World's oldest blood

World's oldest blood cells found in 5300-year-old 'iceman' mummy

World's oldest blood found in 5300-year-old mummy

"Oetzi" the "Iceman" died after being shot by an arrow

Lived for "some time" after he was shot.

THE world's oldest red blood cells have been found in the body of a 5300-year-old lactose intolerant "Iceman", called "Oetzi".

The mummy was found in the Alps in 1991 by a pair of hikers, and research published today confirms the mysterious circumstances surrounding Oetzi’s death.

Oetzi suffered a violent end, with an arrow severing a major blood vessel between the rib cage and the left scapula, as well as a laceration on the hand, the scientists from the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich said.

But he managed to live for “some time” after being shot.

The researchers determined through DNA that Oetzi was a handsome, if not somewhat sensitive Iceman who was about 1.6m tall, with brown eyes and hair, who weighed 50kg and was allergic to milk products.

This supports the theory that despite the increasing spread of agriculture and dairying at the time, lactose intolerance was still common.

The researchers used nano-scale methods to probe the oldest blood known to modern science, preserved by thousands of years of alpine chill.

Using a so-called atomic force microscope able to resolve images just a few nanometers (billionths of a metre) across, they identified corpuscles with the classic doughnut shape of healthy blood cells.

“To be absolutely sure that we were not dealing with pollen, bacteria or even a negative imprint of a blood cell, but indeed with actual blood cells, we used a second analytical method,” biological anthropologist and lead researcher, Albert Zink, said.

They deployed Raman spectroscopy, in which refracted light from a laser beam gives chemical clues about a sample.

This showed the presence of haemoglobin and fibrin, which are key components in blood clotting, at the arrow wound on Oetzi's back.

“Because fibrin is present in fresh wounds and then degrades, the theory that Oetzi died straight after he had been injured by the arrow, as had once been mooted, and not some days after, can no longer be upheld,” Mr Zink said, referring to a previous theory reported in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface and published by Britain's academy of sciences.

According to a theory aired in 2010 by an Italian archaeologist, based on seasonal pollen found in his stomach contents and at the burial site, Oetzi did not die at the spot where his remains were found. Instead, he was only ceremonially interred there. (Herald Sun/ Fox News)