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摘要
摘要
On a warm September day in 1991, two German hikers stumbled upon a frozen, intact body melting out of the remains of a glacier in the Tyrolean Alps. Over the next few days, as a parade of often irreverent visitors poked and prodded the mummy-like corpse, curious items began to emerge from the ice: an ax with a metal blade, a longbow, finely stitched leather clothing, and--most astonishing of all--boots stuffed with grass. But only after the corpse was recovered and taken for an autopsy to the medical examiner in Innsbruck, Austria, did a vigilant archaeologist recognize that this was no ordinary dead body. Iceman is the story of the international scientific investigation launched to study the world's oldest naturally preserved human corpse and the astounding cache of prehistoric personal effects found with it. The dramatic narrative takes us from the day of the Iceman's discovery through eight years of scientific investigation, political intrigue, bizarre theories, and ravenous media coverage. The product of more than one hundred interviews with researchers in Austria, Italy, and Germany, Iceman follows scientists into labs and archaeologists into the field as they search for clues to the life and times of a man who lived before the advent of writing and cities. Who was he? Why were parts of his equipment damaged and unfinished? Where was he going? How did he die? Iceman is not merely a compendium of data but the story of the forces that produced and shaped them. At times, debates over who owned the Iceman and what should be done with him overshadowed the research. Brenda Fowler chronicles the scientists' squabbles and ego trips and the unexpected twists in the research, including the claim that the Iceman was a fraud and the mystery of his missing penis. Along the way, the authority of science is powerfully questioned and then, largely, reaffirmed in a surprise ending that has already led to a reexamination of the Iceman's final hours and his five millennia in the ice.
评论 (4)
出版社周刊评论
In September 1991, hikers in the Alps discovered a well-preserved frozen corpse; nearby lay a stone ax and swatches of leather and fur. The man turned out to have died in the early Bronze Age, making him an incalculable treasure for students of early human beings. Fowler, who has covered Central Europe for the New York Times, offers a brisk and easy-to-follow narrative, first of the great discovery, then of the personal and political struggles for control of the frozen body, which researchers eventually nicknamed tzi. Her tight and compelling account emphasizes the late-20th century people who acted, investigated and argued the science and law surrounding the man from the past. Fowler's journalistic experience serves her well as she introduces each of the characters: local archeologist Konrad Spindler, who first pronounced the corpse 4,000 years old; Reinhold Messner, "the best [mountain] climber who had ever lived"; museum curator Markus Egg; botanist Sigmar Bortenschlager ("a feisty strawberry blond"); and a few dozen others. Each gossipy controversy begot others; each scientific answer led to new questions. Should tzi be used to help the local economy, displaying him for tourists? Yes, said the government; no, cried the local priest. The scientists were split on the issue. Was tzi missing his genitalia? No (though they had "dried up like a leaf"); so how did the story that he had been castrated come to be circulated so widely? Archeological and present-day whodunits proceed in alternating steps throughout Fowler's attentive narrative; readers with any interest in early humans, in the politics of scientific discovery or in this region of Europe will want to dig in. 16 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
A well-researched and thoroughly fascinating account of the scientific, political, and commercial ramifications following the discovery of a Stone Age man's mummified corpse. Fowler, a New York Times contributor based in Vienna, covered the discovery in 1991, and in the years following has interviewed dozens of men and women connected with the Iceman. From these interviews and their published writings she has constructed a complex tale of how the widely publicized discovery launched a spate of scientific research and conflicting claims, aroused fierce political and academic rivalries, and became the center of a controversial commercial venture. Her account begins with the body's discovery by two Alpine hikers and its botched recovery from the ice several days later. Since the site was at first assumed to be in Austria, the mummy was taken to the University of Innsbruck, where the head of the university's anatomy department placed it in one of his department's freezers and for the next six-and-a-half years controlled access to it. His goal of preservation ran counter to that of researchers pleading for a piece of the mummy, and his plans to commercialize the Iceman led to restrictive contracts governing publication of research results. Artifacts (weapons, tools, clothing, etc.) found with the Iceman were taken to a museum in Mainz, Germany, and put into the care of skilled archaeologists and paleobotanists eager to reconstruct as much of his world as possible. While the scientists squabbled about access and theories, Austria and the largely autonomous Italian province of South Tyrol (in which the find was soon determined to have been located) bickered over commercial exploitation of the mummy. In the end, commerce won out over science, and today, curious tourists can view the Iceman at South Tyrol's new museum of archaeology, where he has been on display since 1998. A lively tale of clashing egos and national pride that reveals more about our own times than the Stone Age. (16 pages of b&w photographs, not seen, map)
《书目》(Booklist)书评
Significant archaeological finds fascinate the public; unfortunately finds are susceptible to ownership disputes, as in two spectacular discoveries in the past decade. Eight to nine thousand years after he died, "Kennewick Man" currently enjoys an afterlife in that peculiarly American limbo, litigation. Author Downey chronicles the events in the skeleton's discovery and embarkation on its legal voyage. He also confides acerbic observations about the initial antagonists in the custody dispute: the out-of-work anthropologist who first studied the skeleton and the Umatilla Indian who claimed it under the aegis of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Trouble was, the skull, according to anatomists, was that of a Caucasian, which could upset prevailing concepts of how native peoples arrived in North America--and so scientists sued to stop the Umatillas from repossessing and reburying the bones. Fine reportage and context for understanding this controversy. Rather less acrimonious has been the fate of "Otzi," the 5,300-year-old corpse discovered in 1991 in the glaciated Otzal Alps, astride the Italo-Austrian border. Otzi reclines in climate-controlled comfort in an Italian museum, a tourist attraction and archaeological marvel, which Fowler expansively explains, for the hapless Otzi was found with all his equipage--ax, arrows, clothes, and trail snacks. Fowler's attention to their details vivifies Otzi's world, and she dramatizes ours with her account of the discovery and botched recovery of the body, followed by wrangling amongst governments and scientists over the rights to study and keep it. A mesmerizing discovery, compellingly presented by Fowler. --Gilbert Taylor
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
In 1991, a frozen mummy emerged from a glacier in Northern Italy after 5000 years. The story of his discovery and the subsequent scientific study form the basis of this well-crafted and articulate book. Fowler's account places the scientific facts within a chronological narrative as it compellingly relays the death of the Alpine Iceman, the excitement of his remarkable discovery, and the tortured journey to understanding and commercializing him. Fowler, who covered the Iceman's discovery for the New York Times, highlights science's intensely human, egotistical, and fallible sides. The lead scientists' extreme measures to control and fund the expensive research and publicity are particularly telling. (Konrad Spindler's The Man in the Ice, LJ 12/94, played a large part in fundraising efforts.) In the end, less is told about the Iceman himself, while much is revealed about the scientific enterprise. Highly recommended as an excellent source for the popular audience and for library collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/99.]--Joyce L. Ogburn, Univ. of Washington, Seattle (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
摘录
摘录
CHAPTER 1 THE FIRST TO SEE IT UP AHEAD, still some two hours away, the snow-covered Similaun rose like a huge white sail against the cloudless Alpine sky. The last time Helmut and Erika Simon had stood on this spot, ten years earlier, the trail through the snow to the summit had been easy to pick out. But this summer had been unusually warm, nearly all the snow at this altitude had melted, and the trail had vanished amid the jumble of ice pockets and jagged gray schist that formed the backbone of the Tyrolean Alps. On their previous trip, they had turned around here and headed back down the mountain. But this time, despite the wind they had battled all day, Helmut was determined to reach the summit of the 11,808-foot Similaun. After strapping crampons on their boots, they prepared to cross the Niederjochferner, a massive glacier, the surface of which had the consistency of refrozen crushed ice. The glacier was melting, and the runoff water had bored a network of tiny tunnels and canals into its surface. As they stepped onto the glistening ice, the Simons could hear water gurgling and dripping as it moved through the glacier. It was Wednesday, September 18, 1991. Their day had begun six hours earlier and about 3,600 feet lower in the tiny village of Vernagt in Italy's Schnalstal. Vernagt consisted of a few pretty farm houses and small inns, clustered around the sunny side of a man-made lake. At the crack of dawn, the Simons had pulled on their backpacks for a long day's hike. The route, which led up a steep valley, over the glacier, and up the snowy mountain's flanks to the summit, demanded stamina but no special climbing equipment. Every summer day, a dozen or more tourists reached the peak, one in a chain along the Austrian -Italian border. For the Simons, frequent visitors to the Schnalstal mountains, the path was tolerably challenging. Both in their early fifties, the Simons were practical hikers who had spent the first few days of this vacation on shorter hikes, trying to acclimatize themselves to the high altitude and getting their office legs in shape. They were from Nuremberg, Germany, where Helmut, a cheery man with a bulldog's gait, worked as the custodian of the public library and Erika, a slight and solemn figure, put in her time at the local newspaper's personnel department. For a while, the going was smooth, and they fell into a nice rhythm of small steps across the crunchy expanse of the glacier, which flowed down the northern side of the mountain into Austria's Otztal. Suddenly, they drew to a halt. Two yards ahead, the ice was split by a chasm that ran as far as they could see in both directions and was wide enough to swallow a person. Together the couple inched forward cautiously for a closer look into the wondrous abyss. The solid ice walls of the plunging crevasse were hues of gray, brown, and white and shone like opal or were swirled like some precious, dark marble. How deep it was, or where it led, the Simons could not fathom. Climbing lore was filled with tales of menacing crevasses obscured by snow cover, and the Simons had heard their share. A hiker who inadvertently walked onto snow concealing a crevasse could break through and plunge into the ice. Sometimes, the snow would then fall in and bury the hiker alive. If the victim survived the fall, it might be almost impossible to claw out of the icy trench. Trapped hikers could then die of hypothermia. The risk was real, which was why people who ventured over snow-covered glaciers were supposed to rope up together in a line. If one fell through, then the others could try to pull him out. Since this crevasse was visible, it was not really a problem, although the Simons had to walk parallel to it for several yards before the gap narrowed enough for them to be able to step across it. Again, they turned toward the summit. But they soon ran into another fissure and then another. Somehow they had entered a maze of crevasses. Again and again, they were forced to take long detours, looking for places to cross. When they finally reached the rocky ridge that led up to the summit of the Similaun, Helmut glanced at his watch. It had taken them nearly three hours to get to this point when it should have taken only two, and now the sun was halfway down in the western sky. He realized that they might not have enough daylight left to make it back down the mountain. Erika wouldn't like it, but Helmut knew they could always get a bunk in the drafty old Similaun Hfitte, a rustic Alpine lodge where they had rested for a few hours over lunch on the way up the mountain, and then descend in the morning. As they finally approached the summit, a younger couple overtook them. Minutes later, the four were crowded around the rocky cone of the summit, breathing hard and surveying the Alps of Italy and Austria. If you knew how to stand, you could get one foot in both countries, since the border ran right along the ridge. Helmut asked the other couple to take a picture of him and Erika next to the wooden cross that marked the highest point of the summit. After a short rest, all four set off back toward the Similaun lodge. By the time they arrived, it was nearly 6 pm, and the first stars were already sparkling in the pale evening sky. Accessible only by foot over mountain trails, the timbered, three-story lodge was situated well above the tree line in the nook of a pass over the main Alpine ridge, a stone's throw from the Austrian border. The cramped bunk rooms had no running water, and the toilet was outside. Anyone who had to visit it in the middle of the night faced a miserable dash along the edge of a cliff, guided only by a dim bulb hanging over the door. The Simons, who had nothing but the sweaty clothes on their backs, were not prepared to spend the night away from their cozy bed-and-breakfast in the valley, but Helmut persuaded his wife it was too dark to risk the descent. Anyway, as alpine lodges went, the century-old Hfitte had a lot of character. They could get a hearty meal here, plenty of Italian red wine, and awaken with the sun. The next morning, Helmut rose quickly and went outside to check the weather. The sky was radiant. He stood for a while looking at the sun illuminating the mighty snowcap on a mountain range to the west. The night before, the couple he and Erika had met at the summit had invited them on a climb up the nearby Finail Peak. He knew Erika's first priority was to hurry down the mountain and into a hot shower. But on such a day, and with such good company, he knew he would be able to convince her to make a go at another summit. After breakfast, the Simons and their new friends started on the trail to the Finail Peak, which closely followed the main Alpine ridge. The landscape was lunar in its bleakness. The reddish gray stone that formed the ridge was gradually crumbling away, and the result was an endless sea of uneven rock slabs. Some of these boulders balanced precariously for centuries before finally crashing down on one side or the other of the ridge. Occasionally the trail traversed a field of snow over ice embedded in the broken rock. At this altitude, far above the tree line, real soil was nonexistent. Even at the peak of summer, only a few weedy sprouts found places to plant themselves amid the heaps of stone. Walking demanded strict attention, since a misplaced step could send a person hurtling against a rough boulder or careening down a slope. Shortly after noon, the happy group reached the summit. Toward Italy, they looked down on a boulder-strewn and treeless landscape that merged gradually with the pine forests and then ended in a burst of emerald green and marine blue. These were the pastures and artificial lake at Vernagt. The view into Austria was not nearly as inviting. Though the decline was more gradual, the slopes were draped in deep snow and ice. To the northeast, more craggy Otztal mountains, like choppy waves on a stormy sea, extended to the horizon. As exciting as the panorama was, no one wanted to linger on the narrow ledge, where they were buffeted by gusts coming up from the Schnalstal. The two couples exchanged addresses and then quit the summit. Since the Austrians were headed into the Otztal, the couples' paths soon diverged, and they paused to say warm goodbyes. The younger couple headed down the rocky slope and the Simons turned to canvass the landscape ahead for a marker that would get them on the trail to the lodge. Erika spotted a pile of rocks with a stick coming out the top about one hundred yards away, and the couple began hiking toward it. Known colloquially as a Steinmanndl, or "little stone man," in German, such man-made markers were stacked up every so often, and occasionally planted with a stick, to guide tourists along sections of Alpine trails. A minute later, they reached a low ridge of rock that formed a wall around a long trench. The floor of the trench was filled with melted water, ice, and snow. To circumvent the water, they proceeded to one side, moving along the inside of the trench, over snow and rock. Helmut was walking in the lead when he suddenly caught sight of something dark against the white snow. Just a half hour earlier he had been outraged to see broken glass from a champagne bottle on the summit of the Finail. At first he thought it was just more trash, and he silently cursed the lazy tourist who had done it. But his wife's next words came in the same instant in which he, too, recognized what he was seeing. "Look, it's a person!"' Erika exclaimed. Aghast, they halted, steps from a human body stuck in the ice. Instinctively, they veered from the macabre scene and scrambled up four or five steps onto a ledge in the low ridge that nearly enveloped the trench. In the next instant, Helmut sprinted back to try to recall the Austrian couple. After some eighty yards he stopped, yelling their names against the wind. He scanned the landscape below but, seeing no one, he turned and dashed back to Erika, who was still standing speechless on the ledge above the body. Helmut's heart pounded. There, protruding from a solid bed of ice, was a torso, face down. Not a hair remained on the head. The shoulders and upper back were naked. The skin was brown and stretched so tautly across the back and shoulders that the ribs were visible. It looked emaciated. A dozen ideas flickered through their minds. They wondered who it could be and what had happened. Since the shoulders were so narrow, Erika decided it must be the corpse of a woman. The face appeared to rest on a cushion of slush and ice. Clumps of dark stringy material underneath the chin reminded Erika of seaweed on a beach. On the back of the head was a circular break in the skin. It looked like a wound, but the Simons did not think too much about it or even wonder why the skin was still intact. They did not have much to compare this to. Helmut started removing his camera from its case, but Erika protested and admonished him for even thinking of taking a photograph. It was the height of disrespect to make an image of a dead person, she said. But Helmut insisted. If this were his relative, he would want to know exactly what had happened. Still on the ledge several feet above the corpse, he crouched and aimed his camera. Then, thinking better, he pushed the telephoto button, the lens glided out, and he snapped the picture. He could have taken another, but he thought one was enough. Emboldened, Helmut then descended into the trench for a closer look at the corpse. Erika stayed glued to the ledge. Not far from the head, Helmut noticed something lying on the ice, and he stooped to pick it up. It was a flattened bundle wrapped in white birch bark and apparently tied up with leather laces. As he turned it in his hands, he noted how fragile and soggy it was. To Erika it looked like something a bird might have carried up. Helmut had no idea what it could be or even whether it was anything at all. After another moment's contemplation, he tossed it aside. Nearby was a piece of a blue rubber ski clip, the kind he himself had used a decade earlier to bind his skis together. Helmut did not really consider whether this object had belonged to the person whose corpse now lay here in front of them. The Simons did not speak much. Neither did they touch the corpse. Moments earlier, they had been chatting merrily with their young friends, and now, abruptly, they had stumbled upon a death. Something terrible had happened to this person, and they realized that the same thing could happen to them. They were awed, and a little intimidated, by the appearance of death on this beautiftil day. After several minutes, Helmut climbed back onto the ledge, and the couple stood a moment in contemplation. They were still an hour from the lodge. Together, they walked toward the Steinmanndl, noted the relation of the marker to the corpse, and then departed for the lodge. Soon, they encountered a lone hiker coming toward them, and they greeted each other as they passed. A few steps fiirthcr on, the Simons stopped and turned to watch the man's path. He seemed to stay on the main track, so they guessed he would not happen upon the corpse. Helmut briefly considered whether they should even report what they had seen. The plans for the rest of their vacation might be ruined if they had to spend time in a police station, filling out reports or serving as witnesses. Without resolving the issue, they continued on toward the lodge. Markus Pirpamer, the spirited young caretaker of the Similaun Hfitte, was tidying up the kitchen when the Simons walked in. Oddly, the couple thought later, they had not reflected on their morbid discovery much on the hike back, and Helmut had almost forgotten about it. He ordered his usual beer, as well as an orange juice for Erika. Then she gave her husband a nudge. "Is anyone missing from around here?" he asked. Markus, a sinewy twenty-six-year-old with a handsome, lined face that belied a summer spent outdoors, remembered the Simons from the evening before. He shook his head. "No," he drawled with growing curiosity. Helmut then got right to the point. "We just came across a corpse melting out of ice," he said. The news galvanized Pirpamer. His father, Alois, was the head of the volunteer Alpine rescue squad in Vent, the tiny village just down the mountain in Austria, so Markus had grown up hearing tragic stories about people's battles against mountains and ice. He himself had once become dangerously disoriented while trying to reach his Hfitte during a snowstorm. He knew death haunted these mountains, but this was the first time that it had confronted him on his watch. He expertly quizzed the Simons on the corpse's location and assured them that he would handle everything. The Simons wandered outside with their drinks and joined some other hikers at a sunny table. Soon Markus emerged from the lodge with a pair of binoculars and marched Helmut to a spot with a view of the Finail Peak. From there, Helmut once again explained the location of the find, noting the proximity of the unusual Steinmanndl and stick. The binoculars could not pick the site out. Back inside the lodge, Markus telephoned his father, who ran the Hotel Post and its popular tavern in Vent. Alois kept close tabs on news in the village and the surrounding mountains, but he could recall no missing persons from recent years. His guess was that the corpse was probably that of some unlucky tourist. They would have to notify the authorities-the question was which. Helmut Simon's directions were not precise enough for even the experienced Pirpamers to determine where the corpse lay relative to the border between Italy's province of South Tyrol (known in Italian as Alto Adige) and the Austrian province of Tyrol. The border had an ugly and painful history, but in an era of European integration and openness, the locals barely paid it any heed. People on both sides spoke a dialect of German, made their livings off agriculture and tourism, built their houses out of timber and stucco, and ate the same kinds of foods. Though Markus was a German-speaking Tyrolean, his Similaun Hfitte stood on Italian territory. Alois was from Vent, but his wife was from the Schnalstal, as was Markus's girlfriend. Every summer, hikers from all over Europe, and well beyond, crossed that border without ever having to show a document. Alois advised his son to inform the police in both countries. They had maps and would be able to figure it out from their offices. Markus called the gendarmerie in Solden, an Austrian town near Vent, and the carabinieri, Italy's paramilitary branch of the police, in the Schnalstal. The impression he got from the officials was that the retrieval would happen that day, so he went outside to ask the Simons to hang around until the helicopter arrived. At first, the Simons agreed to wait. But after an hour, with no sign of an imminent recovery operation, they grew restless. Already they had been gone a day longer than planned. So, after giving the young caretaker the name of their bed-and-breakfast, they set off down the mountain into the Schnalstal. The burden of responsibility now transferred to him, Markus decided he had better locate the corpse. With his kitchen helper, a young Bosnian, he headed for the site. Markus knew the Steinmanndl with the stick was close to a pass called the Hauslabjoch. After an hour's hike and five minutes' scan of the terrain, the two spotted the brown corpse sticking out of ice at one end of a long, shallow trench. Markus had passed by here more times than he could count, and he had never seen so little ice and snow in the trench. The young men approached tentatively. The corpse looked exactly as Helmut Simon had described it. It seemed to be almost standing up in the ice, and was naked as far as they could see. Like the Simons, Markus noted what looked like a bad wound on the back of the head. Suddenly, he spotted something else. There, on the rocky ledge where the Simons had stood, was another object. He took a step forward and unhesitatingly picked it off the rocks. It looked like an ax. The wooden handle was smooth and weathered. The tawny metal blade, barely broader than a hammerhead, was inserted into a beak-like notch in the handle and then bound in with a strip of leather. That style of hafting looked old-fashioned, and both young men examined it closely. Neither recalled ever having seen a tool exactly like it before. Markus now noticed that the rocks where he had found the ax were plastered with tangled string and bunches of what looked like the fur of a chamois, a goat-like animal that had been hunted to extinction in this part of the Alps. That meant the fur must be rather old. Scattered among the string and fur were a few weathered boards and sticks. Markus thought it was strange that the German couple had not mentioned these things to him, especially the ax. He wondered whether they could have missed them. As he set the ax back on the reddish rocks, he noticed that it became well camouflaged. Lots of things were. The further they looked, the more they found. Leaning up against the ledge was a long wooden stick with a very neatly whittled surface. Its lower end disappeared into solid ice at the bottom of the trench. On the slushy ice near the corpse's head, Markus also spotted the birch-bark object Helmut had picked up and tossed to the side. It appeared to be stuffed with wet hay. Markus realized that all this wood must have been carried up the Alpine glaciers had been melting slowly, and this summer's melt had been extreme in some places. Across Austria, five other bodies had already been recovered from glaciers this season, and all were presumed or known to be crevasse accidents. Just three weeks ago, Koler had recovered the remains of a Viennese couple who had disappeared one summer day in 1934. He had seen by the style of their hiking clothes and leather boots that they had been in the ice a long time. There had even been a twisted pair of wire-frame glasses found among the bodies. Technically, Koler could have told the commander to have Alois Pirpamer extricate the corpse and bring it down the mountain, but he knew using a government helicopter would make the job faster and easier. An Alpine gendarme would have to fill out a report at some point anyway, so Koler ordered a helicopter for the following morning. He would do the recovery himself. Back in Solden, the commander had been looking through the station's files for active reports of missing persons. When the search turned up nothing, he drove up the valley to the Hotel Post. Alois Pirpamer and his wife recalled that an Italian music professor had left on a hike from the Schone Aussicht lodge in 1938 and never arrived at his intended destination. The commander noted this and spoke once again by phone with Markus Pirpamer, who was still at the Similaun lodge, a five-hour hike away. That evening, the station in Solden sent out the following teletype report, which was later released to the media. alpine incident = corpse found at hauslabjoch (niederjochferner) - advance report on 19th september 1991 around 12:00 p.m. climbers coming down from the finail summit found a partially melted-out corpse in the vicinity of the hauslabjoch (a little below it) on the niederjochferner. it is practically standing up in the ice. only head and shoulder areas are sticking out of the ice. the caretaker of the similaun Hfitte, markus pirpamer reported this to the gp [gendarmerie post] in soelden. He himself was on the site this afternoon. based on the equipment it is a mountain accident that happened many years ago. in vent it was learned that since the year 1938 a music professor from verona named capsoni, who was on the way from the schoene aussicht via the hauslabjoch to the similaun Hfitte is still missing. the recovery of the corpse will follow as far as can be seen on 9-20-1991. a further report will be submitted. Early on the afternoon of Friday, September 20, an Austrian government helicopter touched down on the Hauslabjoch. Anton Koler climbed out and greeted Markus Pirpamer, who was on hand to show the craft where to land. Without much ceremony, the two men, who already knew each other, walked into the trench. Markus pointed out the body in the ice. Koler saw right away that this was no ordinary glacier corpse. It was in one piece and had no obvious stench. But Koler had encountered death in many different ways in his line of work, and the fact that this glacier corpse was somewhat unusual did not really concern him. His first task was to document the site in case it turned out to be the scene of a crime. His hunch was that it was not. Apart from the body, the main evidence was the ax, fur, string, and wood scattered atop the rock ledge above the corpse. Pirparner had already picked up and examined these items, but Koler did not seem bothered that the evidence had been disturbed. In fact, he had to move the ax a little to get it to show up in a photograph against the camouflaging rock. This was not exactly pristine detective work, but he did not consider it too important in this case. If this were clearly the scene of a murder, the inspector might have taken dozens of photographs. But he now took only two: one of the evidence on the ledge, and the other of the emaciated corpse. To aid in the extrication, he had brought along a little gadget his station had recently acquired. It was a small, pistol-like jackhammer that was supposed to be very effective at blasting away ice. He switched it on, and, without delay since the skies did not look promising, he set to chiseling away the ice. It was tough work. Markus soon offered to chip in, though he had never operated such a tool before. As they hammered the ice away, slowly revealing more of the corpse's upper body, they noticed that it appeared to be draped over a boulder. The left arm reached over to the right, crossing under the chin, while the right one extended out and then down into the ice. It did not look like a very comfortable position. But by this point the two men were thinking mainly of their own comfort. The further they dug, the deeper in ice, slush, and melted water they had to work. Koler lay on his stomach on the ice, almost up to his shoulder in icy water and slush, and aimed the miniature jackhammer at the ice. He could not see exactly where the tip of the hammer was striking, and a few times he felt the machine drive into the corpse itself. Shreds of dried flesh rose to the surface of the water. But he was not worried about the damage. Recovering a body was never pretty. He wanted to finish the job as efficiently as possible, but the work was tougher than he had anticipated. Less than an hour after they had started, with the corpse still packed in ice up to the hips, the tool ran out of compressed air. Koler did not have a refill. Moreover, the weather, which in the high Alps could change within minutes, had turned threatening. The rest would have to be finished later. Koler was mildly annoyed. He had flown up here at considerable expense, and now he was not going to be able to finish the job. He radioed the helicopter, which had retreated to a lower altitude, and took one more picture of the corpse. The two men had made progress. The top of the corpse's buttocks was now visible, as were the sides of the chest, all the way up to the head. Only the legs were still entirely buried in the dark ice. The damage from the jackhammer was also clearly visible, especially around the left hip. The stringy flesh was ripped out down to the bone. While working over the corpse, Markus had noticed several rows of black marks on the corpse's back. They ran parallel to the spine and looked to him like burns or even brands. He was not sure what to make of them or the round break in the skin on the back of the head. Koler was operating on the assumption that if this was the scene of a crime, it must have happened a long time ago, probably in the previous century. He did not know who this might be, but considering that strange ax, he doubted it was the Italian music professor. The helicopter soon arrived, and Koler told Markus that the recovery would be resumed the next day. Markus then picked up the ax and set it inside the helicopter. Back in Vent, Alois Pirpamer, a few gendarmes from Solden, and the local undertaker, who had been expecting a corpse, had gathered in the tavern of the Hotel Post to await the helicopter. They all knew each other and were joking and exchanging bits of news at Alois's regular table when they heard the rotors of the helicopter coming down through the rocky valley. Stepping outside, they watched it approach and noticed that no body bag was tied on beneath the craft. Alois wondered what had gone wrong. Koler climbed out of the helicopter and explained the situation to the other gendarmes and the undertaker, who had driven thirty miles up the valley to meet this corpse. According to Austrian law, only licensed undertakers were permitted to transport the dead along roadways. The day's trip might have been a bust, but the undertaker could still be confident that there was some business to be done here. The ax was taken to the station in Solden. The commander was impressed by its easy, balanced swing. Curious about what kind of metal the blade was made of, he took out his car key and scratched through the dull brown surface. It was bright and orange, so the commander concluded that it must be copper. Unfortunately, he was not aware that copper axes had not been produced since the Stone Age. But he did think he should treat this piece of evidence with some care. He lined a box with old newspaper, bedded the ax inside, and then carried it downstairs to the air-raid shelter for safekeeping. Several hours later, the gendarmes in Solden received a call from a German-speaking carabiniere in the Schnalstal who informed them that he had just located the grave of the Italian music professor. The body on the Hauslabjoch, therefore, must belong to someone else. He also concurred that the corpse was on Austrian territory. With little ado, the case had officially landed in the lap of the Austrians. Excerpted from Iceman: Uncovering the Life and Times of a Prehistoric Man Found in an Alpine Glacier by Brenda Fowler All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.目录
A Note on Sources | p. ix |
Prologue--No Room in the Helicopter | p. xiii |
Chapter 1 The First to See It | p. 3 |
Chapter 2 A Difficult Recovery | p. 19 |
Chapter 3 A Great Moment for Science | p. 39 |
Chapter 4 Italy is Watching | p. 71 |
Chapter 5 Evidence of Distress | p. 103 |
Chapter 6 The Mummy to Market | p. 117 |
Chapter 7 A Castrated Egyptian | p. 146 |
Chapter 8 Spindler's Story | p. 180 |
Chapter 9 Expanding Markets | p. 213 |
Chapter 10 "A Proper Forefather" | p. 242 |
Chapter 11 The Place He Came to Lie | p. 254 |
Epilogue | p. 271 |
Acknowledgments | p. 273 |
Notes | p. 277 |
Bibliography | p. 287 |
Index | p. 297 |