The plant remains from the Iceman´s find spot

In connection with the sensational discovery of the Iceman in the Ötztal Alps a lot of plant material was recovered during two excavations at the find spot in 1991 and 1992. The plants were trapped in the clothes of the Iceman or in the ice of the gully, and much more plant remains derive from sediment samples of the gully basin. This plant assemblage is unique for its composition and preservation. It is the highest subfossil plant assemblage ever found in the Eastern Alps. The preservation is excellent, being embedded in the ice of a glacier for more than 5000 years the plant remains are more or less unaltered. Only a small amount of this plant assemblage is investigated up to now, in particular the wooden artefacts, the binding material, and the grass of the cloak. The rest of the plant remains, from the sediment samples, ice samples and the washing residue of his clothes are unknown up to now. Beside the fact that the investigation of these plant remains completes the archaeological facts, they can add a lot of detail information about former environment, climate and diet of the Neolithic Iceman. This plant assemblage consists of plants from different sources: - those, which have grown at the site, - those, which were adhering to the clothes of the Iceman and - those, which were transported to the find spot by wind, animal or human activity. The plant remains grown at the site inform about the local vegetation on the Tisenjoch at the Icemans arrival. These data contribute to the question, if the gully in which the Iceman was found, was free of ice or not, and to the taphonomic conditions at the find spot. From the subfossil plant remains the climate conditions at the Tisenjoch during the lifetime of the Iceman can be inferred and add information about a period of reduced glacier extent in the Eastern Alps. Representing the highest subfossil plant assemblage in Eastern Alps it will also contribute to the chorology of the Alpine flora during the Neolithic. The plant remains adhering to the clothes of the Iceman give additional information about the environment the Iceman lived. In the clothes and in the ice samples edible plants (einkorn, barley, sloe) were found. More of these edible plants are expected in the sediment samples and add further information about useful plants of the inner alpine area during the late Neolithic.

This project deals about the reconstruction of the place where the Neolithic Tyrolean Iceman, called "Ötzi", died. Analyses based on the distribution of the plant remains retrieved from the discovery place of the Iceman together with data from forensic investigations of the mummy and from archaeological excavations, strongly suggest that the Iceman died in an area about five metres south-west of the position where he was discovered in 1991. The basics of this study are the circumstances of Ötzi`s death, which are still ambiguous. The original suggestion that he possibly had died from exhaustion and hypothermia on the bolder, where he was discovered, is seriously opposed by the recent discovery of a fresh shot wound in his back, indicating that the Iceman died within a short time. Additionally, first studies on the wooden artefacts and their positions in the gully suggest that the find assemblage inclusive the body had possibly been displaced by wind or water, so that they don`t reflect the primary position at Ötzi`s death. The plant distribution of the find assemblage contributes to clarify whether the discovery positions of the body and the other findings correspond to their original positions at the time of Ötzi`s death, and thus provide cogent evidence of the last moments in Ötzi`s life. This study of more than 40,000 plant remains from the discovery place of the Tyrolean Iceman has yielded new evidence of plants from a multitude of ecosystems and taxonomic groups. The spectrum of identified cultivated Neolithic plants has now been extended by the cereal Panicum miliaceum, as well as by the two oilseeds Papaver somniferum and Linum usitatissimum, so far the oldest finds in the Eastern Alps. Most of the recovered plant remains were transported to their finding place by wind or by human/animal action. Their distribution pattern as well as those of the artefacts in the rocky hollow and their concentration on the rocky ridge adjacent to the south of the gully, indicate Ötzi`s place of death was where his bow, axe and carrying frame was found. The pattern of the find assemblage at the time of discovery was most probably caused by a displacement either by wind, melting snow and/or by water in a resulting melting water pool. Considering that Ötzi died in late spring, and that, at that time, the gully presumably was covered with several meters of snow, the body must have lain in or on the snow first and then, during the following thawing, was transported to the bottom of the gully.