Nautilus

Can We Trace the History of Human Migration Through Our Guts?

Eduard Egarter-Vigl (L) and Albert Zink (R) taking a sample from the Iceman in November 2010.EURAC/Marion Lafogler

n 1991, two German tourists walking an Alpine ridge, between Austria and Italy, stumbled across something shocking: a yellowed but well preserved human body, partially frozen embedded in a glacier. Initially, they believed it to be the remains of a modern mountaineer but it was actually a member of one of the first agricultural societies in Europe. Ötzi, or “Iceman,” as he was dubbed, was dated to be 5,300

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