Word: similaun
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Through it all, the object of this desire and celebrity has remained mute, though his very appearance on the scene has spoken volumes. He is known as the Iceman, a Stone Age wanderer found one year ago remarkably preserved in the melting Similaun glacier high in the Alps. His discovery has already upset some long-held notions about the late Stone Age, chilled relations between Austria and Italy -- near whose border he was found -- and stimulated tourism and commerce. His age, established by radiocarbon dating as approximately 5,300 years, makes him by far the most ancient human being ever...
...thought at first it was a doll's head," says Helmut Simon, the German tourist who spotted the Iceman on Sept. 19, 1991, while on an Alpine walking trip with his wife. On closer inspection, however, they realized that the head and shoulders protruding from the Similaun glacier were human, and seeing a hole in back of the skull, suspected foul play. Hurrying to a hikers' shelter to report their find, they set in motion a series of blunders that nearly deprived the world of a priceless treasure...
...desert sand to the Alpine ridges. "This is a common phenomenon," explains climatologist Dreiseitel, "but in 1991 it coincided with a winter that produced little snow, and the coating of sand increased the rate of melt on the high peaks." All over the Alps that summer, glaciers retreated -- including Similaun. Even then, it was only by chance that the world learned of the Iceman. "By the end of September," says Spindler, "he would have been buried under a half-meter of snow. Most probably, he would have remained in his glacial grave for at least another hundred years...
...headed into the Tyrolean Alps, which run between Austria and Italy. Up high in the mountains, at about 3,200 m (10,500 ft.), something happened -- an accident, a violent blow -- that took his life and left him to be swallowed by the Similaun Glacier. There he lay, locked in a crevasse, buried, frozen, forgotten...
...pair of German climbers, the mummified corpse was identified last week as a rare human specimen from the early Bronze Age, possibly the oldest ever found in Europe. Although hundreds of Bronze and Iron Age bodies have been found in the bogs of northwest Europe, the "Iceman from the Similaun," as he was dubbed by the Austrian press, is much better preserved. It was a find of "extraordinary scientific significance," says Professor Konrad Spindler at the University of Innsbruck, where the Iceman was flown for detailed study...
| 1 |