‘Iceman’ Was at Home in the Stone Age, New Carbon Tests of Frozen Remains Show

Carbon-dating tests now show the naturally mummified body of an ancient hunter found in an Alpine glacier could come from the late Stone Age nearly 5,500 years ago, up to nine centuries earlier than previously thought.

Walter Leitner of Innsbruck University said the latest results of dating tests on samples from the find put the age of the deep-frozen corpse at between 4,931 and 5,477 years.

The 5-foot body, found last year with bow, quiver, ax and stitched hide clothing, is considered by scientists to be the oldest and best preserved specimen of early man ever found.

Earlier carbon-14 radioative dating tests on grasses found inside the clothing of the “iceman”--as he has been called by the media here--indicated the body was between 4,600 and 4,800 years old, suggesting he came from the early Bronze Age.