‘Ötzi the Iceman’ was infected with common STI before death 5,300 years ago

LEGENDARY “natural mummy” Ötzi the Iceman was infected with a cancer-causing virus.

The ancient human, who live around 5,300 year ago, was found mummified and stunningly preserved in the Alps.

His body was discovered in late 1991, and was noted for having clothes and tools still intact.

He’s been well-studied, with scientists analysing his tattooed skin, an arrow injury, and parasites in his intestines.

But scientists now say he also carried HPV16, a “high-risk” human papillomavirus that has a strong link to multiple cancers.

It’s a DNA virus that increases the risk of cancers of several parts of the body, including mouth, tonsils, and throat.

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HPVs are actually extremely common and most don’t cause problems, but some can lead to serious health problems.

And it’s believed that after analysing DNA sequences collected from Ötzi, the Iceman was carrying the virus.

They also found evidence of the virus in another individual called Ust-Ishim that dates back 40,000 years, and was discovered around 3,000 miles away in Siberia.

Ötzi was first discovered in the Ötztal Alps, which is a mountain range in the central-eastern Alps between Austria and Italy.

He’s the oldest-known natural human mummy in Europe, and was found 10,500 feet up on a mountain ridge.

The body was first discovered by a pair of tourists who initially thought that Ötzi was a doomed mountaineer who had only recently died.

Eventually he was extracted from the ice and determined to having lived sometime between around 3300 BC and 3100 BC.

He was about 5ft 3 inches tall and weighed around 110lbs at the time of death – though at the time of retrieval, he weighed just 30lbs.

Scientists think that he may have been 45 years old when he died.

Inside his stomach was the partly-digested remains of ibex meat.

This meal may have been eaten less than two hours before death.

There were high levels of copper and arsenic in his hair, and he was found with a copper axe blade, which may mean he was involved in smelting.

And he was plagued by several health issues, including intestinal parasites.

Evidence gathered from his fingernails indicated several periods of sickness in the months leading up to his death.

And his lungs were blackened by soot, which may be linked to being near fires for cooking food and staying warm.

One of the most notable features of Ötzi is his heavily tattooed body – with 61 counted in total.

He wore leather clothes and a woven cloak made from grass. Tools found with Ötzi included a yew longbow, a quiver, a knife, arrows, two baskets, and some berries – as well as his copper axe.

There have been several theories about what killed Ötzi, including exposure and sacrifice. It’s also been suggested that he was killed lower down in the mountains before being buried at altitude.

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This research was posted to bioRxiv and was carried out by researchers from the Federal University of São Paolo.