Ancient site · Other
Ötzi the Iceman (find site)
Also known as Tisenjoch
In 1991 two hikers found a man's body coming out of the ice near the Tisenjoch pass, 3,210 metres up in the Alps on the Austria–Italy border. Ötzi lived more than 5,300 years ago and is Europe's oldest known natural mummy. He carried a copper axe, a flint knife, a longbow and a quiver of arrows, and wore leather clothes and a bearskin cap.
An arrowhead in his shoulder shows that he was killed by another person. His body is now kept at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano.
- Dates
- died c. 3230 BCE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 46.78° N, 10.84° E
How we know
No writing existed; his body and equipment have been studied scientifically since 1991.
Nearby sites
- Heuneburg 7th–5th century BCE (mudbrick wall c. 600 BCE)
- Hallstatt salt mines and cemetery c. 1200–350 BCE (prehistoric mining)
- Nebra sky disc find site (Mittelberg) disc buried c. 1600 BCE
- Pantheon, Rome c. 126 CE; a church since 609
- Colosseum 72–80 CE; games until the 6th century
- Pont du Gard 1st century CE; used perhaps until the 6th century