Episode 26 - Otzi

Your journey had already been long. A days-long snow storm had kept you at a campsite nearly twice as long as intended, and prevented you from making the summit you’d been hoping for.

So, although you were delayed, when the storm broke, you began hiking up toward the glacier that capped the mountain. Your group would be ascending up the ice face, crossing a narrow crevasse near the top of the glacier, and then climbing the last stretch to the summit of the mountain.

The day started early. You and the rest of the climbers packed up camp and headed out. The way was difficult, made more so because of the recent snow, but your guides were good.

By midday, you had reached the bottom of the glacier and began the long climb. Finally, you reached the top. The crevasse and its narrow bridge established by the previous climbing crew were evident. And a small cavern in the glacier’s ice.

Your guides seemed surprised by the cavern, and you opted to go explore it. Although they warned of its dangers, they weren’t going to stop you.

You stooped into the low cave, and found it went deeper into the ice than you expected. You clicked your small flash light on and pressed in, a few more feet, a few more and you were unable to crouch. To continue you’d have to crawl.

That’s when you saw him. The iceman.

Otzi, also known as the Iceman, is the oldest known natural human mummy in Europe. He was found in the Otztal Alps on the border between Austria and Italy in 1991. And his discovery offered an amazing new view into the Copper Age of Europe.

His story is an interesting one. The incredibly preserved body has offered insight into the people that lived in the region as long ago as three thousand BC.

He, and his belongings that were discovered with him, reside now in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy.

Otzi’s discovery, like the discovery of so many natural mummies, is a rare and useful thing. They offer an amazing glimpse into the past that is impossible in any other situation.

Preserved as they are, we can learn about the way they died, the things they ate, the tools they used. The way they lived.

But, like so many things not well understood, they develop something of a reputation. And in the case of Otzi the mummy, he developed a reputation as dangerous. Not for any mundane cause, but instead, because he is responsible for the Iceman’s Curse.

So I invite you to join me in exploring the story of Otzi, pass Through the Veil, and face the Iceman’s Curse.

Your band hurried down the mountain far enough that you could make radio contact with the base at the bottom of the mountain. You announced excitedly, you’d found something.

At first, they seemed to think that somebody was hurt. But after you insisted that nobody was harmed, that the body was old and you thought valuable, that they seemed to understand.

The base said they would call a university nearby. Lacking any other instructions, you returned to the glacier’s foot and planned the climb for the next day. You would go back to the cave, and begin the work of extracting the body from the ice.

Morning came, and you started bright and early, climbing up the face and making your way into the cave. You worked well into the afternoon with ice-axes to break it free from the ice.

In the end, it took several days, and nearly a dozen other climbers, joined by workers from the university for the second half, to extract the body. And from there, you worked with the crew to get the body back to the foot of the mountain.

You didn’t make the summit ever, but somehow, working with the other climbers, and getting the body down from the glacier was as good.

Otzi was discovered on September 19 of 1991 by two tourists.

Helmut and Erika Simon were traveling through the Otztal Alps and walking off the path between two mountain passes.

When they first saw Otzi, they thought it may be the body of another mountaineer, lost and dead within the past few years. They reported the body and over the course of the next three days, several groups worked to excavate the body.

By the 24th of September, Otzi was being examined at the University of Innsbruck.

Over the course of time, Otzi has been physically examined, measured, x-rayed, and dated using a variety of techniques.

By our best estimates, Otzi was 160 centimeters, that is 5 feet and 3 inches tall, when he died; weighed about 50 kilograms, 110 pounds, and was probably around 45 years old.

With CAT scans and microscopic analysis, scientists estimate that he ate a small meal less than two hours before he died, and the analysis provided an amazing glimpse into the diet of Copper Age Europeans.

Among other insights, we also discovered that Otzi was heavily tattooed, worked with copper-smithing, and probably was a high-altitude shepherd.

It had been around a week since you got the body back down from the mountain. Since it had been carted off in a museum-branded vehicle that was partnering with the university in researching the body.

You had mostly lost touch with it since, only calling the museum to ask after a finder’s fee once you realized that you were entitled to a fee for a discovery like this.

They were being dodgy about the whole thing, but thus far you had not gotten lawyers involved.

Then you read the headline. One of the people you’d worked with on the excavation, another climber, had died in an accident. You hadn’t known him well, but it still struck you how abrupt it was.

Then, over the course of days, four more deaths. The second was your guide on the climb. The third and fourth, another pair of climbers.

The headlines started calling it a curse, and you began to get worried.

Otzi’s find, while it was, and has been an incredibly important scientific discovery, was nonetheless plagued by dispute.

First and foremost, Otzi’s discovery site was contended by Austria and Italy. The border between the two was defined by the water shed of the rivers Inn and Etsch. Otzi’s site drained into the Austrian side, but surveys showed that the body was actually 100 meters inside Italian territory. Therefore, South Tyrol in Italy was declared the proper owner of the remains. They agreed to let the Innsbruck University conclude its investigations before the remains were transferred to the Museum of Archaeology.

But this was not the end of the legal disputes surrounding Otzi.

Italian law entitled the Simons to a finders’ fee for the remains equal to 25% of the value of their find. When they pressed for what the law said they were due, the South Tyrol government offered a symbolic reward of 10 million lire, something like 5,200 euro or roughly 6000 dollars.

The Simons declined and filed a lawsuit to enforce their right to a reward. The lawsuit was filed in 2003, and including the appeals through several layers of court, the process lasted until 2008, when Mrs. Simon and the provincial government finally came to a settlement that awarded her 150,000 euros, or roughly 170000 dollars.

Over the course of his time in the public eye, Otzi developed a reputation of bearing a curse. A curse that was inflicted upon all those who disturbed the mummies rest, took it away, and examined it.

The curse was built around the deaths of several people connected to Otzi after his discovery. Many of the deaths are alleged to be mysterious, and more were in strange accidents.

In total, seven deaths have been attributed to the curse over the years.

However, while the curse has developed a reputation and creates a mystique that has drawn attention to Otzi for the decades since his discovery, skeptics are quick to argue against its existence.

The fact is, seven people have died that were connected to Otzi’s discovery, recovery, and examination. But that is out of hundreds that were involved with the effort over the years.

Otzi was an incredible find that has provided a wealth of information about the Copper Age of Europe that is unrivaled. His body, and possessions, have given us glimpses into a time that is otherwise mysterious.

We learned of the diets, habits, and tools. It held evidence of an unprecedented quality. And while his contributions to archaeology have been amazing, if you buy into superstition, that knowledge came with a cost. Disturbing Otzi’s eternal rest called down a vicious curse responsible for several deaths.

Whichever version you prefer, his importance to our understanding cannot be over-estimated.

Thank you for joining me for this episode of Through the Veil. I hope you enjoyed. I encourage you to subscribe to receive new episodes weekly wherever you listen as we continue our exploration of folklore, myth, and magic.

If you are enjoying the show, and have subjects you would like to hear covered, please email me at throughtheveilpodcast@gmail.com or reach out on Twitter, you can find me @ThroughVeil.

As always, thank you, for listening.