Last supper of Oetzi the Iceman

Scientists have revealed that the last meal of the frozen hunter who died 5,300 years ago in the Alps was well-balanced but also alarmingly high in fat

Oetzi: found in 1991 on frozen glacier
AUSTRIA 
ITALY

Reconstruction

Lost organ: Latest investigation based on contents of stomach – only discovered recently
as it was misplaced under rib cage during mummification

High-fat diet: Fat content found to be 50% of total – much higher than 10% average in modern diet

DNA analysis indicates Oetzi ate both muscle and fat of ibex – species of wild goat that lives in European Alps – as well as red deer

High-fat diet may have given Iceman energy he needed to survive long trek at high altitude

Ibex (Capra ibex)
500 microns*

Wheat grain spikelet found in stomach

Carbohydrates: Plant fragments come mainly from einkorn – early form of domesticated wheat

Traces of toxic bracken may have been swallowed unintentionally or as medicine for parasites previously found in gut

Male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas)

but also alarmingly high in fat

*micron = one millionth of a metre



Sources: Current Biology, Eurac Research Institute for Mummy Studies
Pictures: Marco Samadelli/Eurac/South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology via AP, Current Biology, Getty Images, Kenraiz, Frederik Vandaele       © GRAPHIC NEWS