Ancient DNA reveals surprising truth about Otzi the Iceman 

Mesolithic Europe book from Oxford takes liberties with archaeological ancient DNA evidence ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UXisSSyahWA.html

I’m Northern European, white, and if I was outside most of the day in the sun I would be very dark too. White people tan, folks…we can get very dark.

Tom Rowsell of Survive the Jive has explained that skin colour is almost impossible to ascertain, unlike eye colour which can be determined.

If you go look at the actual study, the asnwer is that he was probably as dark as a sardinian. So, southern European. Not exactly the way they have been presenting it like he is super dark or something. His complexion would have been like a modern Greek

"A propensity to obesity and diabetes" with a modern diet, most definitely. It reminds me of the Cocopah Indians in Arizona. Today they have a real problem with obesity, but they were a desert people, likely evolved to make more out of scarce resources. Only, now that resources are no longer scarce this evolution just makes them have a propensity to obesity and diabetes.

The guy had the skin type that you find today in Greece in most of population. That they try to depict him even more darker is something that goes beyond comprehension. On the positive side of the story, his dna and some tissue has been given to many laboratories, something that will at least save his scientific reputation in more serious scientific, future times.

Otzi had a very similar genetic profile to modern people from Sardinia, so most probably had a Mediterranean appearance. Saying that Otzi was 'dark' is inappropriately bringing modern racial politics into archaeology.

Top anthropologists in Switzerland made the first diagnosis that Otzi died from a fall or exposure. Then Otzi was given to Italian forensic doctors to approach it from a medical perspective and they found the arrowhead in a simple x-ray. It did not look good for the analysis work of top anthropologists. The difference between an anthropologist analysis and a postmortem autopsy examination by a medical doctor is that the autopsy is subject to validity testing by other known facts, which in some cases are plentiful. The anthropologist never knows if his analysis is correct by unambiguous corroborating facts.

If he was found in UK the BBC would have said he was probably black 😂😊

It seems obvious to me, that it was someone from his own village that shot him. They didn't take his copper ax, which would have been a high priced item of technology. If the Ax would have been brought back to his village, it would have been recognized. So it was left behind.

Now they're trying to make Otzi Black... who would have ever guessed.

I remember when they found him and I’ve been following every update since then. This is a truly amazing story of a man that was frozen in time and ice! I can’t wait for more in this journey!

Ive been keeping up with this Ice Mummy ever since I found out about him, they checked out his stomach contents and he was believed to have eaten a large meal before dying, he also had three wounds, a defensive wound on his hand that had managed to scab over, an arrow wound in his back by his shoulder not scabbed over and a post mortum wound a contusion on the back of his head, this tells us that Otzi was on the run for whatever reason and the person who did it both wanted to make sure Otzi was dead and wanted everyone to not know who did it as he didnt take the axe and he removed the arrow shaft both things that would identify him as Otzi's killer, i believe they also found Otzi camp site where they found ingenious heating technology that wasnt believed to have been possible at the time but i could be wrong about the campsite and have it mixed up with another of the mummies I keep updated on

So, basically, it is still nearly impossible to determine complex characteristics like skin pigmentation and eye and hair colour from DNA analysis... despite what some people would like us to believe.

I also remember when he was found. The finders wrote a book describing their discovery. The reason there was no hair found on the mummy, the authors speculated, was because he died in late summer, fell down a crevice, struck a rock which crushed his right arm beneath him, struggled to get back up, but expired during that attempt. He lay there in water from the snow melt for many weeks until the cold weather froze his remains. While he was submerged, the outer layer of skin sloughed off and was drained. All of his artifacts found with him were scattered, too, as if they had been caught in the water and then settled before freezing. The unusual warm spring exposed his remains. At first, the authorities thought this was a modern murder.

I find any information on Otzi as valuable, his discovery has piqued my interest for 30 years!

Dark Euro skin goes with that kind of environment and sun exposure

Are there any DNA trails that lead to present day relatives of Otzi? That would be quite an amazing story.

Oddly, no prehistoric Vegans are known to science, but science still claims a no meat diet is good for us

Fascinating story. I've had the great pleasure of visiting the Ötzi museum in Bolzano many times. I've had secret conversations with Ötzi when viewing his body thru a TV sized viewing chamber. He does not believe mankind has evolved all that much....

Wow really bending the truth so much emphasis on skin pigmentation.

I remember when they used icepicks to get Ötzi out of his cold grave! My History teacher was part of the team! What a find!!! Every new discovery about Ötzi is fascinating to me! Greetings from Salzburg, Austria 🇦🇹 🤗

I’m sure Otzi liked getting his full head of hair back when he was reconstructed. Thanks science 😂

He was around five hundred years before the pyramids were made

The evidence of his diet and predisposition to diabetes and obesity is super interesting. He was essentially an Anatolian farmer. Would interesting to compare those health markers and diet to western hunter gathers and indo-European people since most Europeans are a mixture of those three populations in varying proportions.

Sometime youtube suggests realy great content. Very good and interesting video. Thank you 🙂

I remember that there was a sandstorm in North Africa which caused sand debris to fall in Northern Italy thus melting the snow and thus making his body visible.

Fascinating and remarkable ! Thank you for posting .

That was really interesting. I bought the book "The Man in the Ice" by Conrad Spindler years ago. I find it amazing just how much more we have learned about our ancient ancestors as time goes on, especially through DNA.

So now Netflix can make movie about him.

Ötzi was found only 100 km away were my Family comes from, so I was surprised that in Gedmatch he was the one of all ancient DNA with absolutely no match to me.

I’m not intelligent enough to sort my way through all the jargon, but appreciated the depth of this video. When Otzi’s DNA for Dummies comes out, sign me up! 😂

This story gets more fascinating as the science advances.

Still so cool learning about Otzi.

Loved the vid. Hope your channel grows🫡

Very interesting and thank you. Yes, a sample of one has limiting value but a very well preserved sample for future possible study.

I remember when they first found him - it's hard to believe it was 30 years ago. He has sure been an endless source of information. I wonder how he'd feel about being the man who tols the future more about his time and people than nearly any other source found? Many ancient peoples were very concerned with the idea that they not be forgotten, one driving force as to why ancestor worship is so widespread. Too bad we don't know his real name, but he is definitely being remembered.

Never let science get in the way of an ideology

I’m connected to Iceman’s mtDNA, although mutated through the years. My matches appear to equally surround the North Sea, being present in the Scandinavia, England, and Germany areas. The North Sea was much lower in sea level then, exposing much more land in the past, possibly even Doggerland.

A lot of Europeans go very dark in the sun this is no surprise that he had dark tanned skin.

So he likely had dark skin for Caucasians. One thing to remember, lighter skin such as Otzi's was the norm in ancient human ancestors for at least one million years. The mutation for very dark skin arose around half million years ago in only a few places in the world.

Wonderful narration and magnificent scientific footage...

Excellent video! This fascinating subject was very well covered in your video. Thanks so much!

What if he wasn't outlier? What if he had a 100 children and 20 wives? What if he was a stranger from a strange land that came here? And then did weird things like hiking in the Alps. And then ended up meeting his demise there. What if it's the only person in the whole region from a far away land and hes not a good example at all of that area from whence he was discovered...... Or maybe hes exactly what was there. And hes a perfect specimen, but how do we know the answers to that question?

Why there are no higher res? +1 sub. Keep making videos. Please.

was in Bolzano 3 weeks ago and visited the Otzi exhibition was very interesting

I'm more interested in the copper ax then what dna he had. Having copper ax 1500 before copper smelting was thought. Love for them to find put where raw copper came from. Then where was it smelted..

Very interesting new info added

Very interesting!

very interesting and more so to me as I share Y Haplo group of EEF and diabetes is common in my paternal line, it being mentioned was quite interesting. The origins of farming and the Anatolian Farmers is a grand and interesting story in and of itself, the early migrations into Europe, Crete etc. and the areas where we today find their domiciles and village grouping, where metal working became part of their technological life evolutions.

I find it interesting that the people who found him let their own cultural prejudices interfere with their supposedly scientific analysis. They thought he was a gentle sheep herder in some prehistoric idyl. Instead it seems more likely that he was an unpleasant person who'd managed to piss people off to the extent that they chased him up into the mountains over several days, had at least one knife fight with him as shown from the cuts on the back of his hands and eventually shot him in the back and then left him there. Not exactly idyllic stuff.

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i liked the video because it's a fascinating topic as we learn more with new technology. i also read all the comments...

His skin tone was similar to modern day Turks. Iceman had zero Subsaharan genetics, he wasn't a Black man.

Cold climate sun with a white snowy background can turn a persons skin to dark leather.

This sounds like the narrator is just reading the Conclusion section of a research paper.

I follow all news on Oetzi intensely as the first four of the eight gene markers on my X Chromosome are idntical to the first four gene markers he had. This means Oetzi and I are closely related. Just amazing.

It's said that Southern Europeans had brownish skin back in those times, which makes sense when you look at the paintings of the Minoan Civilization in Crete, Greece. Not far from the Anatolia.

I heard that he couldn't get treatment for the Arrow wound because his HMO ruled that it was a pre-existing condition and wouldn't cover it.

They really need to give credit to Doctor Brian Sykes. He had to work very hard to find a way to get the dna sample. No one had ever found dna in such an old body before. It's in his book SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE.

Thank you

In an earth shaking discovery, it seems Iceman shares 98.9% of his DNA with Maverick.

The problem with history is, that most of it isn’t fact checked by peers. Thus anybody could blab about something long enough to make people believe it. Often motivated by political views. Much like RU-vid videos.

Very interesting.

Loved the narration, I've heard that voice before and can put a picture to it of a man, but can't remember his name. well done.

Iceman was an excellent profession to be in as the refrigerator wouldn't be invented for thousands of years.

I hope this new evidence helps the police track down his killer!

🎵🎶Stranger in a Strange Land....🎵🎶 🤟😉 Has got to be the coolest Iron Maiden song.

So interesting.

He may have had a genetic predisposition to obesity, but I doubt very much he ever got enough food to actually become obese. He certainly doesn't look overweight as a mummy.

I don't know many details of Otzi's condition (or cause of death), but I have always found it interesting that a "small copper arrowhead lodged in his left shoulder" could have been the cause of death. Perhaps if it got seriously infected over time, or contained some potent poison, I might accept this as the cause of death. Surely, there would have been changes to the tissue around the arrowhead that would suggest it was a fatal wound or some chemical analysis done on and around the arrowhead to suggest poison, but I never hear these issues discussed. In fact, no one knew the arrowhead was present until the body was x-rayed. Is this because the entrance wound was well healed? How often do people today walk around with fragments of metal in their body, and they're just fine? How did it kill Otzi? As for exposure-wasn't he found UNDER a boatload of melting ice? Could he have been hunting in a protected valley, of more moderate temperatures, not yet packed with snow and ice from a glacier, at the time of his death? Or maybe he was on on a shamanic meditative retreat, in nature... Just seems that there is not enough information presented to draw any definitive conclusions about his cause of death, or circumstances of life.... The DNA information was super interesting, however! Thank you for sharing it!

My mother is Cherokee, but i have blue eyes and fair skin. Of six of her children only 2 took her native features and coloring. I never felt less Cherokee, but have been doubted because of how i look. Celebrate the "ingredients" our mix brings...... they are each and every piece, a gift of our whole self. Otzi and i share a tattoo - but that's another story .....

Otzi looks exactly like a friend of mine who was a San Francisco longshoreman for 40 years. He was short but tremendously strong.

I had heard that Otzi was 100 % Anatolian farmers. This video claims he was really a mixture of mostly Anatolian farmer, with some original European hunter gather ancestry. This sounds far more plausible. I never heard of the Anatolian new comers totally replacing the indigenous population anywhere. Naturally there was no steppe ancestry. Around 3000 BC is too early for this in Northern Italy. Likely the Steppe ancestry was not spread by warfare, but more by the Plague. The Steppe people had built up a lot of resistance to this, others, not so much. How to survive the coming of the Steppe people? Have the Plague arrive well before they do. In Northern Europe, this did not happen and the hybrid Anatolian farmer, indigenous hunter gatherers were largely replace. In Southern Europe, with faster transportation, the disease arrived first, decimating the population, which had time to partially recover when the Steppe people arrived, resulting in a more hybrid population. Although, perhaps curiously, mostly (but not entirely) adapting a Indo-European language like the people in the North. Mirroring what happened in 1346 AD, the fastest advance of the Plague travelling by sea, in a clockwise motion around Europe, through the Mediterranean, then north through France, then back eastward (in 1349). Except the rate of spread of the Plague was much faster in 1346 AD than 2500 BC, with much more boat traffic. The Plague theory fits the modern genetic data much better than the warfare theory, which does not explain why the people of Southern Europe survived the coming of the Steppe people much better than the Northern European population did.

Diabetes and obesity. In his time a condition that would cause his blood sugar to easily rise could have been a good thing. And the same with a gene that makes modern day humans more likely to be obease. The ability to keep weight on could have been essential when calories were hard to come by.

Please explain the abbreviations used in the narration for those of us who don't know the specialist terminology. Thanks

very interesting

I went to see Otzi when I was in Austria five years ago. Unfortunately, we weren’t given much time to stand and really observe him, so a quick thirty seconds to pay our respects.

5 feet 5 inches is 165cm. 160cm is 5 feet 3 inches. Other sources give Otzi's height as 160cm, so 5 feet 3 inches it is.

One note about the baldness ,birds really like long human hair for Their nests. I had a titmouse land in my head one morning, trying to collect some nesting material that was still attached

I love otzi 😊 Idc what color or size he is 🥰 Love hearing more discovery about him

I am still not sure what the surprising truth is. Baldness, skin color, diabetes, obesity? It was sort of interesting. I do not know what a phenotype is.

Great video. Engaging narration and, I think, the first time I've heard correct pronunciation of Ötzi in an English language video! Hurrah!! More coming, I hope!

he got better health care than you will ever get.

I'm from Swiss Anabaptist. I match the other Swiss person 13.7 thousand years old but not Otzi. Bichon man", discovered in Grotte du Bichon is the one that I have some matching to.

So... 🤔 He had Fair-ish skin that could Tan to a deeper color. Did he have an epic 'Farmers Tan' like many men have today?

A whole lot of words to say, "We still don't know all that much."

"The Iceman cometh, but he did not combeth" You get thumbs up nevertheless.

I read a recent article saying that an analysis of residue detected in and around his mouth showed that it was remnants of mentholated tobacco smoke.

I thought the WHG were dark and the EEF were pale. If Otzi was mainly EEF and dark that is interesting.

I wonder how many descendants he has.

So, for those of us whom are not engaged in a Doctoral Degree program at UNI what does this all mean in plain everyday 9th grade level English ?

I recently learned Otzi had the genetic haplogroup G which is inherited from the father and only passed on to sons. Daughters to not get it. It is a fairly rare hap group. On average only 5% of men in any country have it. Some countries as low as less than 1%.

All that needs to be said is the known social change and political goals of these academic groups and their finding it is all opinions as to skin color suggestion is the key word

One of the as yet unsolved puzzles about the Iceman was how he had acquired a half pack of Marlboro cigarettes.

You should do a video on why it took ten years to find an arrow head in the ice man.

It seems the more they look into ancient man, the more ancient man resembles modern man, and not a man-ape type thing.

Don't tell me they want to race swap Otzi the Iceman. We are not at Disney's and Otzi is no little mermaid.

Thanks so much :) 🗻🏔️❄️☃️ Very well researched and produced you even pronounced Őtzi correctly. The comments are interesting.. so, I’m thinking “dark” could mean olive colored skin, which people have in the Eastern European Mediterranean area.

According to Ancestry I’m related to Otzi. So cool!