The presence of male-pattern baldness variants in the genome suggests an alternative or complementary explanation: Ötzi may have been losing his hair naturally before he died.

The researchers noted, with a certain dry scientific humor, that the findings suggest the Iceman in life may have looked more like the mummy looks today than the artistic reconstructions had suggested.

The mummy’s appearance — dark, weathered, largely hairless — may be closer to Ötzi’s actual living appearance than the more robust, lighter-skinned, full-haired figures that populate the reconstructions.

This is a small but humanizing detail. Ötzi was a middle-aged man who was going bald.

He had dark skin, dark eyes, and thinning hair.