The Iceman: Uncovering the Life and Times of a Prehistoric Man Found in an Alpine Glacier

Summary

The spectacular discovery of a Stone Age man in the Alps. Who was he? What was he doing there? How did he die? 'The scientist does not like to take words like great moment or other superlatives in his mouth, but in this case, even the dry scientist gets a little excited.' With these words, scientists in 1991 announced the unprecedented discovery of a well-preserved Stone Age man in an alpine glacier - a man who, incredibly, had been buried in ice for 5,000 years. This is the story of what happened when the most stunning archaeological find of the century dropped into the laps of a few Austrian scientists one September afternoon. Iceman takes us inside scientific investigations by the anthropologists, botanists, and archaeologists who saw in this lonely frozen figure the clues to longstanding questions about the world of 3,000 BC. It also dramatically chronicles their debates and ego trips and the unexpected twists in their research, including the claim that the Iceman was a fraud and the mystery of his missing penis.