BOLZANO, Italy
- Scientists removed samples of bone, tissue and tooth from the
5,300-year-old mummy on Monday in hopes of of shedding light on
the life and times of the ancient man who once roamed the Alps.
The temperature
in the refrigerated display case housing the Bronze Age hunter
was gradually lowered for 12 hours. Then, at 8 a.m., the Iceman
was wheeled into a sterile laboratory at the South Tyrol Museum
of Archaeology in Bolzano.
For four hours,
scientists garbed in operating scrubs scraped off bone enamel,
chipped away bone and snaked an endoscope into his intestines,
harvesting samples for study at half a dozen research institutions
and universities.
A forensic
expert from the University of Glasgow will try to determine how
the ancient hunter died by looking at bone and blood samples that
could reveal whether he died a natural death or by accident.
In Zurich,
scientists will analyze lead and strontium deposits on his teeth
- "chemical footprints" that can reveal more about his
environment.
"We have
no solutions, but plenty of questions," Peter Vanezis, a
forensic medicine specialist, said at a news conference after
the Iceman was returned to his chilled case.
DNA tests
will feature large in the new round of research into the ancient
man.
Scientists
in Italy and Britain will examine both the Iceman's DNA and that
of the microbes in his intestinal tract. The microbes could be
a clue to what sort of food he ate, Italian anthropologist Franco
Rollo said.
He said the
DNA tests will also look at the mitochondria genome (mtDNA), which
could reveal a common ancestry or genealogical continuity between
inhabitants of the Alpine regions of 10,000 years ago and those
of today.
Previous tests
on minute amounts of DNA from the Iceman's lungs suggested he
suffered from a lung fungus that could have hastened his death.
Scientists
will also try to learn if the crudely carved tattoos found on
the Iceman's ankles, knees and calves, were an ancient form of
acupuncture, or were added after his death for some unknown reason.
Results of
some of the tests carried out on the samples taken Monday should
be ready in about six months, said research coordinator Eduard
Egarter Vigl.
The Iceman
was found frozen in a glacier in the Tyrollean Alps on the Italian-Austrian
border in 1991 by two German mountaineers and promptly became
the center of an international tug-of-war.
He was first
claimed by Austria and taken to Innsbruck. After a survey showed
the discovery site was actually on the Italian side of the unmarked
border, he was handed over to Italy.
The transfer
date was kept secret following threats from Austrian nationalists
who have never recognized Italy's annexation of the South Tyrol
after World War I.
Since then,
the superbly preserved corpse has been kept in a refrigerated
viewing chamber at a museum built to house him and the array of
weapons and tools found alongside him, including a copper ax,
bow and flint-stone tipped arrows.
His chamber
is kept at 21 degrees with a humidity level of 96-98 percent.
Museum officials say he will go back on display Tuesday.
|
