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The world, when the Iceman froze

In 1991, a well-preserved mummy was discovered high in the Tyrolean Alps on the Italy-Austria border, dated by ¹⁴C to 3300 BC. (Because the specific region was the Ötztaler Alps [webcam] he's been nicknamed Ötzi or Oetzi or Otzi.) A great deal has been deduced about his lifestyle from the fragments of his clothes and tools:

• He was about 46 years old, five foot two-and-a-half.
• He died in the springtime, from an arrow in the back. [latest] [BBC] [pix] [pix] [xray]
• NEW: a wound on his wrist suggests he had just engaged in hand-to-hand combat [info&pic] [debate]
• His body-temperature was high when he died [cite]
• His last meal was fire-cooked flatbread, herbs, and ibex-meat [info] [pic]
• He had been locked in glacial ice for almost the full 5300 years, but with at least one melt that scattered his possessions.
• He had come from the south, heading for a pass over the mountain range.
• He wore wellmade snowboots [info] [pic] [DIY] [flimsy?] so the pass must still have been snowy.
• His maternal ancestors had been in the region for 10,000 years. [see Katarina]
• He had spent lots of time around copper smelting operations.
• He had no cavities in his teeth.
• He had simple tattoos near several arthritic joints. [info] [theory]
• His copper axeblade was still attached to its handle, with pitch and a strip of leather. (Axes were status symbols, and this one seemed unused.) [info] [pic]
• His flint dagger had a wooden handle and a sheath woven from bark. [info] [pic]
• His bow and arrows were unfinished and unusable. [info] [pic]
• The arrows were in a sophisticated fur quiver [info]
• He had a net of woven grass, probably for hunting [info]
• He wore three layers of garments made from goat [info] [leggings] [loincloth], deerskin and bark fiber [info], but no wool. [pic] [reconstruction] [diagram] [DIY]
• He had a bearskin hat. [info] [pic]
• He had a wood-framed backpack, probably of leather. [info]
• He carried live embers wrapped in green maple leaves in a birchbark pouch. [info] [pic]
• He had a 'fanny pack' belt with various tools [info]
• He had a 'retoucher' of wood and antler for shaping flint [info]
• He carried a sour blackthorn (sloe) berry, and two mushrooms with antibiotic properties. [info] [pic]

[This is mostly based on Brenda Fowler's book: first chapter, Amazon]

The odds are he was a grandfather, and the head of a small farming community that had begun growing wheat and herding goats only in the last few hundred years. They were still too poor to have much pottery or flint.

The likeliest site for their farm is Katharinaberg, five miles south of where he was found. (Think 'Sound of Music' or 'Heidi'.) [pix-German] [pic]

Being killed at a mountain pass [Hauslabjoch pic] [ditto] might suggest a territorial competition between northern and southern groups. (To the north was the 2000yo Bodensee community on Lake Constance. The diet there included apples, berries, and nuts.)

Or an ambush by a particular enemy who anticipated his route? (And who refrained from stealing anything, to conceal his guilt?)

If his children and grandchildren (etc) survived, he might now have millions of direct descendants around the world.

re-enactment, pix, plants, museum, shaman?

Discovery: early; transcript, ditto

Links: lots, misc

Around 3700 BC, the mid-east style of agriculture had been adapted to the cooler European climate by planting in the spring rather than the fall, and favoring cattle over sheep and goats. By 2900 BC there were thousands of farming villages (pop 20-60) wherever the soil was suitable. The architectural style was the 'longhouse'-- we might imagine the Iceman sharing a longhouse with a son or three, and their families. A daughter-in-law might have ground the flour for his bread. (Mrs Iceman had probably died ten or more years earlier.)

Around 3500 BC, shepherds (or goatherds?) had begun using the Tyrolean Alps for grazing their flocks in the spring and summer months. Around the time of the Iceman the climate may have briefly cooled. [cite]

A culture was about to emerge in the region that left 'statue-menhirs'. [example] [pix worldwide]

Since 5000 BC, various megalithic cultures had been developing along the Atlantic coast (but Stonehenge was still 1000 years off). [timeline]

Around 4000 BC, the horse was domesticated in the east-- surviving teeth show wear from riders (?) using bits, in the Ukraine. Around 3200 BC, the first wheeled oxcarts appeared in the Ukraine, allowing nomadic horsemen to take along unlimited quantities of material possessions. [debate]

Varna, Bulgaria has the richest grave goods of this era: [treasure] Tripolye metallurgy: [info]

Around this time Ireland's forests were being cleared, and megalithic Newgrange was built, oriented to the solstice sunrise. (Its round inner chamber may have been designed to amplify drumming and chanting.)

Orkney: dung beer

Proto-Indo-European was being spoken around the Black Sea. Reconstructed PIE terms: father-of-gods, drunk, winter, spring, summer, east/dawn, west/evening, snow, thunder, boat, row, wild animal, mouse, salmon, crane, eagle, bee, honey, guest/host, give/take, grain, grind, yoke, gather, cow, sheep, pig, dog, house, door, hearth, cook, weave, sew, spin, pray, sing, imperishable fame, weaver of words, to overcome death [essay] [map] [chronology]

Proto-Semitic was being spoken in the middle-east. Reconstructed proto-semitic terms: sacrifice, anoint, prohibit, reap, winnow, grind, palm, cumin, roast, herd, ox, donkey, house, door, smelt metal, antimony, naphtha, weigh, count, music [essay]

Intentional addition of tin to copper ushered in the Bronze Age. [archeo]

Hamoukar reached its peak population of 25,000 around this time. [info] more [pix]

The city of Uruk on the Euphrates delta was in the 'Late Uruk' or 'Uruk IV' period (3500-3000 BC) and covered several hundred acres (pop 10,000) with sophisticated irrigation, dominated by the 'White Temple' on a high platform. Around this time the potters' wheel led to the oxcart wheel. Also: earliest writing (2000 cuneiform logograms, still unreadable: pic), cylinder seals [pic] [info], copper, sculpture, oldest pentagrams [pic]

Around 3100, the Sumerians invaded from the south, enslaving the Subarians. Their language is untraced, but absorbed local Ubadian terms for farmer, herdsman, fisherman, potter, carpenter, metalworker, leatherworker, mason, weaver, basketmaker, merchant, priest, plow, furrow, palm, and date. Ubaidian toolkit: hoes, adzes, knives, sickles, bricks, spindle whorls, loom weights, sculpture, painted pottery.

Tepe Gawra (north of Uruk)

Zagros: Deh Luran [info] ditto

Around 4000 BC in the mid-east, a mutation produced the first 'woolly' sheep (useful for fabric) and both sheep and goats began to be favored as 'renewable' sources of wool and milk, rather than primarily for their meat and hides. By 3500, woolly sheep had reached the Balkans. Around 3500, nomadic semitic sheep-and-goatherds began settling for part of each year in the Canaan hills (this would continue until 1550 BC, with a drought-gap only from 2200 to 2000).

Egypt was about to be united for the first time, under Menes (who founded Memphis c3100 BC). They called it 'Keme' after the black soil. Egyptians had been using a two-person horizontal loom since before 4000 BC, and were capable of making linen shirts with sleeves (later forgotten). Probable wine: info

Nile boats 75 feet long made of wood, employing 30 rowers [info] ditto

The earliest known Egyptian mummies date to around this time [pic]

North Africa: domesticated cattle herding (may even predate Anatolian)

The Cycladic culture first appeared around 4000 BC, with a cemetery, copper smelting, and figurines that added Cycladic faces and a priapic male to the usual fat-female style. [info] [ditto] Evidence of trading with Bulgaria.

Early stages of olive and grape cultivation, for export as oil and wine, all around the Aegean.

From 3000 to 2600, Greece was dominated by the Eutresis culture [info] Cycladic culture continued to evolve, called the 'Grotta-Pelos' period, but characterised by only short occupation of any given site. [info] The Cycladic 'folded arm' figures (ie, lying down), seated harpists, house-models, and 'frying pans' all appeared around 2500 BC. [pix]

Crete c3300 is poorly documented because later construction cleared away those sites. Pottery favored jugs and bottles (!?) and there may have been imports from Egypt. A copper axe (not double) is dated to around this time. [info]

Cyprus: wine

The oldest level of Troy is a fortress dating to c3000 BC [info]

Cultivation of rice had spread across southeast Asia and India.

Maize was finally being cultivated in Mexico, and in Peru a grain called quinua, along with the domestication of llamas and guinea pigs. Potatoes were also probably being grown in Peru.

In eastern North America, sunflowers, marsh elder, goosefoot, and gourds were being cultivated.

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