5,300 Year Old “Otzi The Iceman” Wore Bear-Fur Hat

The 5,300-year-old “Otzi The Iceman” wore a bear-fur hat and leggings made from goat leather.

The 5,300-year-old “Otzi The Iceman” wore a bear-fur ha. South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

Ötzi the Iceman was discovered, frozen in the Ötztal Alps in 1991, when tourists found his mummy preserved in an alpine glacier on the border between Austria and Italy.

Nicknamed Ötzi, the mummy is believed to have lived around 3,300 BCE, during the Copper Age.

When unearthed, Ötzi was wearing leather clothing, carrying a leather quiver, and had a fur hat.

 Ötzi - the Iceman / South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

Scientists used DNA sequencing to determine which animals provided Ötzi, with his clothes.

Part of woven grass cape worn by Ötzi - the Iceman / South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

Mitochondrial DNA from nine samples revealed that Ötzi’s apparel consisted of hides from five different species: goat leather (leggings), a sheep hide (loincloth), a roe deer (quiver), cattle hide (shoelaces), a brown bear (fur hat), and a warm coat made of goat and sheep hides stitched together.

People from this time and place were believed to be farmers, so leather made of livestock skins makes sense.

Ötzi was a hunter carrying a bow and arrows, as well as a copper axe. He had tattoos on his body, which probably had spiritual or medicinal purposes.

Ötzi died from an arrow wound in the shoulder, possibly due to an ambush or a hunting accident. His body was quickly covered by snow and ice, preserving it for millennia, until its discovery.

The right shoe was still on Ötzi’s foot when he was found. It was an oval piece of grass covered with degraded deerskin fur, worn with the hair-side out.  Ötzi - the Iceman / South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

The analysis of Ötzi's stomach contents revealed a meal of ibex meat and red deer, even pinpointing specific plant types he had consumed.

Otzi was approximately 45 years old at the time of his death and stood at about 5'2" (160 cm) tall.

His body was found in a glacier, which allowed his remains and belongings to be so well-preserved for over 5,000 years.

Ötzi and his various artefacts have been exhibited at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, since 1998.