Mummified remains of man killed in European alps provide clue to timing of migration from north Africa

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The gut microbes of the Ötzi the Iceman, a 5,300-year-old mummy found frozen in a European glacier in 1991, have shed new light on the history of human migration, scientists said on Thursday.

Researchers thawed the remains of Ötzi, who was killed by an arrow when he was between 40 and 50 years old and hiking across the Ötztal Alps, which straddle modern-day Italy and Austria.

Ötzi the Iceman: scientists find 5,000-year-old blood sample Read more

When they tested the contents of his stomach, they found a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori, an age-old pathogen that has evolved into different strains according to the region of the world in which it is found.

“Surprisingly, a strain of bacterium in his gut shares ancestry with an Asian strain,” said the study in the US journal Science. “In contrast to the fact that most modern Europeans harbor a strain ancestral to north African strains.”

If the stomach contents of the Iceman is a good reflection of Europeans 5,300 years ago, the analysis suggests that African migration had not yet resulted in intermingling with the Asian strain of the bacterium.

“This one genome has put things into wonderful perspective for us,” said Yoshan Moodley, a researcher at the University of Venda in South Africa.

“We can say now that the waves of migration that brought these African Helicobacter pylori into Europe had not occurred, or at least not occurred in earnest, by the time the Iceman was around.”

About half the people on the planet have the bacterium in their stomachs. It can cause ulcers or gastrointestinal distress and is typically spread among children when they play in dirt.