The image of Ötzi is now substantially different from what it was before the 2023 analysis, and it is more accurate for that difference.

But Ötzi is still, ultimately, more than a collection of genetic findings.

He is one of the clearest human windows into prehistoric Europe ever found — a window shaped by the extraordinary coincidence of a protected hollow, a specific glacier regime, five thousand years of cold, and a pair of German hikers who looked in the right direction on a warm September afternoon.

He is not just a frozen curiosity.