He has inspired novels, artworks, plays, and more documentary films than can be easily counted.

This public fascination is worth analyzing, because it reflects something about the relationship between the present and the past, and about what kinds of evidence generate emotional engagement with prehistory.

The factual content of Ötzi’s story — the farming practices of the Copper Age, the population genetics of prehistoric Europe, the history of copper metallurgy — is not, in isolation, more inherently fascinating than many other topics in prehistoric archaeology.

What makes Ötzi different is the person.