| BOLZANO,
Italy - Scientists removed samples of bone, tissue and tooth
from the 5,300-year-old mummy on Monday in hopes of of shedding
light on the life and times of the ancient man who once
roamed the Alps.
The
temperature in the refrigerated display case housing the
Bronze Age hunter was gradually lowered for 12 hours.
Then, at 8 a.m., the Iceman was wheeled into a sterile
laboratory at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in
Bolzano.
For
four hours, scientists garbed in operating scrubs scraped
off bone enamel, chipped away bone and snaked an endoscope
into his intestines, harvesting samples for study at half
a dozen research institutions and universities.
A
forensic expert from the University of Glasgow will try
to determine how the ancient hunter died by looking at
bone and blood samples that could reveal whether he died
a natural death or by accident.
In
Zurich, scientists will analyze lead and strontium deposits
on his teeth - "chemical footprints" that can
reveal more about his environment.
"We
have no solutions, but plenty of questions," Peter
Vanezis, a forensic medicine specialist, said at a news
conference after the Iceman was returned to his chilled
case.
DNA
tests will feature large in the new round of research
into the ancient man.
Scientists
in Italy and Britain will examine both the Iceman's DNA
and that of the microbes in his intestinal tract. The
microbes could be a clue to what sort of food he ate,
Italian anthropologist Franco Rollo said.
He
said the DNA tests will also look at the mitochondria
genome (mtDNA), which could reveal a common ancestry or
genealogical continuity between inhabitants of the Alpine
regions of 10,000 years ago and those of today.
Previous
tests on minute amounts of DNA from the Iceman's lungs
suggested he suffered from a lung fungus that could have
hastened his death.
Scientists
will also try to learn if the crudely carved tattoos found
on the Iceman's ankles, knees and calves, were an ancient
form of acupuncture, or were added after his death for
some unknown reason.
Results
of some of the tests carried out on the samples taken
Monday should be ready in about six months, said research
coordinator Eduard Egarter Vigl.
The
Iceman was found frozen in a glacier in the Tyrollean
Alps on the Italian-Austrian border in 1991 by two German
mountaineers and promptly became the center of an international
tug-of-war.
He
was first claimed by Austria and taken to Innsbruck. After
a survey showed the discovery site was actually on the
Italian side of the unmarked border, he was handed over
to Italy.
The
transfer date was kept secret following threats from Austrian
nationalists who have never recognized Italy's annexation
of the South Tyrol after World War I.
Since
then, the superbly preserved corpse has been kept in a
refrigerated viewing chamber at a museum built to house
him and the array of weapons and tools found alongside
him, including a copper ax, bow and flint-stone tipped
arrows.
His
chamber is kept at 21 degrees with a humidity level of
96-98 percent. Museum officials say he will go back on
display Tuesday.
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