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Ötzi's Ink

Marco Samadelli
Remember the 5,000-year-old hunter found back in 1991 in an Alpine glacier and named Ötzi (or Oetzi) the Iceman (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131016-otzi-ice-man-mummy-five-facts/)? He's been a real source of amazement for scientists, who most recently photographed and mapped all of the man's 61 tattoos. They used a technique that allowed them to see markings no longer visible to the naked eye, including some that they speculate could have been early attempts at acupuncture, perhaps to relieve joint pain. According to Marco Samadelli, the scientist with EURAC's Institute for Mummies and the Iceman who developed the procedure, "Each shot was taken seven times, using a different wavelength each time. This enabled us to cover the different depths at which the carbon powder used for the tattoos had been deposited": http://www.eurac.edu/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?entryid=149841

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