His immune system, analyzed through the presence of certain proteins in his tissues, showed signs of active immune response at the time of his death — suggesting he was fighting some infection, possibly related to his wounds or to an ongoing illness.

This medical record, extracted from a body that had been dead for five thousand years, painted a picture of a man who was not in the best of health.

He was carrying multiple chronic conditions, experiencing pain from arthritis and possibly from Lyme disease, fighting some kind of infection, and had survived previous physical trauma.

He was, in the medical sense, an ordinary middle-aged man of his time: carrying the accumulated wear of a physically demanding life, managing chronic conditions with whatever resources his culture offered, and pressing on regardless.

The World Ötzi Lived In