Otzi the 5,300-year-old Tyrolean Iceman

In 1991 a group of hikers in the mountains of Austria came across an awful sight: a frozen body was buried in the ice. That body belonged to a 5,300 year old man. Scientists have discovered some specific facts. When he was alive, he had parasites in his intestines, was lactose intolerant, and had been sick three times in the past six months.

He's older than the Giza pyramids and Stonehenge, yet Otzi the Tyrolean Iceman continues to teach us things.

A reconstruction of Otzi, based on forensics and 3D modeling.

The latest study of the weapons he was found with reveals that Otzi was right-handed and had recently resharpened and reshaped some of his tools before his death. Otzi was shot in the back with an arrow and became naturally preserved in the ice. Otzi, his clothing and his tools were well-preserved. The arrowhead, embedded in his left shoulder, wasn't found until 2001. He would have bled out and died shortly after because it pierced a vital artery.

With goat-leather leggings and a brown bear fur hat, Otzi must have strutted the Alps with style.

The iceman’s copper axe blade was remarkably pure at 99.7% copper and was mined in the Colline Metallifere area near Campiglia Marittima in southern Tuscany.

Otzi the Iceman left behind his leather-heavy wardrobe and a slew of his accessories when he died in the Italian Alps. He was found with a very valuable copper ax. It is the only one of its kind ever found. During the Copper Age, copper axes were owned by men of high rank and buried with them. Copper was extremely valuable and a symbol of high status.

Otzi’s final meal was high in fat, with traces of red deer and ibex in his stomach along with einkorn wheat. When he died his stomach was full, meaning he ate shortly before he was attacked.

The Iceman has 61 marks on his body made by fine incisions into which charcoal was rubbed. His are the oldest tattoos known.