Italy's 5,000-Year-Old Iceman Put Up a Fight [DNA of 4 foes, venison and ibex his final meal]

Reuters/Yahoo ^ | 8-11-03 | Shasta Darlington

[Democratshavenobrains]

Wow, a European that actually fought. Too bad his kind can't reclaim their continent from the Euro-wussies.

[LaraCroft]

Fascinating.

Isn't it amazing how ingenious humans really are?

[templar]

Sure would be nice if they'd stop defiling this poor man and let him rest in peace.

I don't know. He obviously fought well in his final battle, and it was never known to his people. Maybe it's right that he finally gets some recognition. He was a warrior, a hunter, not a farmer. It's good that he is recognized as such.

IMO.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

I was in Bolzano (Bozen to the Austrians)

I saw the exhibit in April just a few weeks after the war on Iraq began. One has to wear headphones for English narrations of the displays.

I never understood why my Italian friends always said that many northern Italians were blond and blue-eyed and much different than the southern Italians from which much Italian American stock is derived. It turns out that the Austrian Empire once extended down into northern Italy leaving a strong Germanic imprint on the culture there. If you think bilingualism is an American-Spanish problem, go to a northern Italian city or town. Official business has to be said once in Italian and then again in Italian. Each city has two names, Italian and German versions. They do have the world’s best tomatoes.

[nutmeg]

read later bump

[gnarledmaw]

...Austrian Empire ...

Yes but I believe the people you speak of were already there. Helvetians.

[Thorondir]

LOL! That's why I love the FR!

[Lockbar]

Wow! DNA?? I'm kind of glad they found his enemy's DNA on arrow tips. Since he was originally found laying on his stomach, I thought, ....well maybe,.... never mind. Boy, do I have a sick mind!!

[stck]

I never understood why my Italian friends always said that many northern Italians were blond and blue-eyed and much different than the southern Italians from which much Italian American stock is derived. It turns out that the Austrian Empire once extended down into northern Italy leaving a strong Germanic imprint on the culture there. If you think bilingualism is an American-Spanish problem, go to a northern Italian city or town. Official business has to be said once in Italian and then again in Italian. Each city has two names, Italian and German versions.

The Austrian Empire has nothing to do with it. The German-Italian language border is one of the oldest in Europe (goes back to 7th century). Annexation of Tyrol up to the Brenner Pass was the main price for Italy's entry into WWI on the side of the Entente and vs. her actual allies Austria and Germany. To keep an illusion of legitimacy, at the peace conference in Saint Germain Italians presented a fictional map of South Tyrol with 20.000 invented Italian topographic names.

If it wasn't for Mussolini, who with Hitler's assistance tried to italianize South Tyrol by banning the use of German, settling Italians in Bozen and Meran, transfering ethnically German as well as Ladin Tyrolians to the Reich, there'd barely be any Italians north of Cavalese at all.

Today Tyrolean patriotism is still strong, and only bought off by heavy subsidies from Rome. In the 60s power poles were blown up in a series of bombings, and even the UN were occupied with the problem. As late as 1992, after 22 years of negotiations, the matter was settled between Austria and Italy, and South Tyrol was granted autonomy.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

The Austrian Empire has nothing to do with it. The German-Italian language border is one of the oldest in Europe (goes back to 7th century).

It's not quite clear to me when Italian arises as a recognized language once Latin died as a spoken language. I read that Italian comes to full fruition in the Renaissance, the 1300 or 1400‘s. After the fall of Rome, Lombards from Eastern Europe or Asia moved into northern Italy around 600. The Franks make a brief occupation a couple of hundred years later. Finally the Germans arrive, the Holy Roman Empire in the late 900’s. They stay for quite awhile until that empire falls apart. The Austrian Empire takes over lasting about 500 years until they fall apart at the end of WWI. Germans or Austrians, what’s the difference? They both speak German. I got all this from the Penguin Atlas’s of History in about five minutes.

[SunkenCiv]

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[Alkhin]

I never understood why my Italian friends always said that many northern Italians were blond and blue-eyed and much different than the southern Italians from which much Italian American stock is derived. It turns out that the Austrian Empire once extended down into northern Italy leaving a strong Germanic imprint on the culture there

This is true! My grandmother on my father's side was from northern Italy, in an area near Parma called Seren di Grappa. Her maiden name was Biondini, which means "little blonde" - and true enough, she and two of her sons have the fair hair/fair skin/blue eyes. My dad's hair was black as coal, but he has the blue eyes as well.

[RightWhale]

Official business has to be said once in Italian and then again in Italian

Second time with feeling.

[OESY]

I seem to recall that 14 Italians won medals at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. When asked by a reporter if they spoke a foreign language, they answered "Yes, Italian."