What is clear is that he had access to copper and had the social connections or the skills to obtain a finished copper axe, which was one of the most technologically advanced and symbolically important objects of his era.

The Bone Chemistry And What It Revealed About Diet

Beyond the stomach contents, Ötzi’s bones and teeth provided another window into his diet and lifestyle through the analysis of stable isotopes.

Stable isotope analysis examines the ratios of certain isotopes of elements like carbon, nitrogen, and strontium in skeletal material.

These ratios reflect the diet of the individual: different foods have different isotopic signatures, and those signatures are incorporated into the body’s tissues during life.

By measuring the isotopic composition of bone collagen (which records diet over the last several years of life) and dental enamel (which records diet during childhood), researchers can reconstruct the dietary patterns of different periods in an individual’s life.