 years before the pyramids.
00:30He is also a mystery waiting to be solved.
00:35Who was he? And how did he die?
00:39Was it in battle?
00:43Or was he murdered?
00:48Now a risky autopsy overturns past theories.
00:54DNA, a copper axe, and a last meal surprise the experts.
01:02As they come closer to understanding our ancient past.
01:08And to solving the Iceman murder mystery.
01:19Some 3,000 years before the birth of Christ, on a remote mountainside high in the Alps, a man made his way through the thin mountain air.
01:31The man's life would end in mystery.
01:42Was he alone or on the run?
01:45What made him undertake his last journey?
01:49A puzzle for scientists.
02:02His body remained on the mountain for over 5,000 years.
02:07Until September 1991, when two hikers climbing in the Italian Alps wandered off the trail and stumbled across a gruesome sight.
02:24The head and shoulders of a man emerging from the ice.
02:28At first, the pathologist responding to the scene assumed this was simply the remains of an unfortunate hiker.
02:41One of many lost in the Alps over the years.
02:45But this body looks different.
02:48It shows almost no signs of decomposition.
02:53Its skin and flesh appear to have been freeze dried.
02:58Hands, feet, even eyeballs are still intact.
03:06The mountain air and ice have transformed this corpse into a mummy.
03:11As the recovery continued, some unusual items emerged.
03:21Bits of leather.
03:23Handmade rope.
03:24And a knife with a flint blade.
03:31This was no ordinary walker.
03:34Initial analysis of his gear suggested he was thousands of years old.
03:45The find caused a worldwide sensation.
03:48The press dubbed him the Iceman, or Örtsi, after the Örtsal Mountains where he was found.
03:55Eventually, carbon dating confirmed that Örtsi died 5,300 years ago.
04:07His are the oldest intact human remains ever recovered.
04:15What can they tell us about our own history?
04:18And the mystery of Örtsi's death?
04:21For some reason, his final journey took him up this ridge, along this valley, all the way up.
04:31He went from about 300 meters to over 3,000 meters.
04:38At first, scientists suspected he was lost in a storm.
04:42But mounting evidence began to suggest something else happened to the Iceman.
04:46Something more violent.
04:49The body was found close to today's border between Italy and Austria.
04:55The scene of death was not initially treated as suspicious.
04:59Now the Iceman's chief conservators visit the remote pass to reappraise the scene.
05:06It helps them appreciate the extraordinary circumstances that combine to preserve the body.
05:11Örtsi was discovered just 100 meters inside the present Italian border.
05:245,000 years ago, he had climbed a considerable distance to be later covered by a glacier.
05:30Here we are on the top of the mountain.
05:35And if you look down in the valley, we see that the distance is very, very long.
05:41There are more than 1,500 meters.
05:43So we can see here very well that here was the glacier, and the glacier tends to move down.
05:57And normally, that body would have been transported with the glacier down and destroyed completely.
06:01Most bodies lost in glaciers are carried along by the river of ice.
06:09They slowly glide down the mountain along with tons of rock and stone grinding together.
06:15Alpine glaciers typically move about 30 meters per year.
06:20After a few hundred years, most of the debris that gets caught up in them emerges at the bottom along the melting edge of ice.
06:29Not Örtsi.
06:33The circumstances of Örtsi's death appear extremely unlucky, but for archaeologists, he couldn't have fallen in a better spot.
06:41The sun and wind dried his body out completely.
06:51Rocks on either side of him formed a small trench.
06:58Three meters of snow and ice eventually filled this in, preventing the iceman's body from being swept into the river of ice that flowed all around it.
07:0715 meters to the left or right, his body would have been ground to bits and lost forever.
07:17The mountain created the iceman, and then it protected him over more than 50 centuries.
07:24In Bolzano, Italy, he's protected again.
07:35Just 30 miles from the spot where he died, in a specially created museum, Örtsi's mummified body is on display.
07:46Carefully frozen, in a custom crypt.
07:57Temperature, minus six and a half degrees centigrade.
08:01Relative humidity, 98%.
08:03Now, doctors in charge of the body are hoping to get a break in the cold case by conducting a rare and risky procedure.
08:20They are letting the iceman's body defrost.
08:23Scientists are flocking to Bolzano to get their hands and instruments on the five millennia-old corpse.
08:32They will be following fresh leads in the iceman's death, and also in his life at a turning point in human civilization.
08:39They will have just nine hours to complete their investigations, before the iceman must be refrozen.
08:51Pathologist, Eduard de Garter-Wiegel, the caretaker of the iceman for more than ten years, is leading an operation teeming with biological hazards.
09:01One risk is that scientists who enter the room bring their bacteria and germs with them.
09:12Another risk is that we have no way of knowing if there are still living organisms in the mummy itself,
09:19and if these would be reactivated in the defrosting.
09:23If the body is harmed by the defrosting, the loss to scientists would be profound.
09:29They are depending on this one corpse to shed light on a crucial time in human history.
09:38Erci is unique. He's from the end of the Stone Age, a time when humans still used stone tools,
09:46before they'd mastered the art of smelting metal.
09:49He provides a glimpse of what life was like in those times, with some surprising twists.
09:54This find, the man in the ice, opened up a whole new window on the ancient world.
10:015,000 years ago in Europe is a time before countries, before kings, even before the introduction of the wheel.
10:17In these Alpine valleys, increasing numbers are living in small settlements, beginning to grow crops like wheat and barley,
10:26and to raise goats, sheep and cattle.
10:30Others are nomadic hunters after wild game.
10:34Did growing competition between farmers and hunters lead to Erci's death?
10:44At least 1,000 years before writing comes to the area,
10:52Erci's extraordinarily well-preserved gear provides rare clues to prehistoric Alpine life.
11:01He was still wearing one of his shoes.
11:04In the Balzano Museum, Alpine archaeologist Patrick Hunt is joined by paleologist Ana Luisa Pedrotti to carefully examine each item,
11:18searching for clues, not only about his way of life, but about his final day.
11:23Why would he have been carrying these things with him at the time of his death?
11:36The shoe is one of the earliest examples of its kind, and surprisingly complex.
11:41You can just see here at least three different kinds of material.
11:48You see grass, you see skin, and you see cord.
11:56It's unlikely a man from a stone age would wear shoes all the time.
12:01But if he knew he was going to cross the rocky slopes and glaciers of the Alps,
12:06shoes like this would be important.
12:12The artefacts not only provide personal details about the man who carried them.
12:17They prove that stone age designs could be surprisingly sophisticated.
12:25His backpack, with its wooden frame, seems almost modern.
12:31A leather pouch was possibly a waist pack.
12:34Chunks of tree fungus, thought to have medicinal powers, served as a first aid kit.
12:44Maple leaves were used to carry hot embers for starting fires.
12:53Otsi's culture knew the use of every possible plant and stone and wood.
13:01They used the optimal material.
13:06But venturing into the mountains beyond his settlement could be dangerous.
13:11Wolves, wild boar and bears were common.
13:15Clashes between settlements and hunters were also possible.
13:19So Otsi carried weapons.
13:23Along with his knife, he had a bow and arrows.
13:28His quiver, the oldest ever found, accompanied carefully crafted wooden arrows,
13:37with flint arrowheads chipped to a razor's edge, glued on with pitch, made from the sap of a birch tree.
13:43The feathers on the shafts are also carefully stuck on to stabilize the arrow in flight.
13:54But for some mysterious reason, the bow and arrows were not ready for use.
13:59If you count the number of arrows here, easily over a dozen, most of the arrows are completely unusable at this time.
14:12Why do we have so many arrows unfinished?
14:15This is a huge mystery.
14:19He was found with equipment that was not fully prepared.
14:21It's as if he were walking in a wilderness with a gun that wasn't loaded.
14:29I would say that Otsi is going to be in trouble.
14:33This is a serious flaw in his plan for survival.
14:38But he wasn't completely unarmed.
14:42He was carrying a weapon far advanced for his time.
14:45The Iceman's Copper Axe surprised archaeologists, forcing them to revise the timeline of history.
14:56Before Otsi, scholars didn't think Alpine cultures learned to smelt and work copper until about 2000 BC.
15:05But carbon dating showed that the Iceman's Axe is far older than that.
15:10This meant his people already knew how to heat copper-rich rock up to 1100 degrees centigrade.
15:18Hot enough to extract the metal from the ore.
15:21And to design and create molds for fashioning tools.
15:27The discovery of the axe meant Otsi steps out of the age of stone tools a thousand years before experts thought possible.
15:36To be that far ahead, so far back, this is simply incredible.
15:46This is one find that changes forever what we think about the past.
15:52The mind that can create that copper axe is practically and for all purposes the same mind that can create a computer.
16:03A circuit board. In other words, Otsi is us.
16:09For years after the Iceman was discovered in 1991, scholars believed he had frozen to death in an Alpine storm.
16:19But how could someone so in tune with his environment get caught out by bad weather?
16:24Experts search for other clues to explain his death.
16:31The body was CT scanned and x-rayed.
16:34But all they saw was some broken bones. Nothing fatal.
16:38Then, ten years after the discovery of the Iceman, Dr. Paul Gossner, a Bolzano radiologist, was studying images from the Iceman when he noticed something strange.
16:53It's this little white spot here, but you could also confuse it with the rib. It's hard to see right away.
17:08As Gossner began to look again at the original x-rays, he saw something that didn't add up.
17:16So he had a CT scan taken.
17:24This time the image left no doubt.
17:27Lodged in the Iceman's back was an arrowhead made of stone.
17:32That was a great surprise. Since up until that time, we didn't know that he was shot.
17:51Did the arrow kill the Iceman?
17:54We know he was shot in the back, from slightly down below, with an arrow that penetrated his scapula, his shoulder blade.
18:09The scans revealed that the arrowhead had, in fact, struck a mortal blow.
18:14The arrowhead penetrated a subclavial artery, so that Otzi bled to death very, very quickly.
18:25But who killed the Iceman? And why?
18:29The desire to solve this ancient mystery drives researchers back to the body again.
18:34In the operating theatre at the Bolzano Museum, nearly two dozen international researchers assemble for the chance to examine the mummy.
18:48One of their first objectives is to see if they can get a closer look at the arrowhead.
18:54Over two decades, scientists have learned a great deal about Otzi.
19:01From his skeleton, they know he was about five foot two.
19:06Muscle development in his legs indicates frequent mountain walking.
19:12The softness of his hands suggests he wasn't a farmer working the earth, but perhaps a hunter or a shepherd.
19:20Study of his bones reveals that he died in his forties, an advanced age for his time.
19:32Identifying marks include over 50 enigmatic tattoos.
19:43Biological anthropologist Albert Zink is head of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman.
19:48Together with Dr. Agata Weigel, Zink is leading the autopsy.
19:51We're all a little bit excited and also nervous because we have a lot to do.
20:05And we also have to be sure that the Iceman doesn't have any damage due to this investigation.
20:10After a night spent outside his freezer, Otzi is thawing nicely.
20:17As the mummy melts, he starts to sag.
20:21To prevent the body from falling apart, scientists place him in a special box.
20:27The box will allow them to move the body without damaging it and without altering the position of the limbs.
20:34You can see the mummy is well deproosed. Tissue is soft. So I think that we can start now with the investigations.
20:50Body parts that were frozen now move.
20:59The post-mortem must stick to a tight schedule.
21:14Each group has only a set time to conduct their particular investigations.
21:23In order to gain access to his left shoulder and the arrowhead, doctors move quickly to flip Otzi face down.
21:31They hope the arrowhead may provide a clue to help solve one of the main mysteries of Otzi's death.
21:45Was he killed in a skirmish with another settlement or in a fight with hunters over territory?
21:51Or was the arrowhead still in his back, shot there by one of his own?
22:01Perhaps a jealous rival from his clan?
22:04One clue supporting this theory is his copper axe.
22:09That axe is so advanced, some believe it marks Otzi out as a man of great importance in his community.
22:15Zink and Agata Wigel wonder whether the arrowhead might be able to provide other answers.
22:25So we really hope to get close to the arrowhead because the arrowhead is still inside the body and we never really saw the arrowhead.
22:33And so we really hope to get close to it and maybe even to see what's going on there.
22:37Guiding an endoscope, they are now within almost a centimeter of the actual arrowhead, but their route is blocked by tissue.
22:48This way in won't work.
22:52With minutes ticking by, Agata Wigel has to make a crucial decision.
22:57So far they have used existing access routes.
23:02If Agata Wigel gives the okay to cut the Iceman in a new spot, they will be able to gain access to the Stone Age arrowhead.
23:21But this creates a dilemma.
23:24While he wants to learn all he can about the mummy, he must keep it from harm.
23:28The Iceman's body is a kind of protected landscape, an archaeological site older than Stonehenge.
23:39So the Iceman is not just an extremely cold case.
23:45He's considered a cultural treasure.
23:48They cannot perform a standard destructive autopsy.
23:51Urtzi is a human time capsule, still intact after over 5,000 years.
23:58Can they avoid altering him forever?
24:10Urtzi is the world's oldest intact human being.
24:13Now the investigators have to decide whether to risk damaging him permanently.
24:22Though investigators have known for a decade that the Iceman was killed, no one has ever seen the actual murder weapon.
24:29It's the last piece of unexamined evidence remaining.
24:42The team going after the arrowhead is now tantalizingly close.
24:47But there is no way to penetrate the tissue without cutting it.
24:51The chief conservator decides to play it safe and move on without making a new incision.
25:10Though the arrowhead is critical, it's not the only evidence in the case.
25:13The theory that Urtzi was killed in a skirmish with a rival settlement, or band of hunters, seems to be supported by microscopic signs that he was on the run in the days leading up to his violent death.
25:30He's carrying tiny clues in his intestine.
25:36At different elevations, different trees release their pollen.
25:39In this region, a tree called hornbeam grows thickly lower down.
25:45Higher up the mountain, conifer forests cover the slopes.
25:50In Urtzi's intestine, scientists find a layer of hornbeam pollen.
25:56On top of that, a layer of conifer.
25:59It's a clear indication he's moving up the mountain.
26:03Oddly enough, we believe he came back down again because there's another layer of hornbeam pollen.
26:09On top of the conifer pollen, which means he went up, for some reason came back down, and then went back up again to his death.
26:19What possesses a man to make such a journey unless, for life-threatening reasons, he has to move?
26:27And there is more forensic evidence that the Iceman was being pursued in the days leading up to his death.
26:37On his right hand, a deep cut slices across the palm, possibly the result of hand-to-hand combat involving a knife.
26:46But this warlike scenario has one snag, and it has to do with what must have been the Iceman's most prized possession.
27:02His axe.
27:08Stone carvings found in the valley below where he died feature the same kind of axe prominently, suggesting that the weapon had great symbolic power.
27:17Why would the killers leave such a valuable object behind?
27:27It makes sense if Otzi is just a victim of a long-distance kill shot, where someone would shoot him, leave the arrow, leave the axe and run away.
27:38In the search for more clues about Otzi's killer, a new group has its turn with the body.
27:51This team are after blood, specifically in Otzi's brain.
27:59On scans of Otzi's skull, they can see clear signs of fracture.
28:04And in pictures of the shrunken but still intact brain, some areas appear darker than others, which could either be blood or rot.
28:15If it's blood, it's proof he suffered a blunt force trauma to the head just before dying.
28:24If you really could find an evidence for a bleeding, this would prove that this was an injury that happened during the process when he was dying.
28:31The bleeding just happens if you're still alive or maybe if you're in the process of dying.
28:39So was Otzi's skull fractured after he was struck by the arrow?
28:44Pincers threaded through holes drilled in Otzi's cranium years ago snipped samples of his brain.
28:51When analyzed, these dark clumps of brain matter test positive for blood.
29:03They confirm that Otzi suffered a blow to the head before he died.
29:07Either he was finished off by his killer at close quarters, or Otzi hit his head on a rock after being struck by the arrow.
29:20The investigation has lasted hours, and the body cannot remain defrosted much longer.
29:38The scientists switch the focus from aspects of Otzi's death to search for more clues about Otzi's life.
29:51The copper axe suggests he was a figure of some importance.
29:55But was he a farmer, a hunter, a shepherd? Was he on the run?
30:09The one vital organ that may offer answers to all these questions has been missing for 20 years.
30:15Now it has been found by the same radiologist who discovered the arrowhead.
30:24Over the years, Dr. Paul Gossner has seen thousands of images of the mummy's insides.
30:33One day, while scanning the familiar images, an unexpected shape seemed to emerge.
30:39Here, we have the oesophagus, lungs, and if you go further down, then you see an image that corresponds to that of an organ, a big, hollow organ.
31:03The big, hollow organ was something no one had noticed before.
31:11The Iceman's stomach.
31:16It seems impossible for everyone to have missed anything as basic as Otzi's stomach.
31:23But it was not where it should have been. The stomach had moved.
31:27When the Iceman was found, his body was draped, face down, over a rock.
31:37For 50 centuries, tons of ice bore down on him.
31:42Squashed between the ice above and the rock below, his body flattened.
31:46While the organs inside his body were preserved intact, some of them were squeezed out of place.
32:00The stomach usually sits in the upper abdomen.
32:06When a person stands, then the stomach moves down a bit.
32:10When a person lies on his stomach, then the stomach pushes up.
32:14When a person lies on his stomach and has a ton of ice on top of him, then the stomach is pushed up even further.
32:20You don't see the stomach with an endoscope because it's too far up.
32:30The team assembled to explore the stomach.
32:35First tries to reach it as usual, passing an endoscope in between Otzi's teeth through his mouth and down his throat.
32:41But the Iceman's body is too compressed.
32:55We cannot pass.
32:58We cannot pass.
33:02So the team takes a different route, through an existing incision in the abdomen.
33:07Here they find the stomach, almost in his chest, just where Dr. Gosner predicted it would be.
33:19I think this is the stomach here.
33:26The stomach is not only there, it is full of food.
33:31Grain, fat and meat.
33:37So much material from the stomach now.
33:40Initial analysis establishes the grain as a variety of wheat, called einkorn.
33:54Einkorn was one of the first grains cultivated by human beings.
33:58The meat is ibex, a kind of wild goat still roaming the Alps.
34:03This last meal confirms the Iceman lived at a turning point in history.
34:10He and his people were just beginning to farm, but they still depended on meat from wild game.
34:16Ertzi himself may have been a hunter, connected to a small farming community.
34:26However he made his living, he was well fed.
34:29After nine hours, Ertzi is sewn up again.
34:34Holes plugged, and flaps put back in place.
34:47This single day yields 149 biological samples.
34:53Enough material to keep scientists busy for years to come.
34:56The most important of all, could contain DNA.
35:09For a mummy as old as Ertzi, techniques of salvaging DNA have only recently improved enough to gain useful information.
35:16Testing the DNA of the Iceman is difficult on one hand, because he is a wet mummy, and wet mummies have a lot of humidity.
35:30This is very bad for the DNA preservation.
35:33On the other hand, he was frozen for more than 5,000 years.
35:37This turned out to be good, because the coldness preserves the DNA.
35:41If fragments of DNA can be reconstructed, scientists can learn a great deal more about Ertzi, his eye colour, medical history, and genetic mutations.
35:55But first, comes the struggle to obtain the DNA.
35:59To isolate the Iceman's DNA will require the joint efforts of several specialists.
36:12For Angela Grayfin, a researcher at Albert Zink's lab, helping to piece together Ertzi's genetic profile is the chance of a lifetime.
36:21I've always been very interested in mummies.
36:23When I got the chance to work on the Iceman, yeah, well, of course, I'd say everybody's dream to work on such a well-known sample as that.
36:31Days later, Angela's lab achieves the first stage, a mixture of clear water and golden-hued pure DNA.
36:39Ertzi's sample travels to a lab in the United States.
36:47They face a special challenge.
36:52Ancient DNA is very different from modern DNA for several reasons.
36:56One of the bigger issues with ancient DNA is contamination.
37:00Contamination occurs when the donor's DNA is mixed up with DNA from an outside source,
37:07whether from a microbe or another human being.
37:12Over the years, countless people have touched the mummy, leaving behind traces of their own DNA.
37:20So, Agata Vigol and Zink took samples from deep within Ertzi's bones.
37:26They counted on the outer bone providing a natural seal to protect the inner bone from contamination.
37:31Because the procedure was so meticulous, the DNA extracted is remarkably pure.
37:4097% is Ertzi's.
37:43But there is a mysterious 3% that doesn't belong to him.
37:49We found an interesting surprise when we looked at this contamination.
37:56A significant portion of the contamination was actually attributable to a microbe that causes Lyme disease.
38:04Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria spread to humans by ticks.
38:09Untreated, its symptoms can include muscle weakness, serious swelling of the joints and arthritis.
38:19While Lyme disease is common today, the microbial DNA contained within Ertzi's genes is proof that the disease is at least as old as the Stone Age.
38:30It's the oldest trace of Lyme disease ever identified.
38:37Ertzi's ancient DNA is a first.
38:41His DNA has an actual body connected to it.
38:48And there are more revelations to come.
38:50On the chromosomes of the genes that determine eye color, there's a marker showing that Ertzi had brown eyes.
39:06On another series of pairs, they found that Lyme disease is not the only ailment Ertzi shares with 21st century humans.
39:13Another surprising thing that we find in sequencing Ertzi's whole genome is that he had a marker for heart disease.
39:25And of course, one would ask, isn't that a modern disease? Why should he have those?
39:29And we know a bit about his lifestyle. He wasn't overweight. He wasn't lazy. He didn't sit on his sofa all day.
39:36So where could he have got those from?
39:38In the quest to trace the origins of disease, the Iceman's genome delivers a message from 5,000 years in the past.
39:50We still think that many of the diseases are very modern diseases, are civilization diseases that just occur maybe 100, 200 years ago.
39:59Now we see that these genetic modifications were already present much, much longer before.
40:04Despite a lifetime of exercise and an organic diet, Ertzi's arteries look like those of a typical 40-year-old male today.
40:18Perhaps that's not so surprising. Genetically, we're almost unchanged from Ertzi.
40:23We are in a big mistake because we believe that 5,000 years are a lot of time in the human being development.
40:42A few genes do adapt quickly to environmental and cultural factors.
40:47His genes indicate he was lactose intolerant. He couldn't digest milk as an adult.
41:02Many people think lactose intolerance is an illness, but you have to bear in mind it's not actually.
41:07It's the original state of humans. In the Stone Age all humans were lactose intolerant.
41:11Today, about 40% of adults worldwide are able to digest milk.
41:18And in the Alps, 85% can now digest dairy products.
41:24DNA analysis suggests Ertzi lived in a time of significant change,
41:30when settlements and farming were outweighing nomadic hunters.
41:40The post-mortem examination adds to what is known about the Iceman,
41:44and it will offer an answer as to whether he was on the run.
41:47Some puzzles remain.
42:01We still don't know exactly who the mystery man was,
42:05or what role he played in his culture.
42:08And until now, some experts have suggested he was being hotly pursued by enemies.
42:13But his violent end left two important clues, his axe, and the absence of the arrow that killed him.
42:27The shaft of the fatal arrow was never found, suggesting the attacker got close enough to pull it from the Iceman's back.
42:43Anyone getting that close to the body would have been within reach of Ertzi's copper axe.
42:51Why was the axe left by his body? A huge mystery.
42:57Surely people knew its value.
43:03Perhaps the killer left the axe, and took the arrow to avoid being discovered.
43:08If you took his axe, you'd be identified. If you left your arrow shaft, you could be identified.
43:14So to leave the axe and take the arrow says that someone is exercising great caution.
43:21They're thinking this through. Possibly they don't want to be identified as Ossi's killer.
43:28New key evidence emerges from the autopsy. It comes from Ertzi's stomach.
43:40Analysis of the extracted material reveals it's a balanced meal of meat and grain.
43:45But the most important pointer is the amount of food itself.
43:53During the autopsy, they removed nearly 200 grams of food, barely digested.
43:59They left more behind.
44:00Food remains in the human stomach for about an hour, proving Ertzi ate a large meal shortly before dying.
44:10This does not seem to be the behavior of a man running for his life, being pursued up and down the Alps by enemies.
44:16So I think now this completely changes the picture.
44:26So he really felt sure he wasn't fleeing for somebody, because otherwise I cannot imagine that somebody is sitting down having a big meal.
44:33This tells us something new about how Ertzi died.
44:41Weigh the evidence.
44:44The missing arrow.
44:50The bleeding from his brain.
44:54A valuable copper axe left behind.
44:57A full stomach.
44:58Zink and Akata Weigel think this final clue tips the balance.
45:06They are now convinced that the Iceman was killed by somebody he knew.
45:11Even a member of his own community.
45:14And he never saw it coming.
45:28With the procedures complete.
45:33The samples taken.
45:35The visiting scientists gone.
45:37Agata Weigel prepares the body to be refrozen.
45:45During this period I am alone with the mummy.
45:48And science is no longer the focus.
45:50But you think about how this was actually a person who lived 5000 years ago.
46:00What is his face telling me?
46:02What is the position of his body telling me?
46:06And well, I feel a real connection with him.
46:09Among the estimated 100 billion humans who have been born and passed from the earth.
46:21Ertzi has survived the ravages of time.
46:26Now Ertzi prepares to become the Iceman again.
46:30Until he is called on to give evidence once more.
46:34After next meeting.
46:51And tomorrow night two penguins together for 15 years.
46:55Please let there be a happy ending.
46:57The secret life of the zoo is at 8.
46:58Up next.
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