Recreating the Last Meal of Ötzi the Iceman

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Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | IG @worldagainstjose

PHOTO CREDITS
Ötzi’s Clothes: From the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology

#tastinghistory #iceman

[thesahel]

I find it funny how a lot of ancient kings were obsessed with legacy, only to be completely lost to history. And then there's Ötzi some random guy who will be remembered forever.

[foobles]

Hi, archaeologist here! Just wanted too share the fact that we actually determined where Ötzi might have come from. Based on oxygen isotope analysis conducted on Ötzi's teeth, we actually discovered that Ötzi grew up in the Eisack Valley watershed, and spent most of his time as an adult in the mountains of Vinschgau. Ötzi's history is super fascinating! (Bonus fact; microscopic traces on Ötzi's coat indicated that he spent a lot of time around copper, indicating that he may have been a copper smith! So his axe may have been something he actually created!)

[LvOneRose]

They killed Ötzi for his swag. His shoes were too fresh, his coat too fly, his medicines supreme.

[shelbyoeler]

So what I’m hearing is he was dripped out, iced out, had hella loot, full tummy, and was generally a badass

[neerajsoman]

Here's Max looking sprightly in his 40's, and here I am about to enter my 40's, looking like Otzi...

[ShieldAre]

One interesting part of Ötzi is that he still has all that equipment and especially the copper axe. The axe was probably extremely valuable, so leaving it would have been like killing someone with a clearly visible pouch full of gold coins, and not bothering to take the gold, even though you got close enough to bash their head in. So why would you kill someone and even bash their head in, but not take a second to take the copper axe?

That opens interesting speculation: Was the murder done in such a hurry that they had no time to loot? Was this some sort of ritual murder where the deliberately left him with his valuables? Was the head wound from falling, and Ötzi fell somewhere where he was difficult to get to? Or maybe the copper axe was so distinctive, that taking it would have instantly made you recognisable as a thief and likely the murderer?

[fidget]

Dude’s a badass. Covered in tats and bear skin that he probably hunted himself, super valuable copper axe, body chock full of disease but the only thing that could stop him was an arrow in the back.

[vigilantcosmicpenguin]

The archaeology of Ötzi is incredible but it's also insane to think that, ten millennia from now, some hikers could find my body and write, "At the time he died, he had a papercut and was mildly sleep-deprived. He was carrying a phone and a wallet typical of 21st-century North America, as well as a gum wrapper he hadn't thrown away yet and a cool rock he found. His stomach contained an entire pint of ice cream."

[ffwast]

You _claim_ that the ice man didn't have a weber kettle grill but they just didn't find one with his body, and it would perfectly explain the rest of his possessions being left alone if his attackers were too occupied with carrying away his weber kettle grill.

[LurkerSmurf]

Max missed a golden opportunity. If Ötzi was traveling or on a multi-day hunting trip, the einkorn was probably a prehistoric hardtack.

[marcogazaneo]

The fern he ate is toxic when it's completely grown to a big plant, but when harvested cooked and eaten when it is still very small it's perfectly safe and actually quite tasty. I live in the Palatinate forest and it's a real treat in spring :)

[JS-oboh]

Here's a fact for you: Had Ötzi not been killed or survive the fight, he would had died within 10 years of heart disease. Among the various studies conducted on Ötzi were CT scans of his heart and it came as a surprise that his arteries were as badly clogged as modern humans. He was well on his way to his first (and last) heart attack. Apparently, heart disease has been present in the human population long before the modern era.

[Nurg]

How have they not found his killer yet? #justiceForÖtzi

[ardreth]

I'm an archaeologist from South Tyrol where Ötzi was found and was several times at his finding place :-) So I was really eager to see what you created of the research on his stomach content! Good job and best wishes from the Alps 🙂

[chriflu]

Fun fact: As far as I remember (I was a nerdy 12-year old at the time), Ötzi caused a brief minor diplomatic crisis between Austria and Italy. The German hikers who found him thought they were on the Austrian side of the border and called the Austrian police who took him to Innsbruck, the capital of North Tyrol (Austria). Then the Italians figured out and proved that his finding place was actually on the Italian side of the border and asked for his body to be handed over to Italy. The Austrians were quite unhappy (exacerbated by the fact that they never really got over "losing" South Tyrol to Italy in WW1), and the compromise was that Ötzi is now in Bozen/Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol (Italy), but not in Rome. At the time, a satirical Austrian radio show ("Der Guglhupf") had a rather funny sketch about this which I remember clearly as the point in time when I started enjoying political comedy.

[saintbread]

I actually studied the Copper Axe in my university course, and through Lead-Isotope Analysis the researchers actually found out that the source of the copper came from the Tuscany area, not other copper sources in the nearby Alps, which has leads to many hypothesis but my favourite is that he was a traveler of sorts that had come from or across Tuscany on his journey.

[TheTrekkie]

You’re in your forties???? I thought you were like mid-30s at the oldest. Ötzi, your memory is a blessing and I hope you are resting peacefully in whatever afterlife you’ve ended up in.

[mehmetcemilkarsl]

Blood samples from 4 different individuals were found on his clothes. His recently broken ribs are just starting to heal. a serious wound on his head and a deep cut to the bone on his hand. The arrow on your shoulder is the final point. My friend, this man fought with a group and managed to survive. This group is a minimum of 4 people. Ötzi managed to wound all four of them. He also managed to escape. They are definitely following him. The reason why Ötzi went to the impossible nature is to escape these people. They approached him in a heavy blizzard. They shot him with an arrow, but Ötzi managed to escape again. The fact that the valuable equipment he had with him was not taken is proof that he survived. He survived those people, but died from blood loss shortly after. We will not know whether Ötzi was guilty or a victim.

[batacumba]

Poor Ötzi, the ridiculous amount of injuries, diseases and maladies this guy had really is a grim reminder of how rough it was back then for pretty much everyone. What a trooper. This is a neat way to help memorialize him, I wonder what he’d think of the fact that so many know who he is.

[LeksDee]

3:10 I love how you mention that he probably knew exactly how much of it he could eat for it to not be poisonous, because often times we assume people at that time were just dumber than us when in reality they might've been way more knowledgable when it comes to all the herbs you can find all around you. They could've probably walked into any forest and just live by eating all the different mushrooms and things we call "weeds" now