In September 1991, an ordinary Alpine hike turned into something extraordinary, changing the course of modern archaeology. While out for a walk, Helmut and Erika Simon spotted what looked like a body on a glacier along the Austria-Italy border. No one imagined they'd stumbled upon an ancient find; they thought it might just be a recent victim of a climbing accident, considering the dangerous conditions up in those mountains.
According to a review in the National Center for Biotechnology Information, what first looked like a modern-day fatality was actually one of the oldest and best-preserved mummies ever found, and the initial confusion gave way to astonishment when tests revealed the person's true age.
But what the world didn't know then was that the body had been preserved in ice for over five thousand years. When people discovered its true age, it was named Ötzi the Iceman. He's a Copper Age mummy, naturally preserved, that gave scientists tons of insights into how Europeans lived way back then.
