海角大神

脰tzi the Iceman's hard-core leather outfit would have made animal rights activists shudder.

The 5,300-year-old聽, whose remarkably preserved body was found frozen in the Tyrolean Alps in Austria, once sported an outfit made almost completely of animal skin, new genetic evidence suggests. And scientists even know which animals were used to make this Stone Age getup.

"We have discovered that the iceman's clothes were composed of an array of different animals," said study co-author Niall O'Sullivan, a doctoral candidate in archaeology at the University College Dublin in Ireland and researcher at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman, EURAC research in Bolzano, Italy.

The new findings reveal even more about one of the best-studied mummies on Earth. []

Most famous of mummies

脰tzi the Iceman was first discovered by hikers in the 脰tztal Alps, along the border with Austria and Italy, in 1991. Since then, the astonishingly well preserved body has been scrutinized down to the tiniest detail, from his clothing, to聽, to his last meal, to his likely cause of death and聽. A genetic analysis in 2013 even found some of the.

A 2008 study determined that some of the hair from 脰tzi's animal-skin clothing came from domesticated animals. Yet despite decades' worth of extensive analysis of minute details, researchers had yet to determine exactly which animals contributed their skin to 脰tzi's fashion sense.

To answer that question, O'Sullivan and his colleagues attempted to gather genetic data from 脰tzi's outfit. This could be a tricky task, as the leather might have been treated by scraping, intense heating and exposure to fatty acids, the researchers wrote in the study, which was published today (Aug. 18) in the聽. Later, researchers handling the garments might have contaminated the material, while the freeze-drying used to preserve it could have further damaged the genetic material, the researchers said.

Menagerie of animals

By using more modern, next-generation sequencing techniques that amplify certain target strands of DNA, the team was able to identify the species associated with each piece of clothing.

脰tzi's leather overcoat was made of a grab bag of at least聽four different individual animals from two species聽 鈥� sheep and goat 鈥� while his lighter coat was made of sheep. His leggings were made of goatskin, perhaps because that type of animal skin provided the suppleness needed for walking, the researchers hypothesized in the paper. To top off the wardrobe, his leather shoes were stuffed with grass, and he sported shoelaces derived from聽, or auroch, the researchers found.

This outfit would have been quite toasty in the chilly Alpine region, as most of the clothing would have been stuffed with grass or other filling to add extra warmth, O'Sullivan said.

His furry hat was once part of a聽, while his quiver was made from a roe deer. Those findings suggest that 脰tzi had access to trapped or hunted game.

"It is probable that the Iceman was not a hermit. He likely traded furs or domestic animals," O'Sullivan told Live Science in an email.

However, without any written history, there's no definitive way to know whether 脰tzi trapped those animals himself or traded for them 鈥� or whether 脰tzi himself was a skilled tailor or he procured the finished clothing somehow, O'Sullivan added.

Original article on聽.

Editor's Recommendations

Copyright 2016聽, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.