On September 19th, 1991, the German couple Simon hiking in the Ötztal Alps at a height of 3200 m on the Italian-Austrian border discovered a mummified corpse in the melting ice. After the announcement, an Austrian rescue team tried to release the corpse from the ice. On September 23rd the body and the collected pieces of his equipment had been brought to the Innsbruck University. The archaeologist Konrad Spindler supposed at first sight a Bronze Age man by the axe. Radiocarbon examinations and material composition of the axe dated the Iceman 3500-3300 B.C. (Copper Age).

Where did he come from, and where did he go?

The corn and pine grains and a high level of arsenic detected in the clothes and cloak refer to a corn-growing and metal-working community living in a mild-climate area. The Iceman’s stone tools are from a 30-50 km wide district. He probably left at the end of spring.

Who could be this man?

Béla Őry is practising the profession of experimental archaeology for decades. He has made the pieces of the Iceman’s clothing and equipment using the tools of the Copper Age technological level. The exhibition shows not only the reconstructions but these tools and the short summaries about the production of each important object.