Otzi the Iceman, the oldest mummy in Europe, likely suffered from a head trauma before his death approximately 5,300 years ago, according to a new protein analysis of his brain tissue, published on Live Science.
Otzi is one of the most studied specimens of ancient humans. Scientists have reconstructed his face, his last meal, clothing and genome. These findings have all contributed to forming a picture of what Otzi's life as a 45-year-old was like in a culture as a tattooed agriculturalist who wore animal hide and likely suffered from heart disease, joint pain, tooth decay and possibly Lyme disease before his death.
None of these many afflictions were the cause of death, however, so the scientists kept looking. A shoulder wound indicated that Otzi was hit with an artery piercing arrow, and an undigested meal in his stomach indicate to researchers that he was ambushed.
A CAT scan has previously shown dark spots at the back of his cerebrum, indicating that Otzi suffered head trauma that caused his brain to knock against his skull. They believe that to be the fatal blow.
In the new study, the scientists looked at pinhead-sized samples of brain tissue, where they found traces of clotted blood cells, as well as evidence of accumulation of proteins related to stress response and wound healing, indicating that Otzi did suffer brain bruising before his death.
A study in 2012 that appeared in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface examined Otzi's red blood cells from a sample of the wound. They found traces of a clotting protein called fibrin, which appears in the blood after a wound is sustained, but disappears quickly. The fact that it was still present in Otzi's blood indicates that he didn't survive long after being wounded.
"Proteins are the decisive players in tissues and cells, and they conduct most of the processes which take place in cells," Andreas Tholey, a scientist at Kiel University in Germany, said in a statement. "Identification of the proteins is therefore key to understanding the functional potential of a particular issue."
It's still unclear to the researchers whether Otzi's brain injury was a result of being bashed over the head of by falling after being hit with the arrow.
The research was published in the journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences.
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