BOLZANO, ITALY, June 23 (DC Times Online) — A peer-reviewed study in Microbiome says Ötzi the Iceman’s 5,300-year-old remains contain traces of four cold-adapted yeast species, adding to evidence that the mummy preserves both ancient and modern microbes.
Researchers at Eurac Research said they detected the yeasts in skin samples, meltwater inside the mummy and stomach contents. They also reconstructed the microbes’ genetics and reported that multiple species could be grown in the lab, yielding four viable strains.
According to the study, three of those strains could use phenol, a compound used to prevent fungal growth, as a food source. The authors said the finding may help explain how some microbes persist in the mummy’s subzero storage conditions, but they also said some organisms may have been introduced after discovery or during conservation.
The researchers described Ötzi’s remains as a dynamic biological interface where ancient glacier-derived microbes and modern contaminants coexist under museum conditions. The study also reported degraded and modern DNA fragments, which the authors said fits with the possibility that the mummy’s environment has changed over time.
Ötzi was found in the Alps in 1991 near the Austria-Italy border and is now kept in a cold cell at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy. Museum records say radiocarbon dating places him around 3300 BC, making him Europe’s oldest known natural human mummy.
