The 4,000-Year-Old Man

Mummified remains of an ancient mountain climber give scientists a rare glimpse into life in the early Bronze Age

One day a long time ago, a young man bundled himself up in a weatherproof leather coat, shouldered a crude wooden backpack, grabbed a knife, a bow and an ax, and headed into the Tyrolean Alps, which run between Austria and Italy. Up high in the mountains, at about 3,200 m (10,500 ft.), something happened -- an accident, a violent blow -- that took his life and left him to be swallowed by the Similaun Glacier. There he lay, locked in a crevasse, buried, frozen, forgotten.

Now, 4,000 years later, he has turned up -- virtually intact and remarkably well preserved...

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