5,000 Year Old Iceman May Be Dead

[Magrittes Pipe]

<snip>

ROME -- Researchers suspect a 5,000-year-old mummy frozen in the Italian Alps might have been deceased for some time before its discovery in 1991, a doctor who cares for him said Monday.

EEGs have shown a disturbing lack of cerebral activity that could be caused by death, said Eduard Egarter Vigl, in charge of the Iceman's care at the South Tyrol Archaeological Museum in Bolzano, Italy.

The museum is trying to find local companies that can analyze the air in the sealed-off chamber where the Iceman is kept to test for the presence of death, Egarter Vigl said in a telephone interview.

He denied media reports that death could cause the zombification of the Iceman, also known as Oetzi. But if death present, decapitation will be necessary "just to be on the safe side."

German hiker Helmut Simon discovered Oetzi during a 1991 hiking trip.

Oetzi is kept in an "igloo" made out of ice tiles to keep him in cold and humid conditions. Museum visitors can view Iceman through a small window.

Oetzi has provided researchers with a wealth of information about the late Neolithic Age, or 3,300 to 3,100 B.C.

[davidinalameda]

1. Huh?

I don't understand

[matcom]

2. nice

:D

[SOteric]

3. Darn. To whom do we send flowers?

[RedCloud]

8. Send them to his mummy!

[kick-ass-bob]

4. Dammit! I had hoped this wasn't the case.

:cry:

[Orsino]

5. In his last throes, anyway. n/t

[TrogL]

6. link please

:wtf:

[Zuni]

7. I'd hate to be stranded

in an old farm house surrounded by these pre-historic icemen

[Kellanved]

9. And don't forget "cursed"

"Dead and cursed", now that's a combination.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

10. Something was obviously lost in the translation.

[elperromagico]

11. He MAY be dead... unless Congress acts now

to save his life. :silly:

[jandrok]

12. Was his feeding tube removed?

Get Frist on the phone! Alert the media! Mobilize some picketers!