Otzi The Ice Man

Iceman's 'Girlfriend' Found

Italian workers building an addition to a kindergarten have unearthed a well preserved female skeleton who might be relatively contemporaneous with Ötzi, the Iceman mummy discovered 20 years ago in a melting glacier in South Tyrol.

The "Lady of Introd" or "Ötzi’s girlfriend," as the skeleton was nicknamed in Italy, was found in the tiny Alpine village of Introd, in the Val d'Aosta, famous to be the preferred vacationing spot for both Pope John II and his successor Benedict XVI.

According to archaeologists and anthropologists, the woman has been lying on her right side, with her head facing west, for about 5,000 years.

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The dating to the third millennium B.C. was based on the skeleton’s burial position and stratigraphy, said Vittorio Anglesio, mayor of Introd.

"She appears to have been buried without any grave goods. However, we are now going to extend the dig to better investigate the area," Anglesio told Discovery News.

Moved to a laboratory, the skeletal remains are now being analyzed in order to assess the diet, the age at death, possible diseases and causes of death.

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According to Kristina Killgrove , a biological anthropologist at the University of North Carolina, further research into the woman's diet would be particularly interesting.

"Little direct evidence of human diet has been found from this time period. Ötzi's preservation, of course, provides unparalleled information about his diet, but it would be fascinating to see stable isotope analysis carried out on this skeleton, who lived around the same time and also died in the Alps," Killgrove told Discovery News.

She believes that the "Lady of Introd" likely tapped different food resources since several hundred miles separated her from Ötzi the Iceman.

"In particular, we still know little about what grains people ate at this time, so the Lady of Introd could provide direct evidence of a diet composed of wheat, barley, or millet," Killgrove said.

A New Face for Ötzi the Iceman Mummy | Supreme's Blogs

Ötzi, the 5,300-year-old mummy from the Alps, has a new face. Using a combination of forensic science and artistry, Dutch brothers Adrie and Alfons Kennis reconstructed his face for a new exhibit at the museum where his remains are housed, the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy.

In 1991, hikers stumbled across Ötzi’s mummified and frozen remains, along with his clothes and equipment, in the Ötztal Alps near the Italian-Austrian border. He is believed to have lived between 3350 and 3100 B.C., before Stonehenge or the pyramids of Giza were built.

Various studies have explored how Ötzi died, what he ate and whether he has any living relatives, but one of the most frequently asked questions – what did he look like? – lingers, according to the museum.

The Kennis brothers recreated Ötzi’s face based on 3D images of his skull. A photographer, Heike Engel documented the process for half a year.

A Viennese journalist coined Ötzi’s name, which is derived from the Ötztal Alps, where he was found. The site, shown above, was originally believed to be in Austria, but a survey conducted after the mummy was found revealed it was actually in South Tyrol, Italy.

Previous research indicates Ötzi died from the lost blood caused by a wound from an arrow. But fortunately for history, he died in a protected gully, high in a cold glacier region. Snow covered his body, which remained protected from the flow of the glacier by the gully, according to the museum.

In the time since Ötzi’s discovery, researchers have gleaned bits and pieces of his identity. Ötzi’s bone tissue puts him at about 46-years-old when he died, a ripe old age for his time. He appears typical of the Copper Age in other respects as well, standing about 5 feet 3 inches (1.6 meters) tall and weighting around 110.2 pounds (50 kilograms).

Ötzi’s remains are kept in a refrigerated cell at the museum, which mimics the wet, cold glacial conditions that preserved his body. A unique cooling system makes it possible for the mummy to be displayed.

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