The remains of people who lived thousands of years ago can only reach today with only a few bones, unless the mummification method used at that time was used. But the mummies, which have managed to stay in good condition, allow us to go down to the genes of people who lived in the past.
One of the most important mummies for science and humanity in this regard is the mummy called ‘Ötzi’, also known as the ‘Ice Man’ and discovered by tourists in the Ötztal Alps in 1991. But while the mummy was well preserved, critical physical features such as its origin and skin color were not clarified – until now.
Ötzi was an Anatolian person and had dark skin!
According to the announcement shared by the Max Planck Society, scientists managed to reveal Ötzi’s origin and skin color. Using modern techniques and comparative data, scientists re-sequenced Ötzi’s genome to reach critical information.
As a result of the examinations, it was seen that Ötzi had dark eyes and skin color. Moreover, skin color was the darkest discovered among Europeans of that time. But the resequencing genomes showed that Ötzi was not as similar to the Western Steppe Shepherds as previously thought.
In contrast, Ötzi’s genes were similar to those who farmed in Anatolian lands. Moreover, it turned out that Ötzi came from an isolated community that had little contact with other European communities, and that this community migrated to European lands without mixing with other communities.
What is also known about his hair has been renewed:
It was assumed that Ötzi had long hair, like many people of that era. But the new results revealed that Ötzi had very sparse hair on his head and was prone to baldness. This result also explained why there was no hair in the present case.
The reason for these false findings obtained in the first studies was shared as the contamination of the original samples with modern DNA.
The results of the research were published in Cell Genomics.
Ötzi’s It is estimated that he lived between 3400 and 3100 BC.
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