Oetzi the iceman, whose 5,000-year-old remains were found in the Alps 21 years ago, might have died of a heart attack had he lived longer and was allergic to milk products, newresearch suggests.
It indicates that cardiovascular disease is by no means an illness chiefly associated with modern lifestyles
After analysing raw data gained from a sequencing of Oetzi’s DNA, researchers have discovered he was genetically predisposed to cardiovascular disease, and that he already had a hardening of the arteries when he was killed.
“The evidence that such a genetic predisposition already existed in Oetzi’s lifetime is of huge interest to us,” said anthropologist Albert Zink and bioinformatics expert Andreas Keller.
“It indicates that cardiovascular disease is by no means an illness chiefly associated with modern lifestyles. We are now eager to use these data to help us explore further how these diseases developed.”
The findings by the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman at the European Academy of Bolzano (EURAC) in Italy, and Tuebingen and Saarland universities in Germany, were published in the new issue of the magazine Nature Communications.
Their findings also indicated that Oetzi’s ancestors had migrated from the Middle East, with their genetic heritage most common today in geographically isolated areas and islands such as Sardinia and Corsica.
They also confirmed that Oetzi had brown eyes and hair, and was allergic to milk products, supporting the theory that despite the increasing spread of agriculture and dairying at the time, lactose intolerance was still common.
The ability to digest milk throughout adulthood developed steadily over the next millennia alongside the domestication of animals, the researchers said.
Oetzi’s mummified remains were discovered in September 1991 in the Oetztal Alps – hence the nickname – in South Tyrol, northern Italy, by two German hikers, in what became an archaeological sensation.
Research showed that he suffered a violent death, with an arrow severing a major blood vessel. He is believed to have died around the age of 45, was about 1.60 metres tall and weighed 50 kilograms.