Ötzi the Iceman's Gut Bacteria Can Help Us Trace Early Human Migration
Ötzi the Iceman's Gut Bacteria Can Help Us Trace Early Human Migration
The 5,300-year-old natural mummy dubbed Ötzi the Iceman, discovered in 1991, is still teaching us things. A multidisciplinary team of scientists at European Academy of Bozen have studied Ötzi’s gut bacteria to learn more about early human migration patterns.
Ötzi the Iceman did not have a lucky life. He had hardened arteries, he was infected with whipworm, he had multiple fractures in his ribs, and he died courtesy of an arrow to the shoulder. A new report, published in Science, shows that he was infected with an ulcer-causing strain of H. pylori. But what’s bad for the Iceman is good for us.
H. pylori has been one of human kind’s closest companions for the last 100,000 years. It mutates faster than humans do, so when a population is isolated, it develops its own strain of bacteria. When two populations get close, especially when children play together, they spread bacteria from one population to another. Modern populations have their own strains of H. pylori, and all of these seem to be descended from six major ancestral strains.
The researchers took a look at the food and tissue taken from Ötzi’s gut, and identified different strains of H. pylori. This image shows the concentrations found in various sections of his intestines. The shapes next to the words correspond to the sampling sites shown in the diagram.
What they found was a strain that closely corresponded to what the scientists call an Asian strain. But doesn’t mean that Asian people lived in Europe five thousand years ago. According to the scientists, the Asian strain originated in Asia, and then slowly migrated its way over to Europe over thousands of years. Ötzi’s gut bacteria shares the highest level of ancestry with bacteria taken from modern Europeans.
It is, however, missing something that modern European populations have—a North African genetic component. Ötzi’s gut bacteria indicate that contact between European and North African people started sometime after the copper age, in keeping with evidence from other fields.
So archaeology, history, and now microbiology are all giving us similar pictures of how human populations moved millennia ago.
[The 5300-year-old Helicobacter pylori genome of the Iceman]
Two Feathers's Link
A Mysterious Mammoth Carcass Could Change Human History
The carcass was remarkably well preserved, but something was clearly wrong. A rounded hole through the interior jugal. Deep incisions along the ribs. Dents in the left scapula. A broken mandible.
This 45,000 year-old mammoth’s life ended violently at the hands of hunters. That wouldn’t be surprising—it’s well known that Pleistocene humans were expert mammoth killers—but for the location. It was excavated from a permafrost embankment at Yenisei bay, a remote spot in central Siberia where a massive river empties into the Arctic Ocean.
That makes this brutalized mammoth the oldest evidence for human expansion into the high Arctic by a wide margin. Its discovery, published today in Science, might push back the timeline for when humans entered the northernmost reaches of the world—including the first entries into North America.
“We [now] know that the eastern Siberia up to its Arctic limits was populated starting at roughly 50,000 years ago,” said Vladimir Pitulko, an archaeologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences and lead author on the study. “This makes our window into the remote part [of the planet] open wider.”
Bones of the ancient beast were first discovered jutting out of a river bank in 2012. The Russian Academy of Sciences deployed an excavation team to study it. That team, led by Pitulko and Alexei Bystrov, soon realized they were looking at something unusual.
“When the frozen block with the carcass arrived in St. Petersburg, I went to the Zoological Museum to look at bones and a tusk,” Pitulko said. “The second bone which I picked up (that was the fifth left rib) had a clear pattern of human impact. Then other injuries were discovered.”
The injuries, Pitulko said, were without a doubt caused by human hunters. And when the archaeologists returned to the scene to collect soil samples for radiocarbon dating, things got really interesting.
Radiocarbon analysis revealed the mammoth was killed 45,000 years ago—in a part of the world where humans weren’t supposed to be living at that time. The closest other evidence of modern humans is from dig sites located over 1,000 miles south and ten thousand years later.
The discovery challenges our current understanding of early human history. Archaeologists believe that the ability to survive in far northern climates was related to technological advancements, including the widespread adoption of ivory hunting spears. If those advances had already occurred 45,000 years ago, then people could conceivably have crossed the Bering Land Straight into North America around that time. By comparison, our current oldest evidence for humans in North America only dates back about 15,000 years.
But of course, just because people could have migrated to North America doesn’t mean they did. But now that the possibility is on the table, archaeologists may start looking harder. “These findings are bringing more questions than answers,” Pitulko said. But eventually, he predicts, “they are going to change the story of our spread across the planet.”
Read the full scientific paper at Science.
Final Days of Ötzi the Iceman Revealed Through New Analysis of His Tools
g
Ötzi the Iceman is the gift that keeps on giving. Found embedded in a glacier in 1991, the 5,300-year-old mummy has offered unprecedented insights into Copper Age Europe. A new analysis of Ötzi’s equipment shows what he was up to in the hours before an archer drove an arrow straight into his back.
The Ötzi mummy has provided scientists with an astounding amount of data in the 27 years since his body was found by hikers in the Ötztal Alps on the border between Austria and Italy. From his exquisitely preserved remains we know that Ötzi was about 45 years old when he was killed. His body was covered in tattoos (61 to be exact), and his stomach contents contained bits of wild goat, grains, and dry-cured meat.
But Ötzi was also found with his clothes and equipment intact. New research published today in PLoS One presents an updated analysis of the Iceman’s toolkit, offering new insights into this remarkable individual and the Copper Age community in which he lived. What’s more, the new analysis paints a clearer picture of Ötzi’s final 48 hours and the events leading up to his death.
Continued at link.
I read a study indicting Otzi was from an island area near Italy, but another study indicated that is where the current population of those people with the specific DNA type live. They once were spread over a vast area inland, close to where Otzi was found so he was not an islander..
Anyone done a DNA profile on themselves and relatives?? The prices are coming way down.
I read a study indicting Otzi was from an island area near Italy, but another study indicated that is where the current population of those people with the specific DNA type live. They once were spread over a vast area inland, close to where Otzi was found so he was not an islander..
Anyone done a DNA profile on themselves and relatives?? The prices are coming way down.
Wealthy folks or thieves/grave robbers...
Neanderthals’ Hunting Practices Reconstructed with Bones, Ballistic Gelatin
The Neanderthals had hunted prodigiously, feeding their growing populations for hundreds of thousands of years. But their technology was limited. So, how did they do it?
A detailed forensic examination of ancient deer bones, and a reconstruction of spear-attacks on bones in modern ballistic gelatin, has provided the answer, according to a German team reporting in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
The bones were from two fallow deer that were killed around 120,000 years ago. The remains were unearthed in excavations around a lake surrounded by forests, the site of Neumark-Nord east of Leipzig. The bones were dug up in context from an interglacial lake landscape, with abundant traces of Neanderthal life.
The bones included more than 200 deer skeletons, in addition to 71 straight-tusked elephants, according to the paper.
Most of them showed basic butchering techniques, where not all the parts were defleshed, and the animals were not disarticulated, according to the scientists.
Two of the skeletons showed wounds that made them stand out. The skeletons had puncture wounds: one had a puncture in the pelvis, and the other had one in the neck.
Both holes showed traits confirming low-velocity entry, with circumference cracks around them. The wound had been made with a conical but sharp tip.
The team at first used a Dino-Lite PRO digital microscope with a 200x magnification, as well as a Lieca reflected-light microscope with a 32x magnification. They also assessed both wounds with micro-computed tomography to get into the details of the perforations.
The likely source of the wounds was clear: a low-velocity spear thrust.
The likely weapon would resemble other wooden spears found at other Neanderthal sites around Europe, the researchers hypothesized. For the pelvis wound, it was likely made with a thrusting upward movement into the back hindquarters of the animal; for the neck, it could have been a horizontal attack, either parallel to the ground, or straight down, while standing over the fallen beast, according to the paper’s findings.
The team decided to teste their hypothesis, using modern analogs to recreate the scene.
Fresh red deer bones from animals recently hunted in Germany were encased in ballistic gelatin.
The spears were made from an aluminum shaft, with sensors, and a wooden tip that would mimic the dimensions of the suspected hunting weapon, according to the paper.
The wood could not be from a yew tree, since it is a protected species under German law, so they used beech wood with a comparable hardness.
Then three men, who were practiced weapons handlers (two with martial arts training and a third with prehistoric spear experience), tried their hand at thrusting into the bones, the scientist report.
The wounds that resulted matched, when compared with micro-CT scans of the ancient remains, the researchers report.
Their conclusion: the Neanderthals used close-range hunting techniques on bigger animals by cooperating closely, driving the beats into the water and subduing them through other stratagems.
“The Neumark-Nord data provide unambiguous evidence for Neanderthals surviving in the most densely forested phases of an interglacial, in which water bodies surrounded by a more varied vegetation acted as magnet locations for large herbivores,” the researchers write. “This created opportunities for concealment of and observation by hunters and, eventually, the close-range kills implied by the identified trauma.”
Ötzi the Iceman’s Final Meal Was Surprisingly Hearty
Scientists taking samples from the Iceman’s stomach. Image: South Tyrol Archaeology Museum\Eurac\M.Samadelli
Since the discovery of his mummified body nearly 30 years ago, Ötzi the Iceman has provided scientists with heaps of information about Copper Age Europeans. An updated analysis of his stomach contents is providing a glimpse into the iceman’s final meal, which was remarkably high in fats.
Ötzi the Iceman’s 5,300-year-old body was accidentally discovered in 1991 by hikers in the Eastern Italian Alps. From his well-preserved remains, we know that Ötzi was about 45 years old when he died and that he was killed by an arrow to the back. The Copper Age hunter’s body was covered in tattoos, and he showed signs of chronic joint pain, Lyme disease, periodontal disease, and ulcers. He also exhibited numerous non-fatal wounds, including a deep cut to his right hand that he received a few hours before his death. Ötzi was also equipped with an assortment of tools, many of which were badly worn and in dire need of replacement. But for some reason, the Iceman did not have a bow and arrow to accompany his arrowheads—a possible sign that he was attacked shortly before his death.
Now, owing to new research published today in Current Biology, we’re getting a clearer picture of Ötzi’s final meal. Previously, scientists had analyzed samples taken from the iceman’s lower gastrointestinal tract, but by investigating his actual stomach contents, a research team led by Frank Maixner from the Eurac Research Institute for Mummy Studies had an opportunity to study other biomolecules, such as lipids, that are still preserved in Ötzi’s stomach but not the lower intestines.
The new research shows that Ötzi’s final meal contained a high proportion of fat, consisting of wild meat from ibex (a mountain goat) and red deer, along with cereals made from einkorn. The scientists also detected traces of the poisonous bracken plant, which Ötzi likely consumed as a medicine to ward off intestinal parasites.
In all, it was a remarkably big and hearty meal—perhaps deliberately so. A surprisingly high proportion of fat was found in the Iceman’s stomach—around 46 percent of his stomach content was made up of animal fat residues. Today, a healthy diet should have no more than 10 percent of such fats.
“Ötzi seems to have been aware of the fact that fats represent an excellent source of energy,” Maixner tells Gizmodo. “The high-Alpine region, about 3,200 meters [10,500 feet] in altitude, where the Iceman lived and was found some 5,300 years after his death, presents a definite challenge for human physiology. It calls for an optimal supply of nutrients so as to avoid a sudden drop in energy. Ötzi’s last meal was a balanced mix of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids—perfectly suited to the demands of life in a high-Alpine region.”
Ötzi, therefore, likely knew in advance that he was about to journey through the mountains, which is why he ate a sumptuous feast loaded with high-fat foods before his final trek. Whether he knew he was about to be attacked or whether the attack was an ambush remains a mystery.
“The Iceman’s stomach content is just a snapshot and probably does not reflect his overall diet,” Albert Zink, a co-author of the new study, tells Gizmodo. “However, we think that Ötzi’s diet was generally well balanced, including game, fat, cereals, and fruits.” Zink says the Iceman appeared to be prepared for being away for several days; in addition to having a big, high-energy meal, he was carrying food with him, including dried meat from ibex and deer.
“Little is known on what people from the Copper Age ate and how they prepared their food,” says Zink. “Our study provided for the first time details on the composition of their meals and also how the food was prepared. Furthermore, it provides first insights into the use of medical plants for the treatment of health problems.”
To reconstruct the Iceman’s final meal, Maixner and his colleagues used an interdisciplinary, “multi-omics” approach, combined with microscopy. This multipronged analysis involved an international team of experts who applied metagenomics (the study of genetic material), metabolomics (the study of chemical process involved in metabolism), lipidomics (the study of fatty acids), proteomics (the study of proteins), and high-resolution microscopy.
Ursula Wierer, an archaeologist from Soprintendenza Archeologia in Florence, Italy, who wasn’t involved with the new study, says the authors “did very good work,” presenting a “combined broad-spectrum methodological approach to establish the exact composition of the Iceman’s diet before his death.”
Wierer says the new study is offering important new information about Ötzi’s final days, and she found the results surprising.
“I find it interesting that the source of meat is represented by wild animals, especially ibex, and not by domesticated animals, even though livestock breeding had been an economic activity of the Iceman’s contemporaries for several centuries,” Wierer tells Gizmodo. “Ibex is a species that lives above timberline, which would’ve required hunting practices in the high altitude zone by the Iceman and/or his community.”
She says the abundant amounts of wild animal fat found in Ötzi’s stomach reminds her of the dietary habits of modern hunter-gatherers throughout the world.
“A diet based on the meat of wild animals hardly delivers enough calories to supply a person with enough energy,” she says. “Therefore, among the last hunter-gatherer communities of Africa and Australia, the most fatty parts were preferred for consumption, to get more calories.”