The Iceman's last weeks

Dating and environment using long-lived radionuclides

“…This is not surprising considering that 14 C penetrates all seven spheres (see table II) of our environment as an essential part of both the organic and inorganic world. First we give an example of radiocarbon dating for the famous Iceman, who was accidentally discovered in 1991 emerging after 5200 years from a thawing glacier at a high-altitude (3210 m) mountain pass of the Ötztal Alps near the Austrian-Italian border [55]. Figure 3 summarizes recent results of 14 C measurements for equipment of the Iceman, performed at three different AMS laboratories [56].…”

Communicating over Space and Time in the World of the Iceman

“…As for where and how the man died, Spindler (1994Spindler ( , 1995 initiated an influential 'disaster' theory, speculating that the man was attacked in his settlement in the Val Venosta (Vinschgau) (pointed to by the threshing remains and pollen characteristic of this valley), suffering personal injuries, but escaping with incomplete equipment to the high alpine pastures that he knew as a transhumant herder, until, in a state of exhaustion, he lay down and froze to death in a gully. Such speculation was added to by Loy's (1998) claim that the blood of up to four other people was found on the man's jacket, knife, axe and arrows, and that he killed or injured several people before his own death.…”

Assessment of bog-body tissue preservation by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

“…The most abundant pyrolysis products of both human and calf skin are pyrroles (2,5,8), toluene (3), diketodipyrrole (37) and DKPs of Pro-Ala (36), ProGly (38), Pro-Hyp (44) and Pro-Pro (46). Human skin appears to yield relatively more phenols (9, 15), cyanobenzenes (17,20) and indoles (23,26), the pyrolysis products of tyrosine, phenylalanine and tryptophan, respectively.…”

“…1 Finds of archaeological human remains preserved in freezing conditions, although spectacular, are very rare indeed. 1,2 The preservation of human tissues by controlled dehydration, i.e. mummification, is thought to retard hydrolytic reactions, thereby protecting the chemical structure of both proteins and DNA.…”