Bolzano and Ötzi
The Iceman at the Archaeological Museum
On 19 September 1991, two German hikers, Erika and Helmut Simon, walking on the Similaun glacier, in the Ötztal Alps on the border between Italy and Austria, at about 3,200 metres, saw a human body emerging from the melting ice. They thought it was an unlucky mountaineer, but it turned out to be the most sensational archaeological discovery of the century: a man who lived about 5,300 years ago, in the Copper Age, preserved by the ice with his skin, organs, clothes and equipment. He was called Ötzi, after the Ötztal valley, or the Iceman.
Since 1998, Ötzi has been kept in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, in a special refrigerated cell at a temperature of about minus 6 degrees and a humidity of almost 100 percent, which reproduces the conditions of the glacier; visitors can see him through a small window. The museum displays his extraordinary equipment: a copper axe, a rare and precious object at the time, a flint dagger, a bow and arrows, a quiver, clothes of leather and fur, shoes of bearskin and hay, and a cloak of woven grass. Scientific research has revealed a great deal about his life: he was about 45 years old, had tattoos, ate ibex meat and cereals, and had health problems. And he was murdered: an arrowhead was found in his left shoulder, which probably caused his death. A lifelike reconstruction shows what he looked like. The museum is one of the most visited in Italy.
Tip: in high season there can be long queues, so arrive early or buy tickets online; the visit takes about two hours.
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