Althouse: Ötzi, the Iceman, is ready for his closeup.

March 7, 2009

Ötzi, the Iceman, is ready for his closeup.

Tattoos and all.

(Via Metafilter.)

6 comments:

Wince said...: Wow, silence so far. Okay, so I'll bring it up. Over in the comments at Metafilter, the issue of Otzi's "junk" came up.

A link to a report in Time magazine said:

The mistreated corpse, clothed from the waist down when discovered, was now stark naked except for remnants of a boot dangling from his right foot, and bore the marks of his crude recovery. He had also been castrated; it turned out that his penis and most of his scrotum were missing, perhaps accidentally broken off during his recovery and taken by a visitor. Flown out by helicopter and transferred to a hearse, the Iceman and his possessions were transported to Innsbruck. There, one final indignity awaited the body. It became the centerpiece of a press conference in the local morgue. While the Iceman and his tattered belongings lay on a dissecting table under blazing klieg lights, reporters and other hangers-on joked, smoked and even touched the body. Not until late afternoon did someone notice a fungus spreading on the Iceman's skin.

Ouch, the final indignity. May want to take off those sunglasses and look closely before the next time you "Snap into a Slim Jim!".

Anyway, to me it looks like Otzi is at least partially intact and might have been circumcised.; 3/7/09, 12:36 PM
David said...: Read the book "The Man in the Ice" by Konrad Spindler. It was written a year or two after the discovery of the Iceman's corpse on the glacier. It's a fabulous book, and shows the curiosity and respect the investigators had for the Iceman. As to castration, remember that he had been out there for a while, dead on the ice and uncovered by snow, over 5000 years ago. I recall that there was some evidence that he had been scavenged by an animal, though this recollection is a bit hazy.

There's a reasonable chance that some of the readers of this blog are distant relatives of the Iceman. Even if you aren't related you will learn quite a bit about how humans lived 5000 years ago from this brief and wonderful book.; 3/7/09, 1:17 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Fascinating exhibit in Balzano (Bozen) Great town also.

Italian food and German efficency :); 3/7/09, 1:24 PM
Methadras said...: That is just to cool for words.; 3/7/09, 5:13 PM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: So this guy was up there some 5,000 years ago -- got drilled with an arrow by probable political enemy -- and then got covered with snow and ice. Until he melted out a few years ago.

So, 5,000 years ago it was open country. And in our time it is once again becoming open country ... and that's the result of "global warming" purportedly caused by human industrial activity, and lack of respect for Gaia, and corporate greed ?

Why was it open country 5,000 years ago? Just wondering.; 3/7/09, 6:08 PM
Ken Pidcock said...: Why was it open country 5,000 years ago? Just wondering.,

Five comments in to an irrelevant post.

But that's not a record here, is it?; 3/7/09, 7:39 PM