| Prehistoric
Underpants |
| The Iceman
Of Bolzano, Italy |
| By Bonnie Burns |
| They say he
died 5,300 years ago. It must have been a shock to the two German
tourists who found him sticking out of a melting alpine glacier.
The mummy, Iceman, now rests in the northeast part of Italy in a town called
Bolzano.
How they determined
with such precision when he died is a mystery to me. As far as I
am concerned, the scientists can quibble about this all day long.
Myself, I was more interested to know what he had for lunch and what he
was wearing when he was shot in the shoulder with an arrow from behind.
Le menu du
jour included venison and grains. It is hardly believable that a
meal consumed 5,300 years ago can be proven today. |
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| Equally astonishing
are his well-preserved clothes. When they found him, he was wearing underpants
held up by a belt underneath his leggings. Underpants! Not
only that, but his shoes had real shoestrings and his cap was tied under
his chin with sewn-on leather straps.
Never in a
million years would I have guessed underpants, shoestrings and a cap that
tied were in use so long ago. What this suggests is clothing has
not come a long way in 5,300 years.
They believe
he was a man of wealth because his clothes were tailor-made. Wealth
back then? Tailor made clothes? How could they tell?
Apparently, while out of town on a hunting trip, he had to make some repairs.
The give-away was the more recent stitching was sloppier than the stitches
in the rest of his garments.
Upstairs in
the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, the mummified Iceman is on display
in a refrigerated glass case. Under the circumstances he does not
look too bad, but you may not crave beef jerky for awhile. |
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| In addition
to hosting this fascinating museum, Bolzano is a unique Italian town.
Here is one place in Italy you can feel like you are somewhere else.
In particular, you will feel like you are in Austria.
The town has
been shuffled between countries so often, it is no wonder the people of
Bolzano have decided to take a wait-and-see attitude before learning Italian
and replacing the German street signs. After all, they have been
part of Italy again only since 1919.
These things
take time.
Sitting in
an outdoor café in the Waltherplatz in Bolzano’s old town, an Austrian
beer seemed more appropriate than an Italian expresso. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| By the time
the irresistible, greasy smell of grilling sausage drifted to my table,
it was time to go find a restaurant. Finders...Keepers
Helmut and
Erika Simon, the German tourists who stumbled across Iceman, filed a lawsuit
demanding to be legally identified as Iceman's discoverers.Recently, the
Italian court decided in their favor. Now they are legally entitled
to a finder’s fee of up to twenty-five percent. The next step is
to determine Iceman’s value. This should prove interesting.
To contact Bonnie
Click Here |
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