Glacier Mummy: Ötzi liked it greasy

Ötzi ate capricorn, deer and cereals in last days before his death, eating a lot of fat. This includes an international team of researchers from analysis of his stomach contents.

The so-called Man from ice had eaten meat raw or perhaps dried, but it was not strongly heated, researchers write about Frank Maixner of Institute for Mummy Research in Bolzano in journal Current Biology. Maixner assumes that Capricorn and deer regularly stood on Ötzi's menu.

In contrast to intestines, contents of stomach had not been thoroughly analyzed. The stomach had shifted at mummification and had only been discovered 2009 in post-examinations. It is noticeable to researchers that fat has about half of contents of stomach. This will allow Ötzi to take necessary energy for high-altitude hikes, write.

The fact that Ötzi had eaten Capricorn had already been found in 2002 in studies of intestine. The new study now shows that Capricorn and deer also counted at end of his life at his meals. The grains consumed were refore a grain, an early form of domesticated cereals.

Researchers discovered aggressive Magenkeim

The stomach also contained traces of a poisonous fern. He may have inadvertently recorded this, but may also want to treat stomach problems, scientists write. At beginning of 2016, research group found out that Ötzi was infected with an aggressive variant of gastric germ Helicobacter pylori. Nowadays, about half of all people carry stomach bacterium, which can cause inflammation, gastric ulcers and cancer.

Ötzi lived 5,300 years ago and was killed with an arrow. German hikers had discovered mummy in September 1991 in Italian-Austrian border region near Tisenjochs at 3,210 meters altitude. From re he was taken to Archaeological museum in Bolzano.

Since n, scientists have been investigating mummy. In addition to murder of Ötzi and more and more details about nutrition, it is also known that he had caries. Eye color, DNA and blood group are known – as well as glacier man was lactose intolerant and tattooed.

Date Of Update: 13 July 2018, 12:02