BOLZANO, ITALY, June 23 (DC Times Online) — A peer-reviewed study in the journal Microbiome says researchers found four cold-adapted yeast species on Ötzi the Iceman’s remains, using samples from his skin, stomach contents and meltwater inside the mummy.
The team from Eurac Research said the genetic work points to Ötzi’s body as a “dynamic biological interface” where ancient glacier-born microbes and modern contaminants can coexist under museum conditions. The researchers also reported degraded and modern DNA fragments in the samples.
In laboratory work, the scientists said they grew multiple microbe species and produced four viable yeasts. Three of them could use phenol, a compound used to prevent fungal growth, as a food source, according to the study.
The authors said some microbes may have been introduced during discovery and preservation, and they said the findings are consistent with the idea that the mummy thawed and refroze several times over thousands of years. The study does not establish that any microbe survived unchanged from Ötzi’s lifetime.
Ötzi was discovered in 1991 in the Alps near the Austria-Italy border and is dated to about 3300 BC, making him Europe’s oldest known natural human mummy. His remains are kept in a cold cell at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy.
