BOLZANO, ITALY, June 23 (DC Times Online) — A peer-reviewed study in the journal Microbiome says researchers identified four cold-adapted yeast species on Ötzi the Iceman’s remains, adding to evidence that the 5,300-year-old mummy still carries a mix of ancient biological material and later contamination.
Researchers at Eurac Research said they reconstructed the yeasts’ genetics from traces found in skin samples, meltwater inside the mummy and stomach contents. The paper said the remains may function as a “dynamic ecosystem” in which glacier-derived microbes and modern contaminants coexist under museum conditions.
The study also reported degraded and modern DNA fragments. The authors said they were able to culture multiple microbe species and recover four viable strains, with three apparently able to use phenol, a compound used to prevent fungal growth, as a food source.
The paper said some of the microbial signal may have been introduced during discovery and preservation. It also said other evidence was consistent with the long-standing idea that the body thawed and refroze several times over thousands of years.
Ötzi, also known as the Iceman, was found in 1991 in the Alps near the Austria-Italy border and is now housed at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, in a cold cell designed to mimic glacial conditions.
The museum says radiocarbon dating places him at about 3300 BC, making him Europe’s oldest known natural human mummy. It says analyses also suggest he was killed by an arrow that severed a major artery, and that 61 tattoos were found on his body.
