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On a warm September day in 1991, two German
hikers stumbled upon a frozen, intact body melting out of
the remains of a glacier in the Tyrolean Alps. Over the
next few days, as a parade of often irreverent visitors
poked and prodded the mummy-like corpse, curious items began
to emerge from the ice: an ax with a metal blade, a longbow,
finely stitched leather clothing, and -- most astonishing
of all -- boots stuffed with grass. But only after the corpse
was recovered and taken for an autopsy to the medical examiner
in Innsbruck, Austria, did a vigilant archaeologist recognize
that this was no ordinary dead body.
Iceman is the story of the international
scientific investigation launched to study the world's oldest
naturally preserved human corpse and the astounding cache
of prehistoric personal effects found with it. The dramatic
narrative takes us from the day of the Iceman's discovery
through eight years of scientific investigation, political
intrigue, bizarre theories, and ravenous media coverage.
The product of more than one hundred interviews
with researchers in Austria, Italy, and Germany, Iceman
follows scientists into labs and archaeologists into the
field as they search for clues to the life and times of
a man who lived before the advent of writing and cities.
Who was he? Why were parts of his equipment damaged and
unfinished? Where was he going? How did he die?
Iceman is not merely a compendium
of data but the story of the forces that produced and shaped
them. At times, debates over who owned the Iceman and what
should be done with him overshadowed the research. Brenda
Fowler chronicles the scientists' squabbles and ego trips
and the unexpected twists in the research, including the
claim that the Iceman was a fraud and the mystery of his
missing penis. Along the way, the authority of science is
powerfully questioned and then, largely, reaffirmed in a
surprise ending that has already led to a reexamination
of the Iceman's final hours and his five millennia in the
ice.
Brenda Fowler was born in Iowa in 1963.
As a Vienna-based contributor to The New York Times,
she covered Central Europe and the discovery of the Iceman.
Her work has also appeared in The Times of London
and The New York Times Magazine. She lives in Chicago.
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