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Ötzi (also called Ötzi the Iceman, the Similaun Man, the Man from Hauslabjoch, Homo tyrolensis, and the Hauslabjoch mummy) is a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived about 3,300 BC. The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence Ötzi, near the Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy. He is Europe's oldest natural human mummy, and has offered an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic Europeans. His body and belongings are displayed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy.


Discovery

On 19 September 1991, Ötzi was found by two German tourists from Nuremberg, Helmut and Erika Simon, at 3,210 metres (10,530 ft) on the east ridge of the Fineilspitze in the Ötztal Alps on the Austrian–Italian border, while walking off the path between the mountain passes Hauslabjoch and Tisenjoch. They believed that the body was of a recently deceased mountaineer. The next day, a mountain gendarme and the keeper of the nearby Similaunhütte first attempted to remove the body, which was frozen in ice below the torso, using a pneumatic drill and ice-axes, but had to give up due to bad weather. The next day, eight groups visited the site, amongst whom happened to be the famous mountaineers Hans Kammerlander and Reinhold Messner. The body was semi-officially extracted on 22 September and officially salvaged the following day. It was transported to the University of Innsbruck, where it was recognized to be primeval the same day.

At the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919), the border of Austria and Italy was defined as the watershed of the rivers Inn and Etsch, and Ötzi's find site drains to the Austrian side. However, the border veers slightly away from the watershed, and surveys in October 1991 showed that the body had been located 92.56 metres (101 yd) inside Italian territory. The province of South Tyrol therefore claimed property rights, but agreed to let Innsbruck University finish their scientific examinations. Since 1998 it has been on display at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol.