Some geographical conditions for the discovery of the Neolithic Iceman from the Alps

Abstract

The well-preserved Late Stone Age mummy, which was discovered at an altitude of more than 3200 m a.s.1. has astonished the whole world (Fig. I). Never before had a body of such age been discovered in Europe, not to mention having been completely conscrved in a glacier. The dating to about 3300-3200 years BC was not definite until after a large number of C-dates had been carried out (Bonani et al. 1992). Before these find dates, the possibility that a corpse would be preserved in a glacier for such a period of time had been considered unrealistic. Even after the radiocarbon dating, disbelievers considered the find to be a hoax, though the dating of the body was not disputed. A book was even published to ‘prove’ that it was a hoax (Heim & Nosko 1993). This claim was based on the argument that the find was so unlikely that it had to be a fake, and by twisting facts and arguments they tried to prove that this was the case (Spin-dler 1993). The body itself was purported to be some 5000 years old South American, Egyptian or Asian mummy that had been deliberately deposited on the spot sometime during the 20th century. Genetical analysis, however, proved the body beyond any doubt to be that of a European (Handt et al. 1994). The preservation of a body in the glacier for such a period of time therefore calls for an explanation.