Ötzi was part of this world.

And what his genome would eventually reveal was that he was part of it in a specific and distinctive way — a way that the first genomic analysis got wrong, and the second got right.

The First Genome: What 2012 Got Wrong

In 2012, the first complete genome of Ötzi was published.

It was a landmark achievement — the first time the genome of a mummy had been sequenced — and it provided genuinely important insights into the genetics of prehistoric Europeans.

The 2012 genome identified several key facts about Ötzi’s ancestry and biology.