ABSTRACT
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Parkin: “dk9272_c016” — 2007/7/27 — 20:19 — page 924 — #2
Archeological evidence indicates that humans have utilized animal products, including meat, as sources of food for thousands of years. This fact was dramatically illustrated following the discovery by mountain hikers in 1991 of Eis Mann (Ice Man), the frozen remains of a man found in a glacier high in the Italian Alps. Ötzi, as he affectionately came to be known by the area residents, had apparently died approximately 5100-5300 years ago. Various lines of evidence suggest that he was a hunter who may have died of arrow wounds as a result of a rivalry with another hunter or hunting groups [1]. His body was so well preserved by the glacial ice that it was possible for scientists to use recombinant DNA methodology to analyze the contents of his gastrointestinal tract in order to determine what he had eaten in his last two meals. The penultimate meal prior to his death consisted of meat from an ibex (a type of wild goat once found in the Alps) as well as cereal grains and other types of plant food. His final meal included red deer meat and possibly cereal grains.
