In 1991, two hikers taking a mountain shortcut spotted a dark shape in the ice and found a 5,300-year-old traveller |
A chance discovery in the Ötztal Alps in 1991 unearthed Ötzi, the Iceman, a Copper Age individual preserved for 5,000 years. The air is sparse in the upper reaches of the Otztal Alps, but the only sounds that intrude upon the silence are those of footsteps trudging across the snow. It was September 19, 1991,…