Scientists have made a new discovery regarding the digestive system of Otzi, the well-preserved remains of a 5,300-year-old European Iceman who was found in 1991 in the Alps, that may reveal the pattern of migration of prehistoric man.
The European Academy of Bozen's Frank Maixner, one of the study's authors, noted that Otzi provides a ton of information of how prehistoric Europeans lived.
"We have many skeletons from that period, but we can see his organs, his clothes... He provides a huge package of information," Maixner said, according to New Scientist.
The research team recently examined his digestive tract. "His stomach was completely filled - he ate quite a lot before he was murdered," Maixner added.
Found in his stomach was the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, one that is very common among human viruses.
"The extant European population of H. pylori is known to be a hybrid between Asian and African bacteria, but there exist different hypotheses about when and where the hybridization took place, reflecting the complex demographic history of Europeans," the team wrote.
The study suggests that the bacterium represents a pure Asian origin.
"Here, we present a 5300-year-old H. pylori genome from a European Copper Age glacier mummy. The 'Iceman' H. pylori is a nearly pure representative of the bacterial population of Asian origin that existed in Europe before hybridization, suggesting that the African population arrived in Europe within the past few thousand years," the team added.
The bacterium present in Otzi the Iceman's remains still exists in Europe, although it is already a hybrid of strains from Eurasia and Africa, according to The Telegraph.
The discovery follows three years after researchers found out that Otzi the Iceman had been hit with an arrow and was clubbed to death, as HNGN previously reported.
The study was published in the Jan. 8 issue of the journal Science.
