ARCHAEOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY—EXPLORING HISTORY WITH CHEMISTRY - Chemistry: Notable Research and Discoveries - page 185

Analyses of food and drink are not limited to the residues of un-
consumed substances. In the Iceman's case, scientists had access to the
body—and therefore to Ötzi's last ingested meals.
Franco Rollo and his colleagues at the University of Camerino in
Italy studied DNA extracted from samples of Ötzi's intestinal contents.
Using PCR, with primers designed to amplify a number of different
genes from various plants and animals, the researchers discovered the
remains of two meals, based on their position in the intestines. (Ötzi's
stomach was empty, which meant that he had not eaten in a few hours
before the time of death—the meals had enough time to move into the
intestines.) One sample came from the ileum (the final portion of the
small intestine), and the other, which had moved farther down the di-
gestive system, came from the colon in the large intestine. The earlier
meal, the remains of which were in the colon, contained DNA from an
ibex (a mountain goat) and some cereal plants. Ötzi's last meal, located
in the ileum, consisted of red deer and cereals. The researchers pub-
lished their report, “Ötzi's Last Meals: DNA Analysis of the Intestinal
Content of the Neolithic Glacier Mummy from the Alps,” in a 2002 is-
sue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
rEvISITIngTHEPAST
The chemical techniques discussed in this chapter have granted archae-
ologists an incredible ability to revisit the past. With the aid of chem-
istry, archaeologists now believe they have a rough idea of Ötzi's last
days. his knowledge includes the analysis of his meals but goes much
further—researchers have used the intestinal contents to track Ötzi's
final journey. The key component in this study was pollen.
Pollen consists of reproductive cells released by plants (and some-
times carried by insects) at certain times of the year. Individual spe-
cies of plant are identifiable by the grains of pollen they generate. Klaus
Oeggl of Innsbruck University, James H. Dickson at the University of
Glasgow in Scotland, and their colleagues have studied pollen samples
obtained from Ötzi's digestive tract. Some of this pollen may have been
eaten intentionally, but Ötzi probably swallowed most of it accidentally,
either in the course of eating a meal or by inhalation.
Oeggl and his colleagues discovered pollen from the hop hornbeam
tree, which grows in warm environments at lower altitudes. This tree
blooms in the springtime, indicating that the Iceman died in spring.