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Ötzi the Iceman , Europe ’s onetime mummy , likely suffered a head injury before he decease roughly 5,300 eld ago , according to a new protein analysis of his brain tissue paper .
Ever since a couplet of hikers stumbled upon his amazingly well - preserved icy body in the Alps in 1991 , Ötzi has become one of the most - examine ancient human specimen . His face , last meal , vesture and genome have been reconstruct — all bring to a picture of Ötzi as a 45 - class - honest-to-god , skin - wearing , tattooed agriculturalistwho was a aborigine of Central Europeand suffered from heart disease , joint pain in the neck , tooth decay and probablyLyme diseasebefore he died .
The mummified body of Ötzi.
None of those conditions , however , straightaway go to his dying . A wound reveals Ötzi was hit in the shoulder with a virulent artery - pierce arrow , and an undigested repast in the Iceman ’s stomach suggests he was ambuscade , researchers say . [ Mummy Melodrama : Top 9 Secrets About Otzi the Iceman ]
A few years ago , a CAT scan showed colored spots at the back of the mummy ’s cerebrum , indicating Ötzi also hurt a blow to the head that knock his brain against the back of his skull during the fatal onset .
In the newfangled discipline , scientist who looked at dope - sized samples of head tissue paper from the corpse find traces of clotted blood cells , suggest Ötzi indeed suffered bruising in his brain shortly before his death .
But there ’s still a piece of the Neolithic slaying mystery that remains unsolved : It ’s ill-defined whether Ötzi ’s brain injury was triggered by being bashed over the straits or by falling after being struck with the arrow , the investigator say .
The bailiwick was sharpen on protein found in two brain sample distribution from Ötzi , recovered with the assistance of a reckoner - controlled endoscope . Of the 502 different proteins identify , 10 were related to blood and coagulation , the researcher said . They also found evidence of an accumulation of proteins related to tenseness reception and combat injury healing .
A separate 2012 field detail in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface appear at themummy ’s red line cells(the oldest ever identify ) from a tissue paper sample take up from Ötzi ’s wounding . That research read traces of a clotting protein called fibrin , which appears in human profligate at once after a person sustain a combat injury but disappears cursorily . The fact that it was still in Ötzi ’s blood when he die suggests he did n’t survive long after the injury .
protein are less susceptible to environmental pollution than DNA , and , in the case of mummies , they can disclose what form of cell the consistence was producing at the time of last . A protein analysis of a15 - twelvemonth - old Incan female child , who was sacrifice 500 class ago , recently revealed that she had a bacterial lung infection at the fourth dimension of her death .
" protein are the critical players in tissue and cells , and they conduct most of the processes which take blank space in cells , " Andreas Tholey , a scientist at Germany ’s Kiel University and a researcher on the fresh Ötzi study , say in a statement .
" Identification of the proteins is therefore central to understanding the functional potential of a exceptional tissue paper , " Tholey added . " DNA is always constant , irrespective of from where it originates in the trunk , whereas protein provide precise data about what is fall out in specific regions within the body . "
In addition to the protein related to clotting , Tholey and colleagues also identified dozens of proteins known to be abundant in brain tissue in the sample from Ötzi . A microscopic analysis even revealed well - preserve neural cellular telephone structures , the researchers said .
" investigate mummified tissue can be very thwarting , " study author and microbiologist Frank Maixner , of the European Academy of Bolzano / Bozen ( EURAC ) , said in a statement . " The sample are often damaged or contaminated and do not necessarily yield results , even after several attempt and using a miscellanea of investigative methods . When you think that we have succeeded in identify actual tissue changes in a human who populate over 5,000 days ago , you could begin to see how pleased we are as scientist that we persisted with our inquiry after many stillborn attempts . "
Their inquiry was detail in the journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences .
