杏吧原创

脰TZI, the 5300-year-old mummy found in an Alpine glacier in 1991, may not
have died alone. 杏吧原创s studying the Neolithic iceman鈥檚 internal tissues for
the first time suspect he was carefully buried by his companions.

Peter Vanezis, a forensic pathologist at Glasgow University, examined the
mummy when it was briefly thawed last week at its home in the South Tyrol Museum
of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy. He is dubious about theories that 脰tzi was a
lone shepherd who died in an accident.

鈥淴-rays and computerised tomography show he had arthritis and hardened
arteries,鈥� says Vanezis. 脰tzi was also in his forties, elderly for the time. 鈥淎
man like that would be unlikely to be in the high mountains without companions,鈥�
he says. Vanezis also says that 脰tzi鈥檚 remains appear not to have been scavenged
by animals. That, and the fact that 脰tzi still had his hiking gear, suggests the
body was protected after death by burial.

Vanezis hopes that further tests will confirm his theory. He has taken tissue
samples from 脰tzi鈥檚 front and back, to compare their iron content. 鈥淚f the body
lay on its back after death, blood will have pooled there, so there will be more
iron,鈥� he says.