“Over the next 1,500 years, during especially hot summers, the remains and
artifacts were partially exposed, which explains the deterioration of the most
exposed parts of the body and additional damage to the artifacts. Eventually,
around 3,800 years ago, snow and ice finally sealed off the gully until the
discovery of the mummified remains in 1991.”
(Ötzi was a recurring interest of my old @sben_links account on Twitter, the
predecessor to this microblog. If I had completed my long walk in
2017, I would have passed through the next valley east
from where he was found, and would have certainly stopped by his
museum when the trail passed through Bolzano.)
“Nearly every one of the 382 stone tools unearthed at Xiamabei is less than four
centimeters long; making and using these smaller blades would have allowed early
humans to do more work with less material. Handles helped make the tools easier
to grip and more versatile; [Fa-Gang] Wang and his colleagues found one bladelet
with part of a bone haft still attached to the stone.”
“[Ludovic] Slimak and his colleagues say that there was probably less than a
year between the end of Neanderthal occupation here, in Layer F, and the time
our species moved in, in Layer E. That makes it very likely that the two
species actually met and interacted at the site, or somewhere very nearby.”
“Bennett and his colleagues radiocarbon-dated seeds from the layer just below
the oldest footprints and the layer just above the most recent ones. According
to the results, the oldest footprints were made sometime after 23,000 years ago;
the most recent ones were made sometime before 21,000 years ago.”
“This single discarded piece of ancient chewing gum tells us that the ancient
woman … was probably lactose intolerant, ate duck and hazelnuts, and may
recently have had pneumonia. She also had blue eyes, dark brown hair, and dark
skin.”