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Oetzi Update

10 November 2022
Archaeology, Climate change

At https://notrickszone.com/2022/11/08/belief-of-steady-5300-year-climate-unravels-otzi-got-exposed-again-and-again/ .. researchers now say the 5300 year old Oetzi corpse did not remain covered by ice since 3300BC [formerly 3200BC prior to IntCal modification]. Oetzi, the ice man. was discovered as a glacier receded in the Alps, some years ago. It was thought the body was originally at a higher altitude but had moved downwards over time. This idea is still true – but moving downwards now has a slightly different dynamic. Glaciologists from Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland now believe Oetzi has been exposed several times during the last 5000 years. The findings are published in the journal Holocene – see https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/09596836221126133 … It seems Oetzi’s body and its equipment are not really a pristine time capsule. They lay exposed on several occasiona.

This finding is not really a surprise as the 3200BC event involved roughly 200 years of cool weather and changes in sea level. Temperatures were much lower – hence the expansion of the glacier. It was very much like the 6200BC event – but not as disastrous. These dates have been revised by IntCal 2013 and later IntCVal adjustments of dating methodology. In other words, these events, involving lower temperatures, are sort of like mini dryas events, or mini Heinrich events, and somewhat of a mystery. They were followed by warming – a return to normal temperatures, if there is such a thing, or a distinctly warmer climate over several hundred years. There were several notable warm periods that could explain the exposures of Oetzi. The so called Minoan Warm Period [coinciding with the LB era]. the Roman Warm Period [roughly 200BC – 200AD], and the Medieval Warm Period [roughly 950AD – 1200AD]. During one of these warming events Oetzi’s body ended up in a hollow in the ground, face down. Hence, it never moved further downwards and refroze during the cool episodes. If it had moved downwards the body probably would have been lost to posterity. It was its position in that hollow that allowed the corpse to survive – thawing and freezing.

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