WOMEN HAVE INQUIRED ABOUT the possibility of having his baby. Scientists the world over plead for a chance to examine him. Museums compete for bits of his clothing and tools. Nations and provinces bicker over who has custody rights, while anthropologists struggle to discern how he lived and what other ancient secrets he is destined to reveal.
Through it all, the object of this desire and celebrity has remained mute, though his very appearance on the scene has spoken volumes. He is known as the Iceman, a Stone Age wanderer found one year ago remarkably preserved in the melting Similaun glacier high in the Alps. His discovery has already upset some long-held notions about the late Stone Age, chilled relations between Austria and Italy -- near whose border he was found -- and stimulated tourism and commerce. His age, established by radiocarbon dating as approximately 5,300 years, makes him by far the most ancient human being ever found virtually intact. (Some Egyptian mummies are older, but had their brain and vital organs removed before interment.)
"He is a remarkable specimen," says Werner Platzer, an anatomist at Austria's University of Innsbruck. "Scientists have never before had an . opportunity to examine such an ancient body." But the Iceman has provided posterity with more than just his body; he literally died with his boots on. His glacial grave has yielded pieces of his clothing, weaponry and other equipment. While most remains of ancient humans are found surrounded by funerary objects (if anything at all), the Iceman "was snatched from life completely outfitted with the implements of everyday existence!" exclaims Markus Egg, the German archaeologist who is overseeing the delicate process of restoring the Iceman's belongings. In effect, the find brings the remote Neolithic period vividly to life, says prehistorian Lawrence Barfield of England's University of Birmingham. "It is as though you are walking around a museum looking at pottery and flint, then turn a corner and find a real person."
Examining that person and his implements, scientists have gained new insight into late Stone Age society. They've been stunned by the sophisticated design of his arrows, which reflect a basic grasp of ballistics, and by the ingenuity of his clothing. Even more amazing is the evidence that Neolithic people had discovered the antibiotic properties of plants. Among other surprises, the Iceman has shown irrefutably that human haircuts and tattoos have been in vogue a good deal longer than anyone suspected. Researchers have also begun to reconstruct the extraordinary coincidences of weather and geography that led to the Iceman's death, his long interment and his startling re-emergence 53 centuries later.
"I thought at first it was a doll's head," says Helmut Simon, the German tourist who spotted the Iceman on Sept. 19, 1991, while on an Alpine walking trip with his wife. On closer inspection, however, they realized that the head and shoulders protruding from the Similaun glacier were human, and seeing a hole in back of the skull, suspected foul play. Hurrying to a hikers' shelter to report their find, they set in motion a series of blunders that nearly deprived the world of a priceless treasure.