The mummy of the Similaun (in German Mumie vom Similaun), also man of the Similaun, man of the Hauslabjoch and familiarly Ötzi, is an anthropological find found on September 19, 1991 in Trentino-Alto Adige, near theAustria, at the foot of the Similaun glacier at 3213 m a.s.l.
This is the body of a male human being dating back to the copper age (about 3300 - 3100 years BC) preserved thanks to the special climatic conditions inside the glacier.
A genetic mapping by an international group of Eurac Research credits the mummy with common kinship with the present Corsican and Sardinian peoples. The mapping revealed blood group 0, predisposition to cardiovascular disease, lactose intolerance, presence of Lyme disease. On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the discovery, at the end of February 2011, a careful reconstruction of the Man of Similaun is presented to the public. It was also found that the mummy was a carrier of a native form of Helicobacter pylori, now present in India.
The mummy was found by the German couple, Erica and Helmut Simon from Nuremberg, during an excursion to the Hauslabjoch on the Italian-Austrian border between 19 and 22 September 1991. The attribution of the name Man of the Similaun or also Man of the Hauslabjoch, comes from the place name recorded closest to the place of discovery, the Similaun. It was thought of a mountaineer who had disappeared recently, and the Austrian gendarmerie was activated. During the recovery, which was started without any special conservation measures, parts of the body (external tissues, left femur in a serious way and genitals) and its equipment were damaged.
The Similaun mummy is kept in Bolzano, at the South Tyrol Archaeological Museum, in a structure that maintains the conditions of conservation while allowing observation. The body is in a room with about 99.6% humidity and 6°C. Every two months a specialist doctor sprays on the mummy distilled water, which by freezing forms a protective patina and returns the missing 0.4~0.5% of moisture. The mummy is visible only from a window of about 30 40 cm.
In 2008 radiocarbon dating gives an age between 5300 and 5200 years, placing it in the Copper Age, a moment of transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Ages. It is therefore an ancient Homo sapiens mummified.
As is often the case with exceptional archaeological finds, theories have been formulated about Ötzi, often without scientific basis, about who he was, how he died, what he did there.
The analyses revealed a flint arrow point in the left shoulder (penetrated deeply into the heart) and some wounds and abrasions (including a cut on the palm of the right hand and a head trauma) that lead to the assumption of a violent death and not of natural causes, as had been assumed at first.
Ötzi is the first known tattooed human; he has 61 tattoos, which is why he became famous among tattoo artists. The technique used in chalcolithic is different from the modern one: no needles were used but small incisions were made on the skin, then covered with charcoal.
Similaun man’s tattoos consist of simple points, lines and crosses: they are located in the lower part of the spine, behind the left knee and on the right ankle. As the radiological examinations have identified forms of arthrosis in these points, it is assumed that these images had a curative or religious function to relieve pain. Others have suggested that tattoos are acupuncture points. The pressure points of modern acupuncture (unchanged for millennia in China and Asia), differ little from the tattoos of the Iceman, therefore it has been assumed that the tattoos are his pressure points; In this hypothesis the value of the tattoos would have only a mnemonic meaning for Ötzi, without any "spiritual" or magical value.
