Ötzi the Iceman
was fully clothed when he died...but
his clothing did not fare well during the 5,300 years that he lay
undiscovered in the glacier. A good part of it
disintegrated...and when he was found, he was mostly naked except
for his shoes.
Still,
researchers were pleased to find any clothing at all, since this type
of material is very rare. When his body did appear from the ice, the
back of his clothing was badly damaged (some even blew away), but
because he was lying face down, substantial parts of his clothes were
saved.
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His clothing
included:
two shoes
a kind of goatskin
poncho or coat
a bear fur cap ties with two
leather straps
two goatskin leggings
a goatskin loincloth
a woven grass mat
(purpose unknown)
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Two of the items were particularly
interesting to scientists and historians.
1. His shoes. When he was
discovered, the Iceman was wearing only his right shoe. They
were made of various animal
skins: bearskin soles, deerskin insteps, and chamois/cow/calf/linden bark uppers.
The uppers were worn with fur on the outside and laced up. Dried tree
bark (lime bast) was also stuffed inside the shoes to keep his feet warm. Although
these are the oldest "shoes" ever found, a pair of 10,000-year-old slippers
was discovered in Oregon, so they are the oldest footwear.
2. The grass mat. The mat, woven
from swamp grass, was found in three separate pieces. At first, archaeologists
believed that this was a cape, but the shoulders part of the cape seemed too
narrow to be of any use. Instead, researchers now believe that this mat was worn
over his head...as a type of protection from the rain (or possibly even
snow).
