Science

Ötzi the Iceman doesn't look like museum displays, says new genomic study

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An earlier reconstruction of Ötzi the Iceman in a museum in Italy, which may now need updating after a new study conducted a more comprehensive genomic study
An earlier reconstruction of Ötzi the Iceman in a museum in Italy, which may now need updating after a new study conducted a more comprehensive genomic study
The remains of Ötzi the Iceman, which have been extensively studied
Südtiroler Archäologiemuseum/EURAC/Marco Samadelli-Gregor Staschitz/ CC BY-SA 4.0

Ötzi the Iceman is one of the most well-studied individuals in human history, but there always seems to be more to learn about him. A new genomic study has now found that he didn’t look the way previous studies had imagined him – instead he was bald, his skin was darker, and he had an ancestry that was far more exotic and isolated than previously thought.

In September 1991, two hikers discovered a human body in the Alps near the Austria and Italy border. At first they assumed they’d stumbled on an unlucky modern mountaineer, but on closer, scientific investigation, it was determined that the chap had died about 5,300 years ago. In the three decades since his discovery, Ötzi has been studied extensively, with scientists able to figure out what he ate, how he dressed, how he lived and how he died.

His full genome was published in 2012, allowing scientists to reconstruct an image of what he might have looked like. From that data, Ötzi was imagined as a fairly light-skinned man with a bushy beard, a thick head of unkempt hair, deep-set eyes and wrinkled skin beyond his 45 years of life. But a new study, using more comprehensive genomic analysis techniques, upends much of that picture.

The remains of Ötzi the Iceman, which have been extensively studied
Südtiroler Archäologiemuseum/EURAC/Marco Samadelli-Gregor Staschitz/ CC BY-SA 4.0

The updated description indicates Ötzi had darker skin than modern Europeans, and had gene variations that suggested male pattern baldness. This would explain why no head hair was discovered along with the body – previous studies had presumed that the hair had just been lost to time. His genetics also predisposed him to type 2 diabetes and obesity, although it was unlikely those would have been a problem for him living in a time before fast food and desk jobs.

“The genome analysis revealed phenotypic traits such as high skin pigmentation, dark eye color, and male pattern baldness that are in stark contrast to the previous reconstructions that show a light-skinned, light-eyed, and quite hairy male,” said Johannes Krause, lead author of the study. “The mummy itself, however, is dark and has no hair.”

But the most surprising finding was Ötzi’s ancestry. The team found that about 90% of the Iceman’s ancestry came from early Neolithic farmers from Anatolia, a region in west Asia that contains much of modern-day Turkey. Western hunter-gatherers comprise the remaining portion, but there was no trace of genes from eastern Steppe Herders, which were reported in the 2012 genomic study.

“We were very surprised to find no traces of Eastern European Steppe Herders in the most recent analysis of the Iceman genome; the proportion of hunter-gatherer genes in Ötzi’s genome is also very low,” said Krause. “Genetically, his ancestors seem to have arrived directly from Anatolia without mixing with hunter gatherer groups.”

The team attributes this earlier mix-up to contamination by modern DNA, as well as advances in sequencing technology and a more detailed library of ancient genomes to compare Ötzi to. No doubt this famous mummy will continue to be studied for further insights into the early peoples of Europe.

The research was published in the journal Cell Genomics.

Source: Max Planck Institute

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2 comments
Jose Gros-Aymerich
Quite funny: we have the mummy of Otzi, a name connected to a baske term meaning 'cold place', we can look at he, but someone claims the population genetics are in contradiction to what was said.???
His Y chromosome was reported as haplogroup G, another member of this group was the Henry 4, 'Vert galant', arriving to french throne after seizing París and hearing a Holy Mass. But haplogroup G2a in Henry head is not a Bourbon Y chromosome, although it has been present in Béarn for 60'000 years. Why: probably, Henri came from an Albret queen, but not from a mâle Bourbon, Fernando 7 in Spain was not a mâle Bourbon. 'Interferences' occur everywhere. Gesund +
Gregg Eshelman
That could shed more light on why he was killed by being shot in a shoulder from behind with an arrow. That severed the brachial artery (main blood supply to the arm) and he bled to death quickly.

So why was he killed? A stranger from over the mountains. Maybe he was initially welcomed as a guest but then something he did got the locals really mad at him so they chased him off. As he was going back home over the mountains... *foooosh* Arrrrgh!

Perhaps some young woman took to flirting with him and the local fellas got a bit more jealous than she intended. Or he made a move on one of the gals, or the men thought he did, or maybe he farted inappropriately after lunch.

In any case, something happened between him and someone else to get the someone else to shoot him (in cowardly fashion from behind) and leave him for dead. It wasn't for theft because Otzi was found with all his stuff. "I saw him go over the mountain and told him to never return." Nevermind the message was a very pointed one.