Who was Ötzi?

Ötzi the Iceman is the most famous Early European Farmer and the oldest natural mummy in Europe. He lived in South Tyrol around 3200 BC but his frozen body was discovered in the Ötztal Alps on the border of Austria and Italy, hence the nickname Ötzi. The Early European Farmers (EEF) originated in Western Anatolia and migrated into Europe during the Neolithic around 9000 years ago, where they displaced and interbred with native West European Hunter-Gatherers.

Ötzi was a short, 45-year-old man, measuring 5’3, and covered in tattoos, 61 in total. At the time of his death, he wore a leather coat, loincloth, and leggings, coupled with a stylish cloak made from woven grass, a bearskin fur hat, and high-quality snow shoes, waterproof and insulated, likely produced by the Chalcolithic equivalent of a professional cobbler. Analysis of Ötzi’s stomach contents revealed a diet of meat, roots, fruits, herbs, seeds, and bread. His last meal was a few slices of dried goat bacon. Ötzi wielded various weapons: a chert knife, a longbow, 14 arrows, a 5’9 wooden staff, and a finely crafted copper axe.

Unfortunately, well-armed Ötzi was killed in combat, likely bleeding to death after being shot in the scapula by an arrow, which lodged near his lung. Analysis of his body found numerous bruises and cuts to his hands, wrists, and chest, and cerebral trauma, indicating a blow to the head. However, DNA analysis revealed blood from at least four other people on his weapons and equipment, indicating that Ötzi had killed at least two of his attackers. Not bad for the Chalcolithic equivalent of a senior citizen.

Blackwashing

Ötzi recently received increased media attention following a new 2023 study (Wang et al). He has now joined the extensive ranks of Blackwashed Europeans. Early European Farmers aren’t new to being slandered — people have falsely accused them of being egalitarian, matriarchal, feminist pacifists for decades now — but this is the first time they have been described as “dark-skinned.”

EEF were 95% genetically identical to modern Sardinians (pictured below) and countless studies have consistently proven that they were phenotypically near-indistinguishable. They had light, tanned/olive skin pigmentation (Hanel 2020), often described as ‘intermediate,’ and mostly dark hair and eyes, with some instances of blondism and blue eyes (Allentoft 2022). The EEF skin tone would not look out of place anywhere in modern Europe. As stated by Lazaridis 2022, “intermediate skin tones are commonly found in present-day Mediterranean populations and pale ones in present-day Northern European ones.”

Moreover, the EEF’s light skin tone had evolved before they left Anatolia and was not an adaptation to colder and darker European climates: “Based on the comparison between LBK [EEF] and Anatolia_N, we did not see a major shift in skin color SNPs that are involved in determining lighter skin pigmentation, suggesting that this adaptation already happened in Anatolia” (Childebayeva 2022).

Below: Hair and eye pigmentation of Europeans dating from the Mesolithic to Bronze Age (Allentoft 2022).

Below: Principal component analyses from Lazaridis 2013 and Feldman 2019.

These well-established facts did not stop the corrupt authors of the new 2023 study from falsely claiming that Ötzi had “dark skin.” Nor did their own genetic data, which proved that Ötzi’s skin pigmentation was near-identical to modern Sardinians (only 0.002 darker) and slightly lighter than the more northerly EEF of the LBK Culture (who had light/intermediate skin).

The authors concealed this pigmentation data in the additional Supplementary Materials PDF (that nobody ever reads), while repeatedly calling Ötzi “dark-skinned” in the main paper. They also provided no information on their polygenic score methodology and only included one modern reference population. So, we can’t even translate these polygenic scores into actual skin tones.

Deranged journalists spared no time and immediately flooded the mainstream media with propaganda pieces claiming that Europe’s earliest mummy was a “non-White immigrant with dark skin.” Leftist academics were happy to help them peddle these lies. Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute claimed “People that lived in Europe between 40,000 years ago and 8,000 years ago were as dark as people in Africa, which makes a lot of sense because [Africa is] where humans came from” (quoted by Science News). Left-Wing artists, like Tom Bjorklund (who has a history of Blackwashing Europeans), produced ludicrous facial “reconstructions,” depicting poor Ötzi as a swarthy South Indian or Sub-Saharan African. Cue the endless, smug gloating from rabid Leftist hordes: “Mmm yummy racist tears. Why do you even care about his skin color, you bigot? Looks like Whites have no claim to Europe after all, it’s always been a diverse continent of brown immigrants.”