Added July January 4, 2001. Updated January 17, 2001, 11:36 hours.
Version 1.22
The Iceman’s Food Fight
By
Maximilian O. Baldia ©
(All rights
reserved)
The Iceman has been a continued source of controversy ever since he was found on Thursday, September 19, 1991. He was discovered high at the Hauslabjoch in a glacier of the Ötztal Alps (the Tyrolean Alps) on the Austrian/Italian border. The current debate is about the diet of the Neolithic/Copper Age man.
When the Iceman was found, it was assumed he was a recent victim, leading to questions about the methods used to recover this extraordinary find. Almost immediately after his recovery jurisdictional questions arose. In the end the body was transferred from Austria to Italy under heavy guard for fear of violence.
The Iceman or Ötzi, as he is fondly called in Austria, was first assumed to date to the Bronze Age, based on the traditional Central European Bronze Age axe typology. But the “bronze” axe he carried turned out to be of copper and the find was ca. 5200 year-old.[1]
The popular press has propelled the Iceman into to forefront of archaeological news. Following in the footsteps of the popular press, the Icemen’s diet has been sensationalized in recent scientific publications.
In 1999 scientists from Austria and the US reported the results of their stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis for the hair. (Macko et al. 1999 [Abstract]). The preliminary study indicated a vegetarian diet, which was in agreement with his dental wear pattern.
New controversy arose with the December 2000 claim by Dickson et al., that previous reports drew “ill-founded conclusions” about the diet. Research on the Iceman’s colon content suggests instead that he was an omnivore.
The contents of the colon are reported to contain muscle fibers, cereal remains, various kinds of pollen, hop hornbeam (Ostrya carpinifolia) retaining cellular contents, as well as a moss leaf (Neckera complanata). Eggs of the parasitic whipworm (Trichuris trichiura) were also found. It is argued that “neither the pollen nor the moss” was used as food.
On the whole, “the controversy seems to be inflated” (Stanley Ambrose, University of Illinois in Urbana quoted in Netting 2001). The two articles deal with two different kinds of data sets that provide different information. The hair analysis provides information about long-term diet. The colon content analysis provides information about the most recent meal.
In summary, it looks like the Iceman had “fire-cooked flatbread, herbs and meat” for his last meal. Baked bread should not be a great surprise, since round baking plates, made of pottery, and caches of grains are well known for the Neolithic/Copper Age in Central Europe, as are domesticated animals and hunting. Therefore, the food intake is not a total surprise.
Nevertheless, the controversial diet studies are of great scientific value. They, like the C14 dates and the metal analysis of the axe are propelling Central European archaeology beyond the traditional artifact typologies into scientific analysis of human life ways.
The Iceman’s diet data pertain only the eating habits of one individual in a particular environment, but they raise interesting new questions for archaeologists: Does the Iceman’s eating habit pertain to the wider population? If it is a broader change from a diet based heavily on domesticated animals and grains, could it be the result of climate change? Indeed, climate research suggests a worsening around the time of the Icemen’s death in Central Europe.
One hint that the wider population was effected by a worsening climate at the time of the Iceman is suggested by information from the Horgen culture. Relations between the Iceman and this culture have been discussed in relation to copper production. The Horgen culture is found around Lake Constance (Bodensee) on the Swiss/German border. There is evidence that these people increased their use of wild species at the expense of domesticated ones.
Similarly, climatic change may be at least partly responsible for abandonment of Rmíz, a 17 ha (42 acres) Neolithic/Copper Age enclosure, in the Czech Republic (Frink 1999). The abandonment seems to happen about the time of the Iceman’s death.
Clearly, further research on human bone is needed to provide answers to such questions. Rmíz and related sites, along with dozens of associated burial mounds, are yielding large quantities of well-preserved human bone that could shed light on these questions.
References and Credits
Dickson, James H. Klaus Oeggl, Timothy G. Holden, Linda L. Handley, Tamsin C. O'Connell, Thomas Preston
2000 The omnivorous Tyrolean Iceman: colon contents (meat, cereals, pollen, moss, whipworm) and stable isotope analysis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 355, 1843-1849 (2000)
Macko, S.
A., G. Lubec, M. Teschler-Nicola, V. Andrusevich, and M. H. Engel
1999 The
Ice Man's diet as reflected by the stable nitrogen and carbon isotopic
composition of his hair. The
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal (FASEB J.)
March; 1999 13: 559-562.
Netting, Jessa
2001 Relics: The Iceman Ate-eth Meat. Nature Science Update, Nature, Macmillan Publishers Ltd. January 2, 2001
Spindler, Konrad
1994 The Man in the Ice. Harmony Books, New York.
Rom, Werner, Robin Golser, Walter Kutschera,
Alfred Priller, Peter Steier, Eva M. Wild
1999 AMS 14C Dating of Equipment from the Iceman and of Spruce Logs from the Prehistoric Salt Mines of Hallstatt. Radiocarbon 41/2:183 ff.
Related Links References and Credits
Neolithic/Copper
Age Link Index: Links to News Bulletins, Articles, Site Reports, Databases,
etc. about the Neolithic/Copper Age in Europe.
Please send comments or questions to Max Baldia.