RESUMEN
The Tyrolean Iceman is the world's oldest glacier mummy. He was found in September 1991 in the Italian part of the Ötztal Alps. Since his discovery a variety of morphological, radiological and molecular analyses have been performed that revealed detailed insights into his state of health. Despite the various pathological conditions found in the Iceman, little is known about possible forms of care and treatment during the Copper Age in Northern Italy. A possible approach to this topic is the presence of tattoos on the mummified body. In previous work, it was already believed that the tattoos were administered as a kind of treatment for his lower back pain and degenerative joint disease of his knees, hip and wrist. In other studies, the tattoos of the Iceman have been related to an early form of acupuncture. We carefully re-evaluated the various health issues of the Iceman, including joint diseases, gastrointestinal problems and arterial calcifications and compared them to the location and number of tattoos. Together with the finding of medically effective fungi and plants, such as the birch polypore or fern in his equipment and intestines, we suggest that care and treatment was already common during the Iceman's time.
Asunto(s)
Enfermedades Gastrointestinales/historia , Servicios de Salud/historia , Artropatías/historia , Momias/historia , Tatuaje/historia , Calcificación Vascular/historia , Terapia por Acupuntura , Isótopos de Carbono/análisis , Dieta , Hongos , Enfermedades Gastrointestinales/diagnóstico por imagen , Enfermedades Gastrointestinales/terapia , Estado de Salud , Historia Antigua , Humanos , Cubierta de Hielo , Italia , Artropatías/diagnóstico por imagen , Artropatías/terapia , Masculino , Momias/diagnóstico por imagen , Isótopos de Nitrógeno/análisis , Plantas Medicinales , Calcificación Vascular/diagnóstico por imagen , Calcificación Vascular/terapiaRESUMEN
The history of humankind is marked by the constant adoption of new dietary habits affecting human physiology, metabolism, and even the development of nutrition-related disorders. Despite clear archaeological evidence for the shift from hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture in Neolithic Europe [1], very little information exists on the daily dietary habits of our ancestors. By undertaking a complementary -omics approach combined with microscopy, we analyzed the stomach content of the Iceman, a 5,300-year-old European glacier mummy [2, 3]. He seems to have had a remarkably high proportion of fat in his diet, supplemented with fresh or dried wild meat, cereals, and traces of toxic bracken. Our multipronged approach provides unprecedented analytical depth, deciphering the nutritional habit, meal composition, and food-processing methods of this Copper Age individual.