Fresh Look at DNA From Oetzi the Iceman Traces His Roots to Present Day Turkey

NEW YORK (AP) — Oetzi the Iceman has a brand new look. A long time after the well-known glacier mummy was found within the Italian Alps, scientists have dug again into his DNA to color a greater image of the traditional hunter.

They decided that Oetzi was principally descended from farmers from current day Turkey, and his head was balder and pores and skin darker than what was initially thought, in keeping with a study published Wednesday within the journal Cell Genomics.

Oetzi, who lived greater than 5,000 years in the past, was frozen into the ice after he was killed by an arrow to the again. His corpse was preserved as a “pure mummy” till 1991, when hikers discovered him together with a few of his clothes and kit — together with a copper ax, a longbow and a bearskin hat. Since then, many researchers have labored to uncover extra in regards to the mummy, which is displayed on the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy.

An earlier draft of Oetzi’s genome was revealed in 2012. However historic DNA analysis has superior since then, so scientists determined to take one other take a look at the iceman’s genes, defined research creator Johannes Krause, a geneticist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. They used DNA extracted from the mum’s hip bone.

The up to date genome is “offering deeper insights into the historical past of this mummy,” stated Andreas Keller of Germany’s Saarland College. Keller labored on the sooner model however was not concerned with the most recent research.

Based mostly on the brand new genome, Oetzi’s look when he died round age 45 was very like the mum appears as we speak: It is darkish and does not have a lot hair on it, stated research creator Albert Zink, head of the Institute for Mummy Research at Eurac Analysis in Italy. Scientists beforehand thought the iceman was lighter-skinned and hairier in life, however that his mummified corpse had modified over time.

His genome additionally confirmed an elevated probability of weight problems and diabetes, the researchers reported.

And his ancestry means that he lived amongst an remoted inhabitants within the Alps, Zink stated. Most Europeans as we speak have a mixture of genes from three teams: farmers from Anatolia, hunter-gatherers from the west and herders from the east. However 92% of Oetzi’s ancestry was from simply the Anatolian farmers, with out a lot mixing from the opposite teams.

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