After 5,300 years, Oetzi the iceman finally shows his face

After 5,300 years, Oetzi the iceman finally shows his face

He doesn't look half bad for a 5,300-year-old.

Since his discovery in 1991, Oetzi the iceman's true identity has been shrouded in myth and mystery. Just a faceless corpse that has embodied a bygone era of humankind.

But experts have finally worked out what the world's most famous natural mummy actually looked like.

Using 3D images of the corpse and forensic technology, two Dutch artists - Alfons and Adrie Kennis - painstakingly created a new Oetzi model.

But the one thing they couldn't determine was his natural eye colour. So they went with brown.

The model is on show at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, alongside his mummified remains.

He was unearthed in September 1991 in the Eastern Alps near the Austro-Italian border by a couple of German tourists trekking through the Oetz Valley, after which he was named.

He was about 46 years old when he met his violent death.

Examinations revealed that he had been wounded by an arrow and possibly finished off with a mace blow to the face.

It is thought the arrow tore a hole in an artery beneath his left collarbone, leading to massive loss of blood - and the shock caused Oetzi to suffer a heart attack.

The fact that the arrow's shaft was pulled out before his death may have worsened the injury.

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The iceman has been crucial to our understanding of how prehistoric people lived, what they wore and even what they ate.

Researchers had previously suggested he was killed by a rival hunter after putting up a fight, and by examining the contents of his stomach, worked out that his final meal consisted of venison and ibex meat.

Archaeologists believe Oetzi, who was carrying a bow, a quiver of arrows and a copper axe, may have been a hunter or warrior killed in a skirmish with a rival tribe.

Researchers say he was about 159cm tall (5ft 2.5in), 46 years old, arthritic and infested with whipworm, an intestinal parasite.

But he may not object to being immortalised in art, as he was apparently a fan himself with several carbon tattoos including groups of short, parallel, vertical lines behind his knees and around both ankles.