Otzi The Iceman Case Study

Superior Essays
Otzi the Iceman
PBS NOVA Iceman Murder Mystery 2011. YouTube, 16 Feb. 2013. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.
Jessica Alcala
Professor Patrick O’ Neil
Anthropology

Introduction: In September 1991, a pair of hikers wandered off the trail in the Italian Alps discovered a frozen body laying on a rock. The body was later confirmed by experts to be the preserved body of a man who was about five thousand years old during the the time of the Neolithic era. The man was named “Otzi” after the mountains in where he was discovered, he is considered to be one of the first and only most preserved human body with no signs of decomposition with skin, eyeballs and organs still intact. Otzi is one of the most important preserved mummy with many scholars
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Some archaeologists first thought that Otzi was making a hike up the mountain and unfortunately got caught in a storm. In an open multi-dollar museum where the ice man is put on displayed in a custom room, the museum celebrates a thousand year old homicide case. In the film doctors and scientist are preparing to perform a very risky operation on the mummy by having a dangerous procedure of defrosting the body for the very first time. It is explained that one of the risks of the operation is the fact that in the room many doctors and scientist will bring in bacteria and germs with them. Another risk was explained that scientist did not know if the mummy still had living organisms that would be reactivated during the defrosting. Any damage to the body itself would cause a major loss since many archeologists and scholars depend on this well preserved corpse to uncover the truth in one of history 's crucial moments from five thousand years …show more content…
The depth of the film cover almost every bit of information for any person who wants to learn about the world’s most preserved human body without having to read hundreds of articles about the studies performed on the corpse and the discoveries that were found. Many subjects that were included in the film were quite accurate that can be found in several articles about the corpse probably more since the film showed the risky procedure of extractions of DNA of the body when it was defrosted for the first

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