Thank you for tuning into this week's episode! I'm currently in London so follow along my travels on Instagram at instagram.com/tastinghistorywithmaxmiller/ , and if there's any other subtitle languages you want let Jose know on our Ketchup channel or instagram.com/worldagainstjose/
Oh, just down the road from me! Although London used to be known as the 'Big Smoke', it's not reknowned for it's smokeries. And if it were, councils would probably have banned them by now. Also anyone who needs HelloFresh to make a cheese toastie is obviously not watching this channel closely enough.
I find it funny how a lot of ancient kings were obsessed with legacy, only to be completely lost to history. And then there's Ötzi some random guy who will be remembered forever.
That fancy axe and his advanced years makes it quite plausible that he was a tribe leader. The wound on his hand and his subsequent flight could very well have been a power struggle for "the crown". What transpired that day may have had as much impact on his tribe as the murder of Julius Caesar had on Rome, millennia later. It could even be "the same story" of betrayal at the closest level, but on a smaller scale in a smaller society. But we will never know. What we do know, is that the one who murdered him didn't rob him of his valuables. He just wanted his arrow shaft back. And that, to me, says "This is personal, but I mean no disrespect".
I love that in Ancient Rome, if you weren’t liked by the scribes, they would just make up things about you, knowing that in a couple hundred years, no one would be able to differentiate the truth from their rumors. It’s basically like a twitter feed that is still read and talked about thousands of years later. Because of that, we really don’t know exactly how much of their writings about ancient rulers are true. Especially with the case of Tiberius Caesar and Caligula. They were evil, but much of the info you can find about them was written hundreds of years after their deaths by people that absolutely loathed both of them.
@@andersjjensen its also a bit suspect that he has no direct descendants...(looks like I was wrong, as many people have pointed out they have found about 20 direct descendants)
It is funny asf though that Caligula loaded up his entire military to “conquer the Britons,” only for him to order his men to collect sea shells, as soon as they reached the beach, then commanded his men to load back up for their voyage back to Rome. They killed him very shortly after returning.
I am so happy you took the time to learn the letter "Ö". its really hard for english speakers and that shows your dedication to the source material and your fans from central Europe.
Прочитала Ваш комментарий и удивилась: почему англоговорящим должен сложно даваться звук /œ/? Ведь от английского /ɜ:/ он отличается только степенью округления губ и краткостью 🤔
@@MaryushkaSkazochnaya Believe me: I dont know why they just dont get it either 🤣 But I know from 3rd party and personal experience, that most english speakers struggle a lot with it and some never learn it at all even though they live in germany.
As someone from Czechia, I'm also super-glad he actually uses the term Central Europe. Watching this channel because it shows respect to other parts of the world 🙂
The archaeology of Ötzi is incredible but it's also insane to think that, ten millennia from now, some hikers could find my body and write, "At the time he died, he had a papercut and was mildly sleep-deprived. He was carrying a phone and a wallet typical of 21st-century North America, as well as a gum wrapper he hadn't thrown away yet and a cool rock he found. His stomach contained an entire pint of ice cream."
Hi, archaeologist here! Just wanted too share the fact that we actually determined where Ötzi might have come from. Based on oxygen isotope analysis conducted on Ötzi's teeth, we actually discovered that Ötzi grew up in the Eisack Valley watershed, and spent most of his time as an adult in the mountains of Vinschgau. Ötzi's history is super fascinating! (Bonus fact; microscopic traces on Ötzi's coat indicated that he spent a lot of time around copper, indicating that he may have been a copper smith! So his axe may have been something he actually created!)
Wouldn't a copper smith have been very rare at the time? When most other people were making tools from wood, stone and bone, here's this guy who can conjure an axe head by _melting rocks_ in a fire. I can't help but wonder if that could have something to do with why he was killed. We'll likely never know, of course. Edit: You can all stop telling me I'm stupid, @foobles5082 has already (politely) explained my misconception.
@@alexanderfielding I’m an experimental archaeologist specializing in Bronze Age materials (just finishing my masters!) We covered Ötzi extensively during a prehistoric archaeology course
Archaeologists out here solving 5000 year old murder mysteries, while your average cop says there is “nothing we can do” when given CCTV footage, a recording and multiple eye witnesses to a crime.
In Korea, woven grass was used to help prevent ice blocks from melting (and to separate them from each other). Apparently they're good insulators so paired with the fur, Otzi had a really good coat
To this day, packed straw in a wooden frame covered in clay is used to build houses. (That's the central European way, I am sure other regions have similar ways of building houses)
Straw boxes were used in WW2 to continue cooking food in saucepans to save gas, Once boiling the saucepan was put inside the tightly packed straw box and the straw lip put on. the pot wouild continue cooking. Oddly they have ow invented a similiar device for Caravaners, In the morning start cooking the meal in the thermo pot ..once boiling put the lid on and head off!f for the day! when you arrive at your destination the meal is cooked.
@robertcarveth8722 in some cultures they use a type of sleeping bag for a pot to do the same job. It is now also offered to people who struggle with utility costs in the UK. It's basically a free slow cooker, however the initial costs to buy the cover are still very high.
If you happened to also die 3 hours after the filming of this video imagine historians 6000 years in the future analyzing your stomach and wondering why you were eating this neolithic food lol
We don't know why Americans chose to grill outside when we have found archaeological evidence of indoor kitchens, it is speculated this was done for ritual purposes
You _claim_ that the ice man didn't have a weber kettle grill but they just didn't find one with his body, and it would perfectly explain the rest of his possessions being left alone if his attackers were too occupied with carrying away his weber kettle grill.
@@patavinity1262 absolutely, there is evidence of long-distance trade spanning the whole continent, trading goods such as salt, sea shells, pottery, flint...
Ötzi is our oldest preservation of tattoos. That’s how i know him! He had tattoos believed to be medicine as they found small diamond shapes on a wrist struggling with arthritis
We assume so at least I always wonder with those scenarios if we underestimate the human element. Maybe someone in his tribe wanted him to feel better about his injured wrist. Maybe that's just the easiest spot to reach with his other hand, considering the tools they had to use.
Westerners always forget to mention that it was the oldest in europe. Not world wide. We have allot of other examples of tattoos in other continents that are thousands of years older
Dude’s a badass. Covered in tats and bear skin that he probably hunted himself, super valuable copper axe, body chock full of disease but the only thing that could stop him was an arrow in the back.
It is very interesting, I wonder if they did some studies on plants he probably used as medicine, but what I think was the strongest medicine back then, is mental strength. Assuming from tattooes and most likely spiritual believs about medical plants, placebo efects may have had very strong effect on people back then, they still do in closed cultures. Anyway unbeliavable will to live, climbing these mountains, that he probably knew very well, in such age, probably after some kind of conlifct... thats true courage.
@@WwarpfirewWSome plants do have medicinal properties, it’s not all weird homeopathic rubbish. Many modern pharmaceuticals are derived from compounds found in plants. People at the time would have had a basic knowledge of plants and their utility for treating ailments, nourishment, or dying textiles.
@@hdubbs9174 of course, but it can do only so much , I'm refering mainly to Ötzis chronical issues as arthritis which causes severe pain and even potent plant analgetics won't help without causing serious side effects, more so when travelling harsh terrain
They probably would've ground him up and used him for cosmetics, paint pigments, "medicines," and just straight up eaten pieces of him like they did with other mummies
Can you imagine hiking, finding a DEAD guy, and having that being one of the best things which has ever happened in the scientific field of anthropology, meaning this hike of yours is likely the most important thing you will ever do in your life! *together with the reguar horror of finding a dead guy, of course
Somehow I would feel better to learn that this guy was dead for 5000 years than if it was a recently deceased hiker. I don't know why, he certainly didn't die a peaceful death, but it's distant enough to find it more intriguing than sad.
@@evapreu3011 Yeah I agree. but still. One morning you are having a nice time on vacation exploring some scenic mountains and stuff then BAM! A dead human poking out from the ice. If I was the person who found it Id not sleep well for a few months.
Ötzi always makes me a little emotional. he never could have known he'd be so important and cherished by people so far away thousands of years after his death. how beautiful is it that we, as humans, want to know more about this man who we'd otherwise never have been given the opportunity to meet?
One interesting part of Ötzi is that he still has all that equipment and especially the copper axe. The axe was probably extremely valuable, so leaving it would have been like killing someone with a clearly visible pouch full of gold coins, and not bothering to take the gold, even though you got close enough to bash their head in. So why would you kill someone and even bash their head in, but not take a second to take the copper axe? That opens interesting speculation: Was the murder done in such a hurry that they had no time to loot? Was this some sort of ritual murder where the deliberately left him with his valuables? Was the head wound from falling, and Ötzi fell somewhere where he was difficult to get to? Or maybe the copper axe was so distinctive, that taking it would have instantly made you recognisable as a thief and likely the murderer?
He could have been with friends that drove the attackers off but then the snow made it impossible to find his body. Or a rapidly approaching storm made them leave before they could take the items. We will never know.
@@jaysmith8199 except whoever shot him in the shoulder also retrieved the arrow shaft. It IS weird that whoever did it didn't take the axe, or at least the axe head. That copper would have been very valuable.
The arrow in the back suggests he was fleeing. My thought is that the axe was stolen (Max just mentioned this possibility right after i got this all typed out. 😂) I think he was shot during his escape but not incapacitated by the arrow. He could have fled some distance from his attacker before falling to his wounds. But he did have L U M B A G O, so who knows how far he would have run. Uncle wouldn't go far... 👴
In bushcraft, we cook the bread cakes right on ashes or even in the ashes. See Ray Mears if you want to know more Max. Also, you can cook eggs that way, like ostrich eggs or even plain chicken or duck eggs. Less oxygen to none in the ashes. That's key. Otzi would not have had the ability to easily boil nettles, but if you have some sort of leather bag, you can heat rocks and add to the water in the leather to boil the nettles or ferns. Both are SUPER nutritious. I have a copy of most of his gear, btw, including the axe. Fun cooking that way. As a guy into bushcraft and cooking, this was SUPER fun, the best video yet. I watch em all. But *THIS* was special. Thank you, Max!
The fern he ate is toxic when it's completely grown to a big plant, but when harvested cooked and eaten when it is still very small it's perfectly safe and actually quite tasty. I live in the Palatinate forest and it's a real treat in spring :)
I have eaten it too. Kind of a really light garlic like flavor too it. Not bad. Easy to know when it is too grown to harvest as it gets woody and bitter.
It is not perfectly safe even young. It has a proven carcinogen, just in lower quantities in younger plants. Yes, it is eaten in loads of locations - that doesn't mean it is completely safe
I'm an archaeologist from South Tyrol where Ötzi was found and was several times at his finding place :-) So I was really eager to see what you created of the research on his stomach content! Good job and best wishes from the Alps 🙂
If you have a theory on why they didn't steal the axe, (as well as his arrows, etc) I'm all for it! My theories : his attackers couldn't take it because they were known to him. It would have designated them as the murderer. Or: They had some superstition about copper and found such axes unholy or something. Or they were "barbarians" who couldn't appreciate what a fine artefact it was? How I wish we knew...
@@isabelled4871 probably was too obvious stealing such a expensive and peculiar artifact, was towards the end of copper age so unlikely peoples around didnt knew about cooper metal
How fascinating! I wonder if he was trying to reach a mountain stronghold or hiding place? Did you ever find evidence of something like that? Best wishes in your studies.
He must have been really motivated to climb a mountain at 45 years old with messed up joints and heart failure. Really shows what your body is capable of when you really want something.
no not really a medieval knight would be vastly more athletic than any soldier of today and were only going back about 500 years go back 5000 years we didn't domesticate horses so you walked EVERYWHERE currency hadn't been invented so you hunted your food, also his body would've been adapted to the climate so yes of course it would be cold but any colder than what he is used to? probably not. to us yes what a hell of a feat but remember he was killed up there meaning other people had been tracking him and following him meaning not that hard of a climb.
@ashleytaylor7621 not having currency doesn't mean everyone lived fully independent and had to hunt all their own food. You can still barter and trade without using metal coins or an equivalent. And do you have an actual source to base the claim of them not having currency when and where Otzi lived on? Because currency isn't much younger than farming
After watching this, I bought einkorn flour and made some einkorn cakes with some red onion and spinach I had lying around. It was really good and of course very healthy. I got full very fast. Thank you for inspiration!
You’re in your forties???? I thought you were like mid-30s at the oldest. Ötzi, your memory is a blessing and I hope you are resting peacefully in whatever afterlife you’ve ended up in.
The thing that always surprised me about Otzi was that the killer comes up and takes the arrow, but leaves the VERY expensive copper axe behind. It always made me think that Otzi might have pulled the arrow himself and his killer didn't get to him before he was hidden in snow, because that axe seems like something you don't just leave on a corpse that you chased for so long.
One theory is that his killers didn't want to be recognized (for fear of revenge raids from the victim's clan); hence, removing the shaft from the arrow (telltale clan marks), and not taking the axe (highly visible evidence, like taking your victim's expensive sports car)...
Fun fact: As far as I remember (I was a nerdy 12-year old at the time), Ötzi caused a brief minor diplomatic crisis between Austria and Italy. The German hikers who found him thought they were on the Austrian side of the border and called the Austrian police who took him to Innsbruck, the capital of North Tyrol (Austria). Then the Italians figured out and proved that his finding place was actually on the Italian side of the border and asked for his body to be handed over to Italy. The Austrians were quite unhappy (exacerbated by the fact that they never really got over "losing" South Tyrol to Italy in WW1), and the compromise was that Ötzi is now in Bozen/Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol (Italy), but not in Rome. At the time, a satirical Austrian radio show ("Der Guglhupf") had a rather funny sketch about this which I remember clearly as the point in time when I started enjoying political comedy.
I’ve been obsessed with Ötzi ever since he was found when I was about 9 years old. I used to carry around an issue of Smithsonian magazine that covered the story saying “Isn’t this amazing!? He’s older than the pyramids!” Most of the other kids and teachers were not as excited about the dehydrated dead guy I insisted on showing them. But he’s only gotten more interesting since then!
I first learned about Otzi at a church yard sale, lol there was a table full of books and I saw his face on the front cover and was immediately fascinated. I think I was around 10 or 12. This was like 15 years ago. lol but I thought it was crazy.
My first obsession was Pompeii, and an exhibit is one of my first memories. I should have become an archeologist. I have very clear memories of it -- then strange black patches. I figured out later it's bc my Mom was covering my eyes for parts of it. 😂 Pompeii (and the Roman emperors from Augustus to Nero) really are my Roman Empire. 😊
Poor Ötzi, the ridiculous amount of injuries, diseases and maladies this guy had really is a grim reminder of how rough it was back then for pretty much everyone. What a trooper. This is a neat way to help memorialize him, I wonder what he’d think of the fact that so many know who he is.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH ARFFFHFGGG UUGGHHGHGRE!!!!!!" *He would be shocked by discovery of both modern technology and the availability of decent quality high calorie food and probably die of a heart attack due to his clogged arteries and high cholesterol*
@@Sniperboy5551 I was pointing out that he’s an example of how rough things were for everyone, not just him. I know there are so many people’s stories that we’ll never now and that is sad to me. But yes it is a part of life. We live, it’s hard and it sucks a lot of the time, and then we die and are eventually forgotten.
I was going through some very severe medical pain when this came out. I remember my empathy for Otzi and his untreated pain when I first saw this. Feeling better and almost his age, I'm grateful for modern medicine being better than nothing, at least.
What I like the most about this video is hearing that Ötzi had a sense of fashion. I think it's easy for people, myself included, to assume that Prehistoric humans weren't smart enough, or just had no appreciation for things like that. Evidently though Ötzi did have opinions on what looked good on him, and depending on how he might've prepared his last meal, may have also been a decent cook for his time. Seems that the desire to look nice and have a good meal is as old as humanity itself.
From what I've read, people have been just as smart the whole time we've been people. The only thing that has changed is what technology and background knowledge we have available.
Practically every prehistoric artifact, even going back tens of thousands of years before Otzi, is not only functional but in some way made pleasing to the eye. Weapons and tools were carved and decorated, evidence of personal adornment (carved beads, seashells or animal teeth or smooth stones drilled to wear as pendants or beads, etc) goes back practically as far as there’s evidence for clothing at all, stone tools were sometimes deliberately knapped in such a way as to take advantage of beautiful jaspers and agates and even petrified woods. I have held a stone point, centuries old, elegantly knapped from petrified palm wood just like the petrified palm wood I myself turned into a cabochon only a few weeks ago! Humans have always loved adding form to function, and making things that were useful also be beautiful!
@@marggarg2778Arguably they were much smarter than modern humans. They understand their world, how to survive and look after themselves and were skilled in many complex professions in a much harsher environment
I'm guessing the mismatched hide colors and shapes in combination with that straw poncho made for some good camouflage as well. Bro was wearing a prehistoric ghillie suit.
Blood samples from 4 different individuals were found on his clothes. His recently broken ribs are just starting to heal. a serious wound on his head and a deep cut to the bone on his hand. The arrow on your shoulder is the final point. My friend, this man fought with a group and managed to survive. This group is a minimum of 4 people. Ötzi managed to wound all four of them. He also managed to escape. They are definitely following him. The reason why Ötzi went to the impossible nature is to escape these people. They approached him in a heavy blizzard. They shot him with an arrow, but Ötzi managed to escape again. The fact that the valuable equipment he had with him was not taken is proof that he survived. He survived those people, but died from blood loss shortly after. We will not know whether Ötzi was guilty or a victim.
I think something like this is most likely. The idea that someone else would pull out the arrow (shaft) but leave the valuable copper axe is just too unlikely. I know there's a theory that he was ambushed by friends/someone he knew and they couldn't take any of his valuables at risk of being recognized by other people for most likely having killed him. Could he have been shot, fallen and been somewhere where nobody could retrieve the valuables? Possibly. But again, what about the arrow head? Even if he'd pulled it out, surely there would've been remnants at the scene and from what I understand, that was the most recent wound he had sustained very shortly before his death.
@b0ne91 I think he pulled the arrow out on the road while running away and threw it away. The reason is that ancient arrows with stone tips were attached to the handle with a kind of paste glue. If you pull the arrow straight in the opposite direction of the entry direction, it will come out with its tip. But the arrow was on Otz's back. Reaching over and pulling it out quickly from an opposite angle caused the tip to remain inside. As a result, the resulting wooden shaft rotted away somewhere within a 30-minute running distance or was buried under the snow and is waiting to be found today.
It's fascinating how some of the most informative archeological finds aren't the grand monuments that people built to last throughout the ages, but rather the random bits of life that nobody thought much about. Ötzi was probably forgotten within a few decades of his life. We learn more about the daily lives of civilizations from their trash pits than their temples.
I always get emotional whenever I think about prehistoric humans like Ötzi. They were people just like you and me. They told stories, made art, had families and friends. They liked to spend time with the people they loved. they raised their children and taught them as best they could morals and how to thrive. They were just trying to survive and be happy. I often look up into the night sky and wonder who came before me, who looked up at the same moon and the same stars. I wonder what their life was like, if they were happy, if they felt as alone as I do sometimes. I think about how, though we are separated by vast stretches of time, we aren't that different from each other.
@@solventlessThen we can know those in the future will be thinking of us this way. 🥰 So in a way we do know! Maybe those in the past thought of us in their future.
I find it strangely heartwarming that the food that people ate over 5 thousand years ago is still considered tasty by people today. It's a connection we have to our ancestors that people often don't think about.
Also one has to keep in mind that as grains over millennia, but especially in the industrial age got changed increasingly into higher yield that this high yield and price was often at the cost of reducing other qualities of nutritional value and flavor (e.g. gluten content), especially when it comes to grains. Something which gets re-discovered from smaller producers which try to rediscover old farming methods but also older grains which got pushed aside and/or by re-creating them by different means, often using old, forgotten sources which got luckily not wiped out yet. Just one example. Some old dates from about 2,000 years ago got rediscovered and recreated by very old seeds which got found in ancient storage. ua-cam.com/video/Bd75wjdTMnc/v-deo.html
Otzi seemed like quite the survivor. He's hiking and covering great distances, scrounging his own medicinal supplies, bandaging himself w/ moss, cooking his own food all while suffering joint and dental pain and abdominal maladies. What a tough little guy.
At 45 years old, and 5' 3", 5,000 years ago, Otzi would have been a rich, tough, average-height guy. Average life expectancy would have been 35-40. That he could have afforded so many "medicinal" tattoos, and a copper axe, with fashionable, alternating-fur boots also points to a respected place in society. That nobody took his nice stuff could suggest: a) attackers didn't want to be caught with his recognizable stuff later, b) he was shot and fell from a height, and the attackers didn't want to chase his body into the ravine, and/or c) there was a major storm brewing, or already in progress, and they needed to get the hell off that mountain and home, fast. That he was covered with snow and never found again - or uncovered - means he was covered in feet of snow - snow that never melted for 5,000 years (until now, which might tell you something about our climate today...).
I’ve met many Zoomers who find it difficult to “adult” much less hike for miles, hunt and prepare their meals, bandage their wounds, and use medicinal herbs (except one very popular one that reduces their hunting/gathering survival skills. ).
@@queenoflammersland8562 I know people of all generations who lack skills I thought were basic because I was raised by someone from a small town during the Great Depression. My aunt, who was my mom's spoiled kid sister, for example. GenX dudes who dated me because they thought I'd take care of them.
there's something to the pathos of this video that made it very affecting and i appreciated Max treating the subject respectfully, despite it being an event so far removed from us
I think the fact that it *isn’t* far removed from us, in some ways, is precisely what makes it so affecting. 5000 years ago, and everything he did was so incredibly *human*.
@@jennypaxton8159I was watching this while I ate dinner and my gf heard mx describe the einkorn pancake, and she looked over and said "that sounds good". 5000 years ago, humans still have similar taste in food.
I think that's the beauty of Tasting History and the compelling nature of Otzi's story. On one hand learning what they ate always humanizes people from the past to a point, and max's commentary is always apt imo. Moreover, theres just something so compelling about Otzi to most people who hear about him. He's so much like us and yet lived thousands of years before us. The fact he was found by pure chance and all we've gleaned from him from a period that has so much obscured just adds to that. For me it's always just such a cool reminder of how Humanity as a species has changed so much but so little in the grand scheme of things.
3:10 I love how you mention that he probably knew exactly how much of it he could eat for it to not be poisonous, because often times we assume people at that time were just dumber than us when in reality they might've been way more knowledgable when it comes to all the herbs you can find all around you. They could've probably walked into any forest and just live by eating all the different mushrooms and things we call "weeds" now
@@trivikram4962 Probably not. Its immune system would be so wildly different from a modern human’s that it would most likely die immediately from one or several of our countless diseases and bacteria.
Bracken (Gosari in Korean, Warabi in Japanese) consumption is still common in east Asia and in some parts of Wales. If you soak it and boil the hell out of it, most of the carcinogens break down or are leached out. Some studies say that even with these methods, habitually eating it increases the incidence of asophogal and stomach cancers by a factor three compared to people who don't. Were it not for the presence of carcinogens, Fernbrake would be awesome from a nutritional point of view. High fiber. High protein. Edit: I've eaten it and cooked with it. It is not dangerous enough to completely avoid entirely, but I wouldn't make a habit of eating it regularly.
Archaeology student and first-time viewer here. Thanks for the great video! Prehistoric cuisine is a super fascinating topic that I think makes us appreciate our ancestors as *humans*, rather than just abstract entities. Unfortunately, it's difficult to reconstruct and not often talked about in such a vivid fashion as you did. As for flavourings/spices, salt probably would have been available to him, at least in theory. But there's also a variety of berries and herbs he might have used to add some variety to his rations. Those things are notoriously difficult to detect, though.
It was also travel food. He was on foot for at least a few days, maybe on the run. Food a man would carry in that situation is very different than what would have been available to an established agricultural or stable hunter/gatherer community. Herbs and salt, roots and vegetables, alcohol and pickled items he wouldn't have on him as a traveler but all almost assuredly available to people of that time, at least on occassion. Few people these days would find military rations impressive fare or a fair indication of typical daily foods. His food would have been considered basic travel food even in his time.
Hey Max, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the fact that you actually try to properly pronounce German words. 90% of UA-camrs just scream something they vaguely mumbled together based on how they think it should sound based on some Sitcom or Cartoon, and almost all of the rest struggles with every single sound that's somewhat unusual in English. You are either spot on or at least very close.
Amazing how bad most people are at it given how German is a way more phonetic language than English so it's pretty easy to work out the pronunciation of even long compound words, compared to English phrases like "Is there enough dough in the trough?"
I have a theory that there's a correlation between how closely related English and German are and how difficult German is for Anglophones. @@misterthegeoff9767
Yeah, not only German but he's one of the few trying (and often managing) to get a proper pronunciation of many languages. I can vouch for Italian but I always see people commenting on how he's nailing the pronunciation.
Also the difference between Plattduestch and the Northern German dialect/accent. I grew up listening to Oktoberfest music, which all originates from Barvaria and Batten-Wurttembürg.
@@mattia_carciola iirc he mentioned that he learned spanish in school, which would explain why he's getting most of the vowels in languages that use the latin alphabet at least.
Thank you! I KNEW the Comments would have the answer to the question that came to me as I was listening. Could dna testing be done? Any descendants identified? Also, from my research there's average 40 generations per 1000 years, so wouldn't that be grand nieces and nephews with 120 greats in front of it? 120. Wow. DNA science is pretty amazing.
Here's a fact for you: Had Ötzi not been killed or survive the fight, he would had died within 10 years of heart disease. Among the various studies conducted on Ötzi were CT scans of his heart and it came as a surprise that his arteries were as badly clogged as modern humans. He was well on his way to his first (and last) heart attack. Apparently, heart disease has been present in the human population long before the modern era.
dude, is there really people that think heart disease is a modern thing? What the hell? illness is nature, the state of being healthy, ironically, is the exception.
@NDPrepper-uy9rb It was much more likely due to the excessive amount of fats and cholesterol from a mostly red meat diet, which are still the number one contributors to heart disease today.
**A few thousand years from now, on cooking history:** "Today we are making twenty first century 'pancakes'. Now, we don't exactly know how they would have heated this, so I'm going to set my remoleculamizer to 10 kiloflirps, which is probably close to what they would have done. I have also seasoned the cake with meatpowder since I don't have real bacon and I'm not sure how one would safely prepare real meat anyways"
For real who uses real meat anymore I didn’t even know there were animals left I always just eat the unflavored sustenance powder I put in my lead water
"Okay, so I have tried a variety of prompts with FoodGPT and it keeps trying to put an actual pan in my pancakes. Thankfully, FoodGPT version 2007.1 just came out and fixed the 'unwanted pan' bug. All we have to do is add '(metal pan: -20.0)' to the prompt..."
Indigenous person from Canada here! When i saw fiddleheads in the thumbnail i was really excited to click on this video. I see many similarities between his diet and my cultures diet (including fiddleheads) and his attire and what we would have worn for time immemorial! So so cool. Fascinating video and lots of love 💙
Sorry if I sound like an ass for correcting you but I think the word you mean is "immemorial", which means something that has been true for so long that it is beyond the reach of memory.
I love learning more about food all around the world! I am from England and didn't even know they were real until today 😅 they just look so magical! I want one now!
I only know about fiddleheads because I’m a weeb and know medieval Japanese foraged for fiddleheads. I just assumed all fiddleheads were edible and not poisonous, so that was new for me.
Learning so much about Ötzi gives me a sense of excitement and existentialism. The fact that he wasn't a popular historical figure until his remains were found gives me a sort of determination, that what I do in the present as a regular civilian might have significant importance to the future. At the same time, it also makes me think about my mortality and how I will pass on before the turn of the century and with any luck, have my body be examined by future humans.
One study suggested that Otzi had 4 other people's blood on his belongings and weapons, so it's possible his killing was more self-defence than murder. There's a really weird film telling one reconstruction of his last days called Iceman (2017). It's a fictionalised story, but based as much as possible on the archaeological evidence. All the dialogue is in an extinct Alpine language, so that whatever the audience's native language, they're supposed to just follow the story from what's shown on screen. The film makers made a few other weird choices with it, but it's worth a watch.
Interesting. If he was indeed killed out of revenge, that might help explain why his killer took their arrow back but didn't touch any of his belongings, including the extremely valuable copper axe. Guess they were never interested in robbing him.
There are many theories that makes good sense, I hate the fact we'll never know for sure. Was Ötzi a poor victim or a crazed killer? Or was he neither, did he just get stuck between 2 group fighting?
I actually studied the Copper Axe in my university course, and through Lead-Isotope Analysis the researchers actually found out that the source of the copper came from the Tuscany area, not other copper sources in the nearby Alps, which has leads to many hypothesis but my favourite is that he was a traveler of sorts that had come from or across Tuscany on his journey.
More recently they've found out that Ötzi grew up in the Eisack Valley watershed, and spent most of his time as an adult in the mountains of Vinschgau. A thoroughly Tyrolean man.
Otsi had blood on his back from other people, which showed he carried some wounded or dead men. It looked like a big fight, and thus, he was on the run since the blood on his back proved that he carried wounded men. So he was definitely in a big fight, most likely a clan fight, a family fight, and he probably was the only one remaining, so they went after him. Or it may be that he went and avenged his relatives and then he got chased down. It is one of the two.
Ötzi may very well have been having the worst day ever. Joints hurt like hell, desperately running through the mountains, sick with a few recent injuries, and to top it all off he gets SHOT
I’m at lunch at my job right now and the last two days have sucked . After watching what this poor man went through , I’m taking a deep breath and putting it into perspective
It's interesting to see how Ötzi last meal reveal the real falacy of all those people that swears so much on the carnivore diet, saying that humans originally didn't even eat wheat. Considering that Ötzi lived around 5,300 years ago (circa 3,300 BCE) during the Copper Age (Chalcolithic period) and at this time, humans in Europe were transitioning from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture and animal domestication. Ötzi himself was part of a society that practiced early farming, but hunting and gathering were still essential, and even so there was still wheat in his diet.
I remember watching a history channel documentary about Ötzi a little over 20 years ago. The experts interviewed said things like, "He probably lived in a close-knit, peaceful society without war." THEN they found the arrowhead!!! They legit had to update the documentary to edit out the part about the peaceful society!!
Why would his killers/killer leave his shoes , furs and other garments as well as on other valuables?! Was he not attacked somewhere else but made his way over the mountain whilst he was injured , arrow head still inside him?
There was a massive push in the 60's and onwards to claim that prehistory humans lived in peace. They claimed large societies caused interpersonal violence, think of the peacful savage trope. @jujutrini8412
@@Volodymyr.Yermakov Yeah the company is iffy but the food is alright. Sometimes even very good. But some meals are a bit low in amount. But compared to all other youtube sponsers, Hello fresh is fine. Tried it for 2 weeks, i didnt regret it. But i cook my meals myself wich is better. But for someone in a time constraint, like a student, or such, hello fresh is handy.
@@F4Wildcat anyone should be wary of companies that seem to spend so much money on marketing so consistently, things like raycon, hellofresh, nordvpn etc. when so much of their budget goes to marketing and advertisements, you have to wonder what they are doing to cut costs for everything else.
@@Volodymyr.YermakovI never trust companies that show up a lot in UA-cam sponsorships. To me, that speaks to more of an investment in marketing than quality. Not to knock on Hello Fresh or Max, I'm sure it's a perfectly adequate product. But things like Better Help or Dollar Shave Club or MVMT exemplify what I mean with their numerous controversies.
I always found it funny that they had this man's body for actual years, and one day one researcher was looking at xrays and just went "hey, what's this big black mass in his back?" Before that they just... never thought to look at it.
You think this is grade school? They had the x-rays. Heck. They TOOK the X-Rays. You really would think a researcher would have spotted that straight away. @@Megan-ii4gf
Yours is the BEST channel I've ever found. It is so exciting to be able to get to experience what our ancestors tasted on a regular basis. I love you and what you have created for me
There is a theory that Otzi was in the amount in to attack people as a bandit. This is theorised because of how well equipped he came; how well armed he was with: bow, knives, arrows and axe; and the fact that he wasn't looted after he was killed despite the fact he was carrying very valuable copper equipment. Analysis of his body showed that he regularly climbed the mountains and was very fit, had prior healed injuries and which hints at a hard and dangerous life. The arrow that killed him hit him in the back, but he also had injuries to the hand, possibly from fighting but also possibly from rock climbing. But hey that's just a theory, a Chalcolithic theory.
Recent studies show he has trace amounts of copper all over his clothing leading some to believe he may actually been a copper smith but I like your theory. Though why was he shot in the back by those he was attempting to rob? Interesting to think what could’ve happened
I think he was some scout/hunter for a tribe with the equipment he had and was probably surveilling the land, happen to stumble upon a rival tribe's village, group, or maybe an army if such existed in those parts at the time, which was up to something like an big attack on a village. He started to flee toward the mountain to break pursuit, but the men were quite determined to silence him and with such valuable stuff still on him, it probably was not to rob him, or take something he stole. I think it was that he witnessed some attack party or a scheme that was brewing, wanted to inform his tribe of it after finding out, yet he knew too much, so pursuers chased him up the perilous mountain climb and killed him, ensuring it with a fatal blow to the head.
Only two of his arrows were ready to be used. Too few to face a real fight. Also the bow was maybe functional, but unfinished. It was not strange for a traveler to be equipped like that, because to prepare the other arrows and finish the bow were activities that could be performed to pass time in front of the fire before sleeping. But a raider would have had a complete and finished kit.
@@neutronalchemist3241 Or he only had two prepared arrows left - the defensive wounds plus the distance traveled from when he got those to where he died makes that pretty plausible.
Considering most Ibex species are endangered and number less then a few thousand individuals I think it's best if they are left alone. Alpine Ibex are a protected species in the Alpine countries, and it's only really found in large numbers in Italy.
@@Sniperboy5551 There is still only thousands of Alpine Ibex that remain, and it's because of conservation efforts, they use to be in the hundreds in the early 1900s. The original population in the millions now has thousands and the population has incredibly low genetic diversity due it's low numbers that humans caused, even slight decreases in population would be devastating.
There's a few thousands in France, too. Though AFAIK most if not all Alpine Ibexes descend from a few hundreds Italian ones that survived extinction thanks to the Gran Paradiso reserve, hence the low genetic diversity.
That, or whoever killed him knew the axe would be recognizable as belonging to Ötzi. In that case, taking the axe from the man you just murdered would be tantamount to driving around in the car of someone you’ve killed.
@@l3ftie578 It's not just the axe, he also had food, nice clothes, and a medicine pouch, none of that was looted either. His attackers most probably never found the body.
@@padmanabhanvaidyanathan7182 do you think he fell down somewhere that was inaccessible to his attackers at the time? And if so, do you think he suffered head trauma during the fall or was that from an attacker?
@@l3ftie578 He probably fell and hit his head on a rock. He managed to pull out the arrow, but was too injured to move, and died there. His attackers couldn't find him under the howling wind and snow and decided to leave.
I once met a clothing historian who was asked to analyze the weaves/cut of Otzi's clothing . It was amazing how much of an in depth analysis they've done on him.
Well we have tons of settlements from the time, but other than bog bodies (which typically don't have much on them, since they're usually intentionally buried) we really don't have a lot of people. It's crazy that he even still exists
I once tried to climb an Austrian mountain in my 20s, in not a great hurry, carrying much less stuff and being in better health and it was still a hard day. Ötzi must have been supremely motivated.
Another explanation: Otzi and a group of men were chasing thieves or raiders up the mountains, where they were ambushed. Otzi was hit by an arrow and died, while his companions chased the attackers, and before they could go back for his body and gear, the weather became bad
No. I read that the arrow that hit him had no shaft. Meaning the killer tried to retrieve it. The arrowhead remains because it was lodged too deep in his shoulder blade.
@@ilhamsyamsuddin he could’ve been at the front of his group, got hit by the arrow, the killer tried to take it out but before he can steal Otzi’s items he is chased off. Something has to explain why Otzi’s highly valuable possessions such as his axe were not taken off his body…life was so difficult back then there’s no way they wouldn’t have taken his possessions after killing him
I encourage everyone to actually pay Ötzi a visit if they have the chance, he's at the Archeological Museum in Bolzano, northern Italy. Super cool and there's more to the museum than just the Iceman
It can be called Tasting Prehistory, but the story behind people figuring out Ötzi's last meal is a history in itself. A history of forensics, perhaps. It looks all fine to me! 3:00 I live in a place where a fern from the Bracken family is not medicine but instead a vegetable. Gosari namul is a Korean vegetable dish, and its prep work includes removing the toxicity from young fern sprouts through ways such as boiling.
Oh wow thanks for that info! Have you eaten it? If so, what does it taste like? Where I live in Canada, fiddleheads are a special treat and they're delicious. They're in season now and I'm going to get some soon.
@@nollypolly As far as I know the one used in Korean cuisine is of a slightly different type of plant from the same family, and its edible parts are much thinner and softer than the one shown in this video. It has its own unique texture and flavor, but I'm not sure how to describe it other than saying it feels more "wild" than other domesticated vegetables. It's a staple ingredient in dishes like bibimbap and yukgaejang (a type of Korean spicy beef stew). When these dishes lack this one ingredient it feels like something important is missing because its unique flavor is virtually irreplaceable. Korean cuisine has a few fragrant "vegetables" like it, but instead of calling them aromatics and herbs we call them "vegetables" because we use them in quantities like spinach or lettuce, not rosemary or cilantro.
@@knpark2025 So besides from boiling it to get rid of the toxins, is it prepared in many different ways? God I must make sure to have a taste of that some way or another.
You mention how agriculture is expanding and hunting/gathering is shrinking at the time of this meal. When I read the epic of Gilgamesh, that was the main theme that really amazed me: at the time in the story, the two human lifestyles were still interacting with one another.
@@komiks42 Actually, though hunter/gatherers tended to be better fed and stronger, agrarians had more children and disease resistance. Meat waves shouldered-out the hunter/gatherers from their lands, mutilating the land to farming. If the gatherers complained, they were killed by numbers and bronze. This is why @Sniperboy5551 there are still remote hunter/gatherer communities; their land wasn't good enough to be stolen by farmers.
I don''t know if you'll read this comment, but that injury on his hand is very common when people stab something with a knife that doesn't have a handguard. Blood is slippery and when you hit something solid like a bone, suddenly your hand keeps moving forward but the knife stops. He could have gotten that killing one of the animals or fighting a person. Source: I'm a crime scene investigator and you see that all the time at stabbing scenes.
what if he held the attackers knife from the blade end as a desperate measure and the attacker pulled it away? is that possible? or that would make a different wound pattern?
@@zm453im no forensics expert or anything, but in that case i feel that otzi would probably have atleast 2 cut wounds on his hand from holding the blade. one on the webbing of his hand between his thumb and pointer finger (like the one he has) and cuts on the inside of his other fingers from gripping the blade of the knife.
Thank you for doing a Tasting Prehistory! The Otzi man is so fascinating. I can’t learn enough about it and seeing his last meal come to life is amazing.
Otzi just kept going. Thats that dog in em lol. That willingness to keep alive and just keep on trudging along. And that tool kit! He had everything he needed, only the essentials. I like to dream of what life mustve been like.
This was a REALLY interesting segment. I can remember being taught (I'm 76) that "stone age people" ate food that "modern people" would find pretty nasty. Thanks for dispelling that mistaken presumption. (Reminds me, too, that a lot of the dishes I enjoy are simple "peasant" concoctions, like what you made with some salt and basic herbs thrown it.)
I heard a chef say once that the best foods and most famous dishes are usually born of privation. And it makes sense. Anyone can cook a steak and make it taste good, but it takes skill and experience to turn the leftovers into something tasty.
@@adamplace1414 There is a reason why many traditional mealtime foods are simple soups and stews, as they are both easy to prepare, are often tasty on their own, and also make good use of low quality meat, or meat that is close to spoiling (or just spoiled but isn't fully rotting) when available but can suffice without it.
It’s amazing how this man’s life is studied so in depth. When he lived they didn’t have bronze, and he had no way of knowing that his legacy would carry on beyond basically any other human.
Fantastic to see some pre-history on here! While it's similar, could you maybe try to recreate the last meal of the Tollund man? He's a Danish bog body from around 2400 years ago, and his last meal consisted of, among other things, a porridge of different grains and seeds as well as some fish. Great video as always!
As an archaeology major, Otzi is my favorite! Another cool thing about preservation is that it’s because the temperature stays mostly the same, that’s one reason preservation is as good as it is! It’s the same for Bog Bodies because even though it’s water, the temperature hasn’t changed! It’s also the same as the girl in the mountains of Peru and other findings!
Had to read something about how they keep him in the museum for a school entry exam. If memory serves me right they keep him in a glorified fridge with a window and regularly have to mist him with water.
Just FYI: whenever you cook meat in any of these recipes up until modern times, the meat often would have tasted very different, for the pure reason that we are used to eating meat that is a few days old and has been shipped to us, preserved via refrigeration. Back in Ötzi’s time, and throughout most of history (except for those very wealthy few who could afford refrigeration), most meat would have been eaten fresh. In the Middle Ages, butchers would kill their animals and just leave slabs of meat right out in the street on tables with flies buzzing around them and everything! First come, first serve! They wouldn’t kill a really valuable animal unless they got paid a lot to do so, and if they did, they would cut up the leftovers and sell them off quickly…so people would have to eat that meat as freshly as possible. Apparently super fresh meat like that has a very different taste from the meat that we are used to in modern times. It’s less tough, and takes some getting used to…though I’m sure if you transported someone from the Middle Ages to our time, they would probably say that our meat is too tough and takes some getting used to! Of course, refrigeration has existed for thousands of years, as has salting, as ways of preserving meat, but those haven’t always been available to everyone, so the safest thing has always been for most plebs to just eat the animals they killed as soon as possible, as this is what most people usually did.
That's one of the reasons Pompeii and Herculaneum are so valuable. The victims were caught unaware and sealed in volcanic ash in the middle of their everyday lives, preserving everything. Most other ancient ruins have been picked clean over the eons by animals, survivors, relatives, and looters. There's a lot of stuff which was never recorded by historians of the time because it was so commonplace that "everyone" knew it, so there was no need to record it. And it's only through preserved sites that we get answers.
Max, I cannot with words express how grateful I am for you actually pronouncing Ötzi, rather than just ignoring the ö and approximate it with an o like many of your countrymen would. I liked you before but I love you now! Tasting pre-history is my favourite♥️
I'm watching this while making and eating a burrito bowl. It's hard not to appreciate just how many seasonings and ingredients my meal has access to, and the thousands of hands it took to grow, process, and transport to me and my pantry. When you include the people involved in making the trucks and farm implements and fertilizers and fuel and the pantry itself, I think it's safe to say at least a million people were involved and necessary in making this meal. Civilization has it's perks.
Fun fact! I (conclusively!) have Lyme Disease, and a lot of chronic pain caused by it. I happened to learn about Ötzi's tattoos while doing some research, and I decided to have a go at medicinal tattooing myself. Some of the worst of my pain has been at the fronts and backs of my shoulders when I'm trying to sleep on them, causing me to wake up multiple times a night, so I got a set of matching tattoos (purple roses, if you're curious) on the fronts of my shoulders. Once they had healed, I noticed that the pain actually did significantly improve! For about five years or so, at least; I got the tattoos around 2017 or 2018, and the pain has been getting worse in the last year or so. But it absolutely made a difference. Thanks Ötzi!
Wow. My cousin was diagnosed with Lyme disease a couple of years ago (in her 50s). Finally having some answers was a complete revelation. You have my deepest sympathies.
@@Unpainted_Huffhines When you have double blind studies it has frequently been found that roughly 30% of the people taking the sugar pill will have an improvement in their symptoms. Its pretty crazy
Being more a theologian/historian, figuring out what Otzi had in his stomach reminds me of the new ability for scientists to read charred, ancient scrolls without unrolling them, which might destroy them. Kudos on reproducing it to the best of your knowledge! Fascinating.
@@TrueFork IRCC that was the Dead Sea Scrolls (the wife of one of the guys who found them was mad that he brought back these "useless" things, and tried burning some as firewood). The Herculaneum scrolls were found during a proper excavation. So the ones lost were destroyed when people digging didn't realize what they were, and assumed they were just dirt and ash they were supposed to be breaking up and removing. It should be noted that some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were originally stored in a building which burned down about 1400 years ago. So they were carbonized much like the Herculaneum papyrii, and similar technology is being used to read them.
Thank you for tuning into this week's episode! I'm currently in London so follow along my travels on Instagram at instagram.com/tastinghistorywithmaxmiller/ , and if there's any other subtitle languages you want let Jose know on our Ketchup channel or instagram.com/worldagainstjose/
❤
Video idea: Tasting History recipes you actually used in real life!
You have an international audience, and most of the world uses Celsius for temperature, so you could at least give temps in that too.
Oh, just down the road from me! Although London used to be known as the 'Big Smoke', it's not reknowned for it's smokeries. And if it were, councils would probably have banned them by now. Also anyone who needs HelloFresh to make a cheese toastie is obviously not watching this channel closely enough.
Your cuts would look so much better if you used 2 cameras. 30⁰ to 50⁰ apart would be 👌
I find it funny how a lot of ancient kings were obsessed with legacy, only to be completely lost to history. And then there's Ötzi some random guy who will be remembered forever.
That fancy axe and his advanced years makes it quite plausible that he was a tribe leader. The wound on his hand and his subsequent flight could very well have been a power struggle for "the crown". What transpired that day may have had as much impact on his tribe as the murder of Julius Caesar had on Rome, millennia later. It could even be "the same story" of betrayal at the closest level, but on a smaller scale in a smaller society. But we will never know.
What we do know, is that the one who murdered him didn't rob him of his valuables. He just wanted his arrow shaft back. And that, to me, says "This is personal, but I mean no disrespect".
I love that in Ancient Rome, if you weren’t liked by the scribes, they would just make up things about you, knowing that in a couple hundred years, no one would be able to differentiate the truth from their rumors. It’s basically like a twitter feed that is still read and talked about thousands of years later. Because of that, we really don’t know exactly how much of their writings about ancient rulers are true. Especially with the case of Tiberius Caesar and Caligula. They were evil, but much of the info you can find about them was written hundreds of years after their deaths by people that absolutely loathed both of them.
@@andersjjensen its also a bit suspect that he has no direct descendants...(looks like I was wrong, as many people have pointed out they have found about 20 direct descendants)
It is funny asf though that Caligula loaded up his entire military to “conquer the Britons,” only for him to order his men to collect sea shells, as soon as they reached the beach, then commanded his men to load back up for their voyage back to Rome. They killed him very shortly after returning.
@@Xion431 That we know of....
So what I’m hearing is he was dripped out, iced out, had hella loot, full tummy, and was generally a badass
@thebathroombandit my brother in christ What are you saying
@@thebathroombanditWhy don’t you just leave Earth for people with actual brains?
@@thebathroombanditcalm down ok
This is why we can't have nice things. @@obnoxiouspedant
Otzi was a tough son of a gun. Tattoos for the pain. Crazy
RIP Ötzi, you would have loved Cracker Barrel
I would love it too if we had one nearby 😢
That chicken and dumplings platter would make them weep for joy.
@@Roddy556 I've got bad news for you, look at their stock. you probably wont get one any time soon. :/
I doubt it.
Maybe before they went to hell.
I am so happy you took the time to learn the letter "Ö". its really hard for english speakers and that shows your dedication to the source material and your fans from central Europe.
ÖöÖ
Прочитала Ваш комментарий и удивилась: почему англоговорящим должен сложно даваться звук /œ/? Ведь от английского /ɜ:/ он отличается только степенью округления губ и краткостью 🤔
@@MaryushkaSkazochnaya Believe me: I dont know why they just dont get it either 🤣 But I know from 3rd party and personal experience, that most english speakers struggle a lot with it and some never learn it at all even though they live in germany.
@@Philtopy Загадка 😄
As someone from Czechia, I'm also super-glad he actually uses the term Central Europe. Watching this channel because it shows respect to other parts of the world 🙂
The archaeology of Ötzi is incredible but it's also insane to think that, ten millennia from now, some hikers could find my body and write, "At the time he died, he had a papercut and was mildly sleep-deprived. He was carrying a phone and a wallet typical of 21st-century North America, as well as a gum wrapper he hadn't thrown away yet and a cool rock he found. His stomach contained an entire pint of ice cream."
"The fact he had a full pint of ice cream means he was extremely wealthy during his time"
judging by the wallet being leather he had immense wealth during his lifetime
From the rock we suggest that this guy collecting rock as a form of ritual to praise and praying the great goddess of rock
id like to see that rock
Spearmint Orbit was clearly for medicinal purposes
They killed Ötzi for his swag. His shoes were too fresh, his coat too fly, his medicines supreme.
Not to mention those bang’n leather/fur patchwork pants!
Guy was too fabulous to live. He HAD to go.
Who knew Otzi was Superbad.
Whoever killed him left extremely valuable tools for the time on him.
He even ended up dabbing on them in the end
Hi, archaeologist here! Just wanted too share the fact that we actually determined where Ötzi might have come from. Based on oxygen isotope analysis conducted on Ötzi's teeth, we actually discovered that Ötzi grew up in the Eisack Valley watershed, and spent most of his time as an adult in the mountains of Vinschgau. Ötzi's history is super fascinating! (Bonus fact; microscopic traces on Ötzi's coat indicated that he spent a lot of time around copper, indicating that he may have been a copper smith! So his axe may have been something he actually created!)
Wouldn't a copper smith have been very rare at the time? When most other people were making tools from wood, stone and bone, here's this guy who can conjure an axe head by _melting rocks_ in a fire.
I can't help but wonder if that could have something to do with why he was killed. We'll likely never know, of course.
Edit: You can all stop telling me I'm stupid, @foobles5082 has already (politely) explained my misconception.
Interesting
Can I ask what kind of archaeology you work on? Super cool and interesting field.
@@alexanderfielding I’m an experimental archaeologist specializing in Bronze Age materials (just finishing my masters!) We covered Ötzi extensively during a prehistoric archaeology course
Archaeologists out here solving 5000 year old murder mysteries, while your average cop says there is “nothing we can do” when given CCTV footage, a recording and multiple eye witnesses to a crime.
In Korea, woven grass was used to help prevent ice blocks from melting (and to separate them from each other). Apparently they're good insulators so paired with the fur, Otzi had a really good coat
To this day, packed straw in a wooden frame covered in clay is used to build houses. (That's the central European way, I am sure other regions have similar ways of building houses)
Straw boxes were used in WW2 to continue cooking food in saucepans to save gas, Once boiling the saucepan was put inside the tightly packed straw box and the straw lip put on. the pot wouild continue cooking. Oddly they have ow invented a similiar device for Caravaners, In the morning start cooking the meal in the thermo pot ..once boiling put the lid on and head off!f for the day! when you arrive at your destination the meal is cooked.
@robertcarveth8722 in some cultures they use a type of sleeping bag for a pot to do the same job. It is now also offered to people who struggle with utility costs in the UK. It's basically a free slow cooker, however the initial costs to buy the cover are still very high.
Bandit or Saint, Otzi was strong as hell. Imagine living with those types of medical conditions but still climbing 6000ft of elevation in a day.
And lived off Jonny cakes
Not only that, but climbing that in just a few hours without any trails.
yet still put down with an arrow
@@thrwwccnt5845 You'd be put down by an arrow if you were exhausted from mountain climbing and had every possible joint pain too.
@@NotSomeJustinWithoutAMoustache nah I'd walk it off. skill issue
Here's Max looking sprightly in his 40's, and here I am about to enter my 40's, looking like Otzi...
LOL!
@@TastingHistory I seriously thought you were mid-thirties at the oldest.
@Colddirector I thought that too! Wtf lol
Its the hard tack (clack clack)
@@TastingHistory Tell us your beauty secrets! Is it all the historic meals that invigorate you?
If you happened to also die 3 hours after the filming of this video imagine historians 6000 years in the future analyzing your stomach and wondering why you were eating this neolithic food lol
I don't think there are glaciers in CA
We don't know why Americans chose to grill outside when we have found archaeological evidence of indoor kitchens, it is speculated this was done for ritual purposes
@crazym8211 we do have the La Brea Tar Pits 🤔
Oh my goodness. You are too funny!
Ham and cheese sandwich, strawberries, and Gatorade.
Dude was being stalked and hunted through the Alps. Needs a movie ASAP.
There is, it's a 2017 film "Iceman" . Interesting theory.
@@mylenegartmann8244I just finished watching Iceman based on this recommendation. It was great! Thank you!
You _claim_ that the ice man didn't have a weber kettle grill but they just didn't find one with his body, and it would perfectly explain the rest of his possessions being left alone if his attackers were too occupied with carrying away his weber kettle grill.
Weber: Established from time immemorial
I mean, it's a REALLY good grill
As someone with an archaeology degree, i can confirm this theory as plausible
Stimmt!
Ötzi was ahead of his time.
I don't think you can definitively say that Ötzi didn't have a Weber grill, just that he didn't have it with him when he died
Haha, maybe so.
He was killed for his George Foreman, poor guy.
He was murdered for his secret marinade.
It's believed that Ötzi was Tyrolean BBQ chef of the year, 3124 BC. His "Kiss the Cook" apron was found nearby.
Ah, yes. The "Graham Hancock" school of thought.
Watching this made me realize how much I appreciate the availability of salt.
Neolithic people did have salt (for the most part). There was an extensive trade network throughout Europe.
@@Baysha1000 Interesting. Even this far inland?
Some had salty comebacks.@kroganlove3640
One of the more important substances in human history, though not so much anymore
@@patavinity1262 absolutely, there is evidence of long-distance trade spanning the whole continent, trading goods such as salt, sea shells, pottery, flint...
Ötzi is our oldest preservation of tattoos. That’s how i know him! He had tattoos believed to be medicine as they found small diamond shapes on a wrist struggling with arthritis
We assume so at least
I always wonder with those scenarios if we underestimate the human element.
Maybe someone in his tribe wanted him to feel better about his injured wrist.
Maybe that's just the easiest spot to reach with his other hand, considering the tools they had to use.
@@lllemons yeah, maybe he just thought it looked cool.
Westerners always forget to mention that it was the oldest in europe. Not world wide. We have allot of other examples of tattoos in other continents that are thousands of years older
Dude’s a badass. Covered in tats and bear skin that he probably hunted himself, super valuable copper axe, body chock full of disease but the only thing that could stop him was an arrow in the back.
Yea, the only way they could get him was basically a sucker punch to his back. Otherwise they'd have lost the fight.
It is very interesting, I wonder if they did some studies on plants he probably used as medicine, but what I think was the strongest medicine back then, is mental strength. Assuming from tattooes and most likely spiritual believs about medical plants, placebo efects may have had very strong effect on people back then, they still do in closed cultures. Anyway unbeliavable will to live, climbing these mountains, that he probably knew very well, in such age, probably after some kind of conlifct... thats true courage.
@@WwarpfirewWSome plants do have medicinal properties, it’s not all weird homeopathic rubbish. Many modern pharmaceuticals are derived from compounds found in plants. People at the time would have had a basic knowledge of plants and their utility for treating ailments, nourishment, or dying textiles.
@@hdubbs9174 of course, but it can do only so much , I'm refering mainly to Ötzis chronical issues as arthritis which causes severe pain and even potent plant analgetics won't help without causing serious side effects, more so when travelling harsh terrain
Who shot the bow tho that’s what I wanna know. Who and why?
I'm so grateful Otzi was found in the 90s and not in the Victorian era. Who knows what wild fate would have happened to him.
Probably eaten, those Victorian freaks
They probably would've ground him up and used him for cosmetics, paint pigments, "medicines," and just straight up eaten pieces of him like they did with other mummies
He would have been eaten 100%, those people were freaks.
Ew never heard of this where can I get more insights why they did this? And where?
No they wouldn't. Would have actually researched him but his corpse would have gone bad by now.
Can you imagine hiking, finding a DEAD guy, and having that being one of the best things which has ever happened in the scientific field of anthropology, meaning this hike of yours is likely the most important thing you will ever do in your life!
*together with the reguar horror of finding a dead guy, of course
Somehow I would feel better to learn that this guy was dead for 5000 years than if it was a recently deceased hiker. I don't know why, he certainly didn't die a peaceful death, but it's distant enough to find it more intriguing than sad.
@@evapreu3011 Yeah I agree. but still. One morning you are having a nice time on vacation exploring some scenic mountains and stuff then BAM! A dead human poking out from the ice. If I was the person who found it Id not sleep well for a few months.
You don't see that on CSI!
It's way more common than it may otherwise appear. Hiking is one of the most prolific activities for finding 5 thousand years old dead people lol
They actually earned a finder's fee, but only got it after suing the government many years later.
Ötzi always makes me a little emotional. he never could have known he'd be so important and cherished by people so far away thousands of years after his death. how beautiful is it that we, as humans, want to know more about this man who we'd otherwise never have been given the opportunity to meet?
Laaaame
Max missed a golden opportunity. If Ötzi was traveling or on a multi-day hunting trip, the einkorn was probably a prehistoric hardtack.
Or maybe pemmican?
@@bonniebrush94 Yes, that's even more likely and would account for all the ingredients.
Clack Clack
@@bonniebrush94 That might account for the predominance of sheep fat. A binding agent - and a good energy food - to hold the meat and grain together.
@ULTRAOutdoorsman I think hardtack was more of a storage method and they would turn it into porridge with some water
How have they not found his killer yet? #justiceForÖtzi
Frozen case
It was me, I did it
UK police wouldn't even start looking - Our fat Bobbies have a rule - "Never start a chase you can't finish!"
@ULTRAOutdoorsmantheres no time limit for murders!
@@Nagol93You basterd how could you do that!!!
One interesting part of Ötzi is that he still has all that equipment and especially the copper axe. The axe was probably extremely valuable, so leaving it would have been like killing someone with a clearly visible pouch full of gold coins, and not bothering to take the gold, even though you got close enough to bash their head in. So why would you kill someone and even bash their head in, but not take a second to take the copper axe?
That opens interesting speculation: Was the murder done in such a hurry that they had no time to loot? Was this some sort of ritual murder where the deliberately left him with his valuables? Was the head wound from falling, and Ötzi fell somewhere where he was difficult to get to? Or maybe the copper axe was so distinctive, that taking it would have instantly made you recognisable as a thief and likely the murderer?
Totally agree, trenchcoat is coming out!😊
I personally think he was shot, ran, fell down a steep part and was not located because of the snow.
He could have been with friends that drove the attackers off but then the snow made it impossible to find his body. Or a rapidly approaching storm made them leave before they could take the items. We will never know.
@@jaysmith8199 except whoever shot him in the shoulder also retrieved the arrow shaft. It IS weird that whoever did it didn't take the axe, or at least the axe head. That copper would have been very valuable.
someone removed their arrow, but left his valuables.
The arrow in the back suggests he was fleeing. My thought is that the axe was stolen (Max just mentioned this possibility right after i got this all typed out. 😂) I think he was shot during his escape but not incapacitated by the arrow. He could have fled some distance from his attacker before falling to his wounds. But he did have L U M B A G O, so who knows how far he would have run. Uncle wouldn't go far... 👴
In bushcraft, we cook the bread cakes right on ashes or even in the ashes. See Ray Mears if you want to know more Max. Also, you can cook eggs that way, like ostrich eggs or even plain chicken or duck eggs. Less oxygen to none in the ashes. That's key. Otzi would not have had the ability to easily boil nettles, but if you have some sort of leather bag, you can heat rocks and add to the water in the leather to boil the nettles or ferns. Both are SUPER nutritious. I have a copy of most of his gear, btw, including the axe. Fun cooking that way. As a guy into bushcraft and cooking, this was SUPER fun, the best video yet. I watch em all. But *THIS* was special. Thank you, Max!
The fern he ate is toxic when it's completely grown to a big plant, but when harvested cooked and eaten when it is still very small it's perfectly safe and actually quite tasty. I live in the Palatinate forest and it's a real treat in spring :)
I have eaten it too. Kind of a really light garlic like flavor too it. Not bad. Easy to know when it is too grown to harvest as it gets woody and bitter.
Thank you for describing the flavor, I pictured Fiddleheads tasting like Asparagus.
@@Jesses001 Yes exactly!
@@leeannjohnson1808 Fiddleheads are delicious sauteed with butter! They're not STRONGLY garlic flavored. Just nicely green.
It is not perfectly safe even young. It has a proven carcinogen, just in lower quantities in younger plants. Yes, it is eaten in loads of locations - that doesn't mean it is completely safe
I'm an archaeologist from South Tyrol where Ötzi was found and was several times at his finding place :-) So I was really eager to see what you created of the research on his stomach content! Good job and best wishes from the Alps 🙂
Awesome! 😊
You should do a Stone Age cook out and make foods from his time. What a lesson and good as a fund raiser for your program.
If you have a theory on why they didn't steal the axe, (as well as his arrows, etc) I'm all for it! My theories : his attackers couldn't take it because they were known to him. It would have designated them as the murderer. Or: They had some superstition about copper and found such axes unholy or something. Or they were "barbarians" who couldn't appreciate what a fine artefact it was? How I wish we knew...
@@isabelled4871 probably was too obvious stealing such a expensive and peculiar artifact, was towards the end of copper age so unlikely peoples around didnt knew about cooper metal
How fascinating! I wonder if he was trying to reach a mountain stronghold or hiding place? Did you ever find evidence of something like that? Best wishes in your studies.
He must have been really motivated to climb a mountain at 45 years old with messed up joints and heart failure. Really shows what your body is capable of when you really want something.
Yeah, this gives credit to the idea that he was being chased up that mountain. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug.
He was the real solid snake
If he was alive today he'd be giving the "back in my day..." telling the youth how soft they've become.
no not really a medieval knight would be vastly more athletic than any soldier of today and were only going back about 500 years go back 5000 years we didn't domesticate horses so you walked EVERYWHERE currency hadn't been invented so you hunted your food, also his body would've been adapted to the climate so yes of course it would be cold but any colder than what he is used to? probably not. to us yes what a hell of a feat but remember he was killed up there meaning other people had been tracking him and following him meaning not that hard of a climb.
@ashleytaylor7621 not having currency doesn't mean everyone lived fully independent and had to hunt all their own food. You can still barter and trade without using metal coins or an equivalent. And do you have an actual source to base the claim of them not having currency when and where Otzi lived on? Because currency isn't much younger than farming
After watching this, I bought einkorn flour and made some einkorn cakes with some red onion and spinach I had lying around. It was really good and of course very healthy. I got full very fast. Thank you for inspiration!
You’re in your forties???? I thought you were like mid-30s at the oldest. Ötzi, your memory is a blessing and I hope you are resting peacefully in whatever afterlife you’ve ended up in.
Right? Early 30s at most is what I thought.
He's a vampire.
He doesn’t look it. I would have guessed early to mid thirties.
@@ThinWhiteAxe No, he's a Disney's prince.
His job before this show was been Prince Charmin at Disney.
I thought he was like 28-30, whatever he does, I should do it too lol
The thing that always surprised me about Otzi was that the killer comes up and takes the arrow, but leaves the VERY expensive copper axe behind. It always made me think that Otzi might have pulled the arrow himself and his killer didn't get to him before he was hidden in snow, because that axe seems like something you don't just leave on a corpse that you chased for so long.
Honestly good theory it makes alot of sense
it may not have been obvious it was copper, just at a guess? if his killer thought it was a simpler stone tool they may have just overlooked it
probably that shaft just detached naturally
Maybe he managed to kill his attacker with the axe before bleeding out.
One theory is that his killers didn't want to be recognized (for fear of revenge raids from the victim's clan); hence, removing the shaft from the arrow (telltale clan marks), and not taking the axe (highly visible evidence, like taking your victim's expensive sports car)...
Fun fact: As far as I remember (I was a nerdy 12-year old at the time), Ötzi caused a brief minor diplomatic crisis between Austria and Italy. The German hikers who found him thought they were on the Austrian side of the border and called the Austrian police who took him to Innsbruck, the capital of North Tyrol (Austria). Then the Italians figured out and proved that his finding place was actually on the Italian side of the border and asked for his body to be handed over to Italy. The Austrians were quite unhappy (exacerbated by the fact that they never really got over "losing" South Tyrol to Italy in WW1), and the compromise was that Ötzi is now in Bozen/Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol (Italy), but not in Rome. At the time, a satirical Austrian radio show ("Der Guglhupf") had a rather funny sketch about this which I remember clearly as the point in time when I started enjoying political comedy.
underrated comment
After all this time... The "tribe on the other side of the mountain" is actually Italy.
Ötzi is going to get some Italian foods after all
@FirstLast-ye8nf are you ok?
@@FirstLast-ye8nf"trendy"? "nonsense"? Have some original thought and create your own language...
@@FirstLast-ye8nfthis fact is fun, why do you hate joy
Ötzi was such a badass that God decided to put him on the world leaderboard for people to see thousands of years later
I’ve been obsessed with Ötzi ever since he was found when I was about 9 years old. I used to carry around an issue of Smithsonian magazine that covered the story saying “Isn’t this amazing!? He’s older than the pyramids!” Most of the other kids and teachers were not as excited about the dehydrated dead guy I insisted on showing them. But he’s only gotten more interesting since then!
I used to be like that in my childhood as well. It made for interesting times.
I first learned about Otzi at a church yard sale, lol there was a table full of books and I saw his face on the front cover and was immediately fascinated. I think I was around 10 or 12. This was like 15 years ago. lol but I thought it was crazy.
me too
My first obsession was Pompeii, and an exhibit is one of my first memories. I should have become an archeologist. I have very clear memories of it -- then strange black patches. I figured out later it's bc my Mom was covering my eyes for parts of it. 😂 Pompeii (and the Roman emperors from Augustus to Nero) really are my Roman Empire. 😊
Those people who weren't interested sure missed out. Ötzi is fascinating.
he's going further and further back in time...
i fear the moment we will get a "last meal of a T-rex before the meteor fell" video
"Now brontosaurus steak can be hard to find so I'm substituting triceratops."
😂😂😂
😂😂😂
"Today we are going to recreate what the alien ate, just before he farted, causing the Big Bang." - Max
@@krokodilpil8335 Sponsored by Hello Fresh
Poor Ötzi, the ridiculous amount of injuries, diseases and maladies this guy had really is a grim reminder of how rough it was back then for pretty much everyone. What a trooper. This is a neat way to help memorialize him, I wonder what he’d think of the fact that so many know who he is.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH ARFFFHFGGG UUGGHHGHGRE!!!!!!"
*He would be shocked by discovery of both modern technology and the availability of decent quality high calorie food and probably die of a heart attack due to his clogged arteries and high cholesterol*
@@imahoare4742 right? Poor guy would die a happy man in front of a bbq platter. 😂 I like your interpretation of what his words would be.
All of our primitive ancestors probably dealt with the same things, they just weren’t found. Don’t feel bad for him, that is just human nature.
@@Sniperboy5551 I was pointing out that he’s an example of how rough things were for everyone, not just him. I know there are so many people’s stories that we’ll never now and that is sad to me. But yes it is a part of life. We live, it’s hard and it sucks a lot of the time, and then we die and are eventually forgotten.
"YOU ARE ALL DESCENDED FROM MY KILLERS! VENGEANCE! VENGEANCE UPON ALL OF THEE!"
I was going through some very severe medical pain when this came out. I remember my empathy for Otzi and his untreated pain when I first saw this. Feeling better and almost his age, I'm grateful for modern medicine being better than nothing, at least.
What I like the most about this video is hearing that Ötzi had a sense of fashion. I think it's easy for people, myself included, to assume that Prehistoric humans weren't smart enough, or just had no appreciation for things like that. Evidently though Ötzi did have opinions on what looked good on him, and depending on how he might've prepared his last meal, may have also been a decent cook for his time. Seems that the desire to look nice and have a good meal is as old as humanity itself.
From what I've read, people have been just as smart the whole time we've been people. The only thing that has changed is what technology and background knowledge we have available.
Practically every prehistoric artifact, even going back tens of thousands of years before Otzi, is not only functional but in some way made pleasing to the eye. Weapons and tools were carved and decorated, evidence of personal adornment (carved beads, seashells or animal teeth or smooth stones drilled to wear as pendants or beads, etc) goes back practically as far as there’s evidence for clothing at all, stone tools were sometimes deliberately knapped in such a way as to take advantage of beautiful jaspers and agates and even petrified woods. I have held a stone point, centuries old, elegantly knapped from petrified palm wood just like the petrified palm wood I myself turned into a cabochon only a few weeks ago! Humans have always loved adding form to function, and making things that were useful also be beautiful!
@@marggarg2778Arguably they were much smarter than modern humans. They understand their world, how to survive and look after themselves and were skilled in many complex professions in a much harsher environment
I'm guessing the mismatched hide colors and shapes in combination with that straw poncho made for some good camouflage as well. Bro was wearing a prehistoric ghillie suit.
@@cookNR77 I also thought it looked like camouflage not fashion
I can picture this guy as the ancient ancestor to Liam Neeson's character in Taken
Blood samples from 4 different individuals were found on his clothes. His recently broken ribs are just starting to heal. a serious wound on his head and a deep cut to the bone on his hand. The arrow on your shoulder is the final point. My friend, this man fought with a group and managed to survive. This group is a minimum of 4 people. Ötzi managed to wound all four of them. He also managed to escape. They are definitely following him. The reason why Ötzi went to the impossible nature is to escape these people. They approached him in a heavy blizzard. They shot him with an arrow, but Ötzi managed to escape again. The fact that the valuable equipment he had with him was not taken is proof that he survived. He survived those people, but died from blood loss shortly after. We will not know whether Ötzi was guilty or a victim.
I think something like this is most likely. The idea that someone else would pull out the arrow (shaft) but leave the valuable copper axe is just too unlikely.
I know there's a theory that he was ambushed by friends/someone he knew and they couldn't take any of his valuables at risk of being recognized by other people for most likely having killed him.
Could he have been shot, fallen and been somewhere where nobody could retrieve the valuables? Possibly. But again, what about the arrow head? Even if he'd pulled it out, surely there would've been remnants at the scene and from what I understand, that was the most recent wound he had sustained very shortly before his death.
Great break down. Very possible...the fact he still had this items makes this very likely
@@b0ne91Maybe he was with someone else that the persuers needed to catch and they didn't have time to search his body before it was covered in snow.
It was the Mafia
@b0ne91 I think he pulled the arrow out on the road while running away and threw it away. The reason is that ancient arrows with stone tips were attached to the handle with a kind of paste glue. If you pull the arrow straight in the opposite direction of the entry direction, it will come out with its tip. But the arrow was on Otz's back. Reaching over and pulling it out quickly from an opposite angle caused the tip to remain inside. As a result, the resulting wooden shaft rotted away somewhere within a 30-minute running distance or was buried under the snow and is waiting to be found today.
It's fascinating how some of the most informative archeological finds aren't the grand monuments that people built to last throughout the ages, but rather the random bits of life that nobody thought much about. Ötzi was probably forgotten within a few decades of his life. We learn more about the daily lives of civilizations from their trash pits than their temples.
0:18 bro whipping that shiii crazyy
STOP 😂😂😂
I always get emotional whenever I think about prehistoric humans like Ötzi. They were people just like you and me. They told stories, made art, had families and friends. They liked to spend time with the people they loved. they raised their children and taught them as best they could morals and how to thrive. They were just trying to survive and be happy. I often look up into the night sky and wonder who came before me, who looked up at the same moon and the same stars. I wonder what their life was like, if they were happy, if they felt as alone as I do sometimes. I think about how, though we are separated by vast stretches of time, we aren't that different from each other.
How I feel when I see the Pompeii Graffiti and it literally reads like roman Twitter
@@belisarius6949 facts, the Romans loved shit posting
And to think- our ancestors likely thought this too
How curious it is that we can feel so connected to those who would never have known of our existence
@@solventlessThen we can know those in the future will be thinking of us this way. 🥰 So in a way we do know! Maybe those in the past thought of us in their future.
I find it strangely heartwarming that the food that people ate over 5 thousand years ago is still considered tasty by people today. It's a connection we have to our ancestors that people often don't think about.
And the hard tack would have been even tastier because it didn't have water, it was made with fat.
@@jgr7487 A pancake is not hardtack.
Also one has to keep in mind that as grains over millennia, but especially in the industrial age got changed increasingly into higher yield that this high yield and price was often at the cost of reducing other qualities of nutritional value and flavor (e.g. gluten content), especially when it comes to grains.
Something which gets re-discovered from smaller producers which try to rediscover old farming methods but also older grains which got pushed aside and/or by re-creating them by different means, often using old, forgotten sources which got luckily not wiped out yet.
Just one example. Some old dates from about 2,000 years ago got rediscovered and recreated by very old seeds which got found in ancient storage.
ua-cam.com/video/Bd75wjdTMnc/v-deo.html
Thanks for the dates video link, very interesting. I hope I will be able to try all sorts of these tasty original versions of food in my life
Monke like tasty treat :)
Otzi seemed like quite the survivor. He's hiking and covering great distances, scrounging his own medicinal supplies, bandaging himself w/ moss, cooking his own food all while suffering joint and dental pain and abdominal maladies. What a tough little guy.
At 45 years old, and 5' 3", 5,000 years ago, Otzi would have been a rich, tough, average-height guy. Average life expectancy would have been 35-40. That he could have afforded so many "medicinal" tattoos, and a copper axe, with fashionable, alternating-fur boots also points to a respected place in society. That nobody took his nice stuff could suggest: a) attackers didn't want to be caught with his recognizable stuff later, b) he was shot and fell from a height, and the attackers didn't want to chase his body into the ravine, and/or c) there was a major storm brewing, or already in progress, and they needed to get the hell off that mountain and home, fast. That he was covered with snow and never found again - or uncovered - means he was covered in feet of snow - snow that never melted for 5,000 years (until now, which might tell you something about our climate today...).
I’ve met many Zoomers who find it difficult to “adult” much less hike for miles, hunt and prepare their meals, bandage their wounds, and use medicinal herbs (except one very popular one that reduces their hunting/gathering survival skills. ).
@@queenoflammersland8562 yeah, that's the goal of progress
@@queenoflammersland8562It’s almost as if they’re not living exposed to the wilderness anymore.
@@queenoflammersland8562 I know people of all generations who lack skills I thought were basic because I was raised by someone from a small town during the Great Depression. My aunt, who was my mom's spoiled kid sister, for example. GenX dudes who dated me because they thought I'd take care of them.
Otzi was basically the most typical adventurer in a fantasy role-playing game
there's something to the pathos of this video that made it very affecting and i appreciated Max treating the subject respectfully, despite it being an event so far removed from us
Very much, yes.
I think the fact that it *isn’t* far removed from us, in some ways, is precisely what makes it so affecting. 5000 years ago, and everything he did was so incredibly *human*.
I read that in his belongings there were also grooming devices, like a prehistoric comb and nail trimmer/cleaner.
@@jennypaxton8159I was watching this while I ate dinner and my gf heard mx describe the einkorn pancake, and she looked over and said "that sounds good". 5000 years ago, humans still have similar taste in food.
I think that's the beauty of Tasting History and the compelling nature of Otzi's story. On one hand learning what they ate always humanizes people from the past to a point, and max's commentary is always apt imo. Moreover, theres just something so compelling about Otzi to most people who hear about him. He's so much like us and yet lived thousands of years before us. The fact he was found by pure chance and all we've gleaned from him from a period that has so much obscured just adds to that. For me it's always just such a cool reminder of how Humanity as a species has changed so much but so little in the grand scheme of things.
3:10 I love how you mention that he probably knew exactly how much of it he could eat for it to not be poisonous, because often times we assume people at that time were just dumber than us when in reality they might've been way more knowledgable when it comes to all the herbs you can find all around you. They could've probably walked into any forest and just live by eating all the different mushrooms and things we call "weeds" now
Take a baby from that era and put it into a modern household, am pretty sure the baby would have grown out to be just fine
Some of the wild herbs: if you give them to a dog it will lick its ass to get the taste out of its mouth
@@trivikram4962
Probably not. Its immune system would be so wildly different from a modern human’s that it would most likely die immediately from one or several of our countless diseases and bacteria.
Bracken (Gosari in Korean, Warabi in Japanese) consumption is still common in east Asia and in some parts of Wales.
If you soak it and boil the hell out of it, most of the carcinogens break down or are leached out. Some studies say that even with these methods, habitually eating it increases the incidence of asophogal and stomach cancers by a factor three compared to people who don't.
Were it not for the presence of carcinogens, Fernbrake would be awesome from a nutritional point of view. High fiber. High protein.
Edit: I've eaten it and cooked with it. It is not dangerous enough to completely avoid entirely, but I wouldn't make a habit of eating it regularly.
The modern human brain has been evolved for 30+ thousand years.
@trivikram4962
Archaeology student and first-time viewer here. Thanks for the great video! Prehistoric cuisine is a super fascinating topic that I think makes us appreciate our ancestors as *humans*, rather than just abstract entities. Unfortunately, it's difficult to reconstruct and not often talked about in such a vivid fashion as you did. As for flavourings/spices, salt probably would have been available to him, at least in theory. But there's also a variety of berries and herbs he might have used to add some variety to his rations. Those things are notoriously difficult to detect, though.
The fact that without any of that, the food was still not only edible but actually pretty tasty, is also pretty cool, though.
It was also travel food. He was on foot for at least a few days, maybe on the run. Food a man would carry in that situation is very different than what would have been available to an established agricultural or stable hunter/gatherer community. Herbs and salt, roots and vegetables, alcohol and pickled items he wouldn't have on him as a traveler but all almost assuredly available to people of that time, at least on occassion. Few people these days would find military rations impressive fare or a fair indication of typical daily foods. His food would have been considered basic travel food even in his time.
I’m obsessed with this channel it’s so unique and interesting n it’s gold to an ancient history buff like myself great job 👏🏽
Hey Max, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the fact that you actually try to properly pronounce German words. 90% of UA-camrs just scream something they vaguely mumbled together based on how they think it should sound based on some Sitcom or Cartoon, and almost all of the rest struggles with every single sound that's somewhat unusual in English. You are either spot on or at least very close.
Amazing how bad most people are at it given how German is a way more phonetic language than English so it's pretty easy to work out the pronunciation of even long compound words, compared to English phrases like "Is there enough dough in the trough?"
I have a theory that there's a correlation between how closely related English and German are and how difficult German is for Anglophones. @@misterthegeoff9767
Yeah, not only German but he's one of the few trying (and often managing) to get a proper pronunciation of many languages. I can vouch for Italian but I always see people commenting on how he's nailing the pronunciation.
Also the difference between Plattduestch and the Northern German dialect/accent. I grew up listening to Oktoberfest music, which all originates from Barvaria and Batten-Wurttembürg.
@@mattia_carciola iirc he mentioned that he learned spanish in school, which would explain why he's getting most of the vowels in languages that use the latin alphabet at least.
Funfact: Ötzi still has living relatives in Tyrol, though no direct descendants, but grand-grand-grand-... nieces and nephews.
That’s so interesting!
I hope his family avenged him. Made sure the village on the other side of the valley became an archeological site.
That’s amazing.. imagine having one of your very distant ancestors preserved and offering so much to science and history. I’d be honored
Glad to know someone in his family managed to survive long enough to have children
Thank you! I KNEW the Comments would have the answer to the question that came to me as I was listening. Could dna testing be done? Any descendants identified?
Also, from my research there's average 40 generations per 1000 years, so wouldn't that be grand nieces and nephews with 120 greats in front of it? 120. Wow. DNA science is pretty amazing.
Here's a fact for you: Had Ötzi not been killed or survive the fight, he would had died within 10 years of heart disease. Among the various studies conducted on Ötzi were CT scans of his heart and it came as a surprise that his arteries were as badly clogged as modern humans. He was well on his way to his first (and last) heart attack. Apparently, heart disease has been present in the human population long before the modern era.
dude, is there really people that think heart disease is a modern thing? What the hell?
illness is nature, the state of being healthy, ironically, is the exception.
Ancient mcdonalds
probably due to natural susceptibility or high fat diet from those wild animals.
@NDPrepper-uy9rb It was much more likely due to the excessive amount of fats and cholesterol from a mostly red meat diet, which are still the number one contributors to heart disease today.
@@_Booker_DeWittwhy does the tastiest things have to be the deadliest
The way you tell a story is so engrossing and paints such a vivid picture. I could listen to the historical stories you tell for hours.
Hello Fresh sponsoring a video about a 5000 year old frozen human has a certain ironic hilarity to it. 😂
🤣
Hahahaha
haaaa!!
My first thought. He doesn't look so fresh in person.
@@MB-nk5lr hahahaha this comment made me laugh more than it should 👏😂
**A few thousand years from now, on cooking history:** "Today we are making twenty first century 'pancakes'. Now, we don't exactly know how they would have heated this, so I'm going to set my remoleculamizer to 10 kiloflirps, which is probably close to what they would have done. I have also seasoned the cake with meatpowder since I don't have real bacon and I'm not sure how one would safely prepare real meat anyways"
For real who uses real meat anymore I didn’t even know there were animals left I always just eat the unflavored sustenance powder I put in my lead water
Max's great great great great great great great great great grandson would be hosting this.
Scientists say that a person ate a bread product with pineapples, but this simply cannot be true.
Just use a sheet of im-MEAT-ation bacon from a cell printer.
"Okay, so I have tried a variety of prompts with FoodGPT and it keeps trying to put an actual pan in my pancakes. Thankfully, FoodGPT version 2007.1 just came out and fixed the 'unwanted pan' bug. All we have to do is add '(metal pan: -20.0)' to the prompt..."
Indigenous person from Canada here! When i saw fiddleheads in the thumbnail i was really excited to click on this video. I see many similarities between his diet and my cultures diet (including fiddleheads) and his attire and what we would have worn for time immemorial! So so cool. Fascinating video and lots of love 💙
Sorry if I sound like an ass for correcting you but I think the word you mean is "immemorial", which means something that has been true for so long that it is beyond the reach of memory.
@@61hink oh! Thanks thats what i meant:)
thats so awesome!
I love learning more about food all around the world! I am from England and didn't even know they were real until today 😅 they just look so magical! I want one now!
I only know about fiddleheads because I’m a weeb and know medieval Japanese foraged for fiddleheads. I just assumed all fiddleheads were edible and not poisonous, so that was new for me.
Learning so much about Ötzi gives me a sense of excitement and existentialism. The fact that he wasn't a popular historical figure until his remains were found gives me a sort of determination, that what I do in the present as a regular civilian might have significant importance to the future. At the same time, it also makes me think about my mortality and how I will pass on before the turn of the century and with any luck, have my body be examined by future humans.
One study suggested that Otzi had 4 other people's blood on his belongings and weapons, so it's possible his killing was more self-defence than murder. There's a really weird film telling one reconstruction of his last days called Iceman (2017). It's a fictionalised story, but based as much as possible on the archaeological evidence. All the dialogue is in an extinct Alpine language, so that whatever the audience's native language, they're supposed to just follow the story from what's shown on screen. The film makers made a few other weird choices with it, but it's worth a watch.
Thank you! I had no idea.
I'm gonna look for it!
Interesting. If he was indeed killed out of revenge, that might help explain why his killer took their arrow back but didn't touch any of his belongings, including the extremely valuable copper axe. Guess they were never interested in robbing him.
Do you know what Alpine language was used?
I love the immersion when ancient movies throw away our language, in favor of linguistic accuracy. Il
There are many theories that makes good sense, I hate the fact we'll never know for sure. Was Ötzi a poor victim or a crazed killer? Or was he neither, did he just get stuck between 2 group fighting?
I actually studied the Copper Axe in my university course, and through Lead-Isotope Analysis the researchers actually found out that the source of the copper came from the Tuscany area, not other copper sources in the nearby Alps, which has leads to many hypothesis but my favourite is that he was a traveler of sorts that had come from or across Tuscany on his journey.
More recently they've found out that Ötzi grew up in the Eisack Valley watershed, and spent most of his time as an adult in the mountains of Vinschgau. A thoroughly Tyrolean man.
Otsi had blood on his back from other people, which showed he carried some wounded or dead men. It looked like a big fight, and thus, he was on the run since the blood on his back proved that he carried wounded men. So he was definitely in a big fight, most likely a clan fight, a family fight, and he probably was the only one remaining, so they went after him. Or it may be that he went and avenged his relatives and then he got chased down. It is one of the two.
Otzi was Italian?!! Viva Italia!! 😂😂 RIP Otzi
Its very likely that the copper was transported through various means hundreds of miles to this man Ötzi
Or that he'd have traded for it.
Ötzi may very well have been having the worst day ever. Joints hurt like hell, desperately running through the mountains, sick with a few recent injuries, and to top it all off he gets SHOT
I’m at lunch at my job right now and the last two days have sucked . After watching what this poor man went through , I’m taking a deep breath and putting it into perspective
At least he wasn't also starving!
Nah it was a nice hike
Also freezing cold
@@kayo5291 and severe abdominal pain and probably toothache too
It's interesting to see how Ötzi last meal reveal the real falacy of all those people that swears so much on the carnivore diet, saying that humans originally didn't even eat wheat. Considering that Ötzi lived around 5,300 years ago (circa 3,300 BCE) during the Copper Age (Chalcolithic period) and at this time, humans in Europe were transitioning from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture and animal domestication. Ötzi himself was part of a society that practiced early farming, but hunting and gathering were still essential, and even so there was still wheat in his diet.
I remember watching a history channel documentary about Ötzi a little over 20 years ago. The experts interviewed said things like, "He probably lived in a close-knit, peaceful society without war." THEN they found the arrowhead!!! They legit had to update the documentary to edit out the part about the peaceful society!!
Why would his killers/killer leave his shoes , furs and other garments
as well as on other valuables?! Was he not attacked somewhere else but
made his way over the mountain whilst he was injured , arrow head still
inside him?
Why would they have assumed he lived in a peaceful society without war? Makes no sense.
There was a massive push in the 60's and onwards to claim that prehistory humans lived in peace. They claimed large societies caused interpersonal violence, think of the peacful savage trope. @jujutrini8412
@@DrMontague Maybe it was a revenge/honor killing.
@@jujutrini8412 how historians interpret scant evidence tends to say more about the historians than the subject.
"Hello Fresh.... It's edible"
Now that's one hell of a selling point.
By briefly researching it, their food itself seems to be pretty okay. Although company itself somewhat controversial.
@@Volodymyr.Yermakov their food can be very low quality, ironically. They cherry pick the stuff for the youtuber sponsorships
@@Volodymyr.Yermakov Yeah the company is iffy but the food is alright. Sometimes even very good. But some meals are a bit low in amount. But compared to all other youtube sponsers, Hello fresh is fine. Tried it for 2 weeks, i didnt regret it. But i cook my meals myself wich is better. But for someone in a time constraint, like a student, or such, hello fresh is handy.
@@F4Wildcat anyone should be wary of companies that seem to spend so much money on marketing so consistently, things like raycon, hellofresh, nordvpn etc. when so much of their budget goes to marketing and advertisements, you have to wonder what they are doing to cut costs for everything else.
@@Volodymyr.YermakovI never trust companies that show up a lot in UA-cam sponsorships. To me, that speaks to more of an investment in marketing than quality. Not to knock on Hello Fresh or Max, I'm sure it's a perfectly adequate product. But things like Better Help or Dollar Shave Club or MVMT exemplify what I mean with their numerous controversies.
I always found it funny that they had this man's body for actual years, and one day one researcher was looking at xrays and just went "hey, what's this big black mass in his back?" Before that they just... never thought to look at it.
Kinda crazy to think about.
Taking a body out of cold storage isn't something you just do, and not many people are going to just stand around the corpse repository all day.
@@Megan-ii4gfthose who do are… ones to be careful with.
You think this is grade school? They had the x-rays. Heck. They TOOK the X-Rays. You really would think a researcher would have spotted that straight away. @@Megan-ii4gf
@@Justanotherconsumer maybe the AC broke and someone just went into the corpse freezer to cool off a bit?
Yours is the BEST channel I've ever found. It is so exciting to be able to get to experience what our ancestors tasted on a regular basis. I love you and what you have created for me
There is a theory that Otzi was in the amount in to attack people as a bandit. This is theorised because of how well equipped he came; how well armed he was with: bow, knives, arrows and axe; and the fact that he wasn't looted after he was killed despite the fact he was carrying very valuable copper equipment.
Analysis of his body showed that he regularly climbed the mountains and was very fit, had prior healed injuries and which hints at a hard and dangerous life. The arrow that killed him hit him in the back, but he also had injuries to the hand, possibly from fighting but also possibly from rock climbing.
But hey that's just a theory, a Chalcolithic theory.
Recent studies show he has trace amounts of copper all over his clothing leading some to believe he may actually been a copper smith but I like your theory. Though why was he shot in the back by those he was attempting to rob? Interesting to think what could’ve happened
I think he was some scout/hunter for a tribe with the equipment he had and was probably surveilling the land, happen to stumble upon a rival tribe's village, group, or maybe an army if such existed in those parts at the time, which was up to something like an big attack on a village. He started to flee toward the mountain to break pursuit, but the men were quite determined to silence him and with such valuable stuff still on him, it probably was not to rob him, or take something he stole.
I think it was that he witnessed some attack party or a scheme that was brewing, wanted to inform his tribe of it after finding out, yet he knew too much, so pursuers chased him up the perilous mountain climb and killed him, ensuring it with a fatal blow to the head.
Only two of his arrows were ready to be used. Too few to face a real fight. Also the bow was maybe functional, but unfinished. It was not strange for a traveler to be equipped like that, because to prepare the other arrows and finish the bow were activities that could be performed to pass time in front of the fire before sleeping. But a raider would have had a complete and finished kit.
@@neutronalchemist3241 Or he only had two prepared arrows left - the defensive wounds plus the distance traveled from when he got those to where he died makes that pretty plausible.
Agriculture wasn’t a thing at that time at that place so he is of course well equipped
RIP in peace Otzi, wish you would have lived long enough to try flaming hot Cheetos
Extra flamin hot
Rest in peace in peace?
@temporaryscars right? I've noticed this quite a few times recently on the interwebs, folks putting "in peace" after RIP...so odd
and Takis Nitro rolls
I mean... even since I saw a money shot of a leopard I've been rather put off Cheetos!
Considering most Ibex species are endangered and number less then a few thousand individuals I think it's best if they are left alone. Alpine Ibex are a protected species in the Alpine countries, and it's only really found in large numbers in Italy.
There are some Ibex species that are listed as Least Concern
Alpine ibex are found in Switzerland aswell, not even that rare nowadays.
Uh ? Its quite common in switzerland ?
@@Sniperboy5551 There is still only thousands of Alpine Ibex that remain, and it's because of conservation efforts, they use to be in the hundreds in the early 1900s. The original population in the millions now has thousands and the population has incredibly low genetic diversity due it's low numbers that humans caused, even slight decreases in population would be devastating.
There's a few thousands in France, too. Though AFAIK most if not all Alpine Ibexes descend from a few hundreds Italian ones that survived extinction thanks to the Gran Paradiso reserve, hence the low genetic diversity.
17:00 He fell because nobody would not loot that copper axe, just no way been left there if the place was accesible.
That, or whoever killed him knew the axe would be recognizable as belonging to Ötzi. In that case, taking the axe from the man you just murdered would be tantamount to driving around in the car of someone you’ve killed.
@@l3ftie578 It's not just the axe, he also had food, nice clothes, and a medicine pouch, none of that was looted either. His attackers most probably never found the body.
@@padmanabhanvaidyanathan7182 do you think he fell down somewhere that was inaccessible to his attackers at the time? And if so, do you think he suffered head trauma during the fall or was that from an attacker?
@@l3ftie578 He probably fell and hit his head on a rock. He managed to pull out the arrow, but was too injured to move, and died there. His attackers couldn't find him under the howling wind and snow and decided to leave.
there’s no way to say that for sure, there could’ve been superstitions about looting dead bodies or things of the sort
I once met a clothing historian who was asked to analyze the weaves/cut of Otzi's clothing . It was amazing how much of an in depth analysis they've done on him.
It’s weird how the artwork shows him in the buff. What he was wearing would probably not get a second glance in some parts of San Francisco.
@@Justanotherconsumer There are homeless dudes in Oakland sporting primative Copper Weapons to this day.
Well we have tons of settlements from the time, but other than bog bodies (which typically don't have much on them, since they're usually intentionally buried) we really don't have a lot of people. It's crazy that he even still exists
The power of desperation to climb those mountains while wracked with so many aches and pains.
remains of cooper ore has been found on his so he was probably also a cooper trader/smelter or miner
"I need to gtfo" is strong power
I once tried to climb an Austrian mountain in my 20s, in not a great hurry, carrying much less stuff and being in better health and it was still a hard day. Ötzi must have been supremely motivated.
Back then people were much much tougher
@@Oxtocoatl13 he hiked so much in his life, he har worn out carthilage at 45, he basically climbed mountain on daily basis since was a kid
You officially have my vote for more Tasting Pre-History episodes. This one was intriging.
I second this! Also, as another comment made me think, maybe something from ancient epics? They must have described some food!
I loved this one too!
YES!!!
I want to see Neanderthal cuisine.
His killer stood over him. "It is finished now. I am victorious and songs will be made of me as you are forgotten.
*6000 years later*
Another explanation: Otzi and a group of men were chasing thieves or raiders up the mountains, where they were ambushed. Otzi was hit by an arrow and died, while his companions chased the attackers, and before they could go back for his body and gear, the weather became bad
No. I read that the arrow that hit him had no shaft. Meaning the killer tried to retrieve it. The arrowhead remains because it was lodged too deep in his shoulder blade.
@@ilhamsyamsuddin he could’ve been at the front of his group, got hit by the arrow, the killer tried to take it out but before he can steal Otzi’s items he is chased off. Something has to explain why Otzi’s highly valuable possessions such as his axe were not taken off his body…life was so difficult back then there’s no way they wouldn’t have taken his possessions after killing him
No. He died in the valley. His body was interred on the mountain as a ceremonial burial in the springtime.
Maybe he was the theif
Maybe he broke the shaft off
The guy was dead you would cut it out and take the copper ax
I encourage everyone to actually pay Ötzi a visit if they have the chance, he's at the Archeological Museum in Bolzano, northern Italy. Super cool and there's more to the museum than just the Iceman
It can be called Tasting Prehistory, but the story behind people figuring out Ötzi's last meal is a history in itself. A history of forensics, perhaps. It looks all fine to me!
3:00 I live in a place where a fern from the Bracken family is not medicine but instead a vegetable. Gosari namul is a Korean vegetable dish, and its prep work includes removing the toxicity from young fern sprouts through ways such as boiling.
Fiddleheads are big in east Canada, we go picking them in spring, they're a delicacy here
Oh wow thanks for that info! Have you eaten it? If so, what does it taste like?
Where I live in Canada, fiddleheads are a special treat and they're delicious. They're in season now and I'm going to get some soon.
@@nollypolly As far as I know the one used in Korean cuisine is of a slightly different type of plant from the same family, and its edible parts are much thinner and softer than the one shown in this video. It has its own unique texture and flavor, but I'm not sure how to describe it other than saying it feels more "wild" than other domesticated vegetables. It's a staple ingredient in dishes like bibimbap and yukgaejang (a type of Korean spicy beef stew). When these dishes lack this one ingredient it feels like something important is missing because its unique flavor is virtually irreplaceable. Korean cuisine has a few fragrant "vegetables" like it, but instead of calling them aromatics and herbs we call them "vegetables" because we use them in quantities like spinach or lettuce, not rosemary or cilantro.
@@knpark2025 So besides from boiling it to get rid of the toxins, is it prepared in many different ways? God I must make sure to have a taste of that some way or another.
@@knpark2025 There are also black Chinese noodles made from bracken. I've eaten them a few times when I can find them in the supermarket.
So he ate a balanced diet: protein, grains and leafy greens. We can learn from him. Rest in Peace, Ötzi.
if only his consumption of arrows wasn't so high, he might have lived well into his 50s or even 60s
@@altaruss2838 😄
Mr Miller's story-telling skills really humanized Otzi for us, dying in pain all alone in the freezing cold. I cried fir his suffering.
He died not alone the killer was there, he smashet the head of otzi after he shoot at him, and thook his spear back, so otzi wasnt alone🙆🏽
@@nabuckodonosor7794 The head injury could have come from falling into a crevass couldn't it?
@@nabuckodonosor7794 I laughed a little too hard at this
You mention how agriculture is expanding and hunting/gathering is shrinking at the time of this meal.
When I read the epic of Gilgamesh, that was the main theme that really amazed me: at the time in the story, the two human lifestyles were still interacting with one another.
You’d be surprised by how many hunter/gatherer societies still exist today, especially in remote African and Asian tribes
I assume it mixed quiet naturaly.
Sure, you farm. But hunt and gather when you can. Its better to have more food, right? Also, taste factor
@@komiks42 Also, hunt in winter and/or early spring, when reserves are empty and there's nothing to gather yet.
@@komiks42 Actually, though hunter/gatherers tended to be better fed and stronger, agrarians had more children and disease resistance. Meat waves shouldered-out the hunter/gatherers from their lands, mutilating the land to farming. If the gatherers complained, they were killed by numbers and bronze. This is why @Sniperboy5551 there are still remote hunter/gatherer communities; their land wasn't good enough to be stolen by farmers.
I don''t know if you'll read this comment, but that injury on his hand is very common when people stab something with a knife that doesn't have a handguard. Blood is slippery and when you hit something solid like a bone, suddenly your hand keeps moving forward but the knife stops. He could have gotten that killing one of the animals or fighting a person. Source: I'm a crime scene investigator and you see that all the time at stabbing scenes.
Fascinating! I wouldn't have thought of such a thing, but having gutted deer before, I can certainly see how that makes sense. Thanks for sharing!
what if he held the attackers knife from the blade end as a desperate measure and the attacker pulled it away? is that possible? or that would make a different wound pattern?
@@zm453im no forensics expert or anything, but in that case i feel that otzi would probably have atleast 2 cut wounds on his hand from holding the blade. one on the webbing of his hand between his thumb and pointer finger (like the one he has) and cuts on the inside of his other fingers from gripping the blade of the knife.
Pretty sure that dude had hunted enough animals to know how not to cut himself. Maybe in a fight though.
Thank you for doing a Tasting Prehistory! The Otzi man is so fascinating. I can’t learn enough about it and seeing his last meal come to life is amazing.
Otzi just kept going. Thats that dog in em lol. That willingness to keep alive and just keep on trudging along. And that tool kit! He had everything he needed, only the essentials. I like to dream of what life mustve been like.
Max has changed how I view cooking, not just as a daily process, but as a carrier of history itself.
Hopefully for the better :)
@@TastingHistory Absolutely!
Same
This was a REALLY interesting segment. I can remember being taught (I'm 76) that "stone age people" ate food that "modern people" would find pretty nasty. Thanks for dispelling that mistaken presumption. (Reminds me, too, that a lot of the dishes I enjoy are simple "peasant" concoctions, like what you made with some salt and basic herbs thrown it.)
I heard a chef say once that the best foods and most famous dishes are usually born of privation. And it makes sense. Anyone can cook a steak and make it taste good, but it takes skill and experience to turn the leftovers into something tasty.
@@adamplace1414 There is a reason why many traditional mealtime foods are simple soups and stews, as they are both easy to prepare, are often tasty on their own, and also make good use of low quality meat, or meat that is close to spoiling (or just spoiled but isn't fully rotting) when available but can suffice without it.
@@FirstLast-ye8nf (That's why I put "stone age" in quotes. It was a broad generalization when I was in school.)
It’s amazing how this man’s life is studied so in depth. When he lived they didn’t have bronze, and he had no way of knowing that his legacy would carry on beyond basically any other human.
Fantastic to see some pre-history on here! While it's similar, could you maybe try to recreate the last meal of the Tollund man? He's a Danish bog body from around 2400 years ago, and his last meal consisted of, among other things, a porridge of different grains and seeds as well as some fish.
Great video as always!
The fact that Max is just a few years younger than Ötzi was at his death is even more hilarious when you look at reconstructions of Ötzi's face.
As an archaeology major, Otzi is my favorite! Another cool thing about preservation is that it’s because the temperature stays mostly the same, that’s one reason preservation is as good as it is! It’s the same for Bog Bodies because even though it’s water, the temperature hasn’t changed! It’s also the same as the girl in the mountains of Peru and other findings!
But if he is you favourite, please spell him "Ötzi" instead of "Otzi"! Or in case you don't have an "ö"-key, you can type "Oetzi" as well! 🙂
I love you too katep7433
Had to read something about how they keep him in the museum for a school entry exam. If memory serves me right they keep him in a glorified fridge with a window and regularly have to mist him with water.
hello fellow shovelbum
Just FYI: whenever you cook meat in any of these recipes up until modern times, the meat often would have tasted very different, for the pure reason that we are used to eating meat that is a few days old and has been shipped to us, preserved via refrigeration.
Back in Ötzi’s time, and throughout most of history (except for those very wealthy few who could afford refrigeration), most meat would have been eaten fresh. In the Middle Ages, butchers would kill their animals and just leave slabs of meat right out in the street on tables with flies buzzing around them and everything! First come, first serve! They wouldn’t kill a really valuable animal unless they got paid a lot to do so, and if they did, they would cut up the leftovers and sell them off quickly…so people would have to eat that meat as freshly as possible. Apparently super fresh meat like that has a very different taste from the meat that we are used to in modern times. It’s less tough, and takes some getting used to…though I’m sure if you transported someone from the Middle Ages to our time, they would probably say that our meat is too tough and takes some getting used to!
Of course, refrigeration has existed for thousands of years, as has salting, as ways of preserving meat, but those haven’t always been available to everyone, so the safest thing has always been for most plebs to just eat the animals they killed as soon as possible, as this is what most people usually did.
I really appreciate the effort Max makes to pronounce non-English languages in a way that we non-americans recognise. His “Ötzi” is impeccable. 😊
Poor Max, first week of no kitchen and he's already grilling in the backyard like flippin Ötzi! XD
This is the only comment that actually made me laugh for real.
😆 🤣 😂
1 in a million find. To find a man fully laden down with all this kit and supplies perfectly preserved.
That's one of the reasons Pompeii and Herculaneum are so valuable. The victims were caught unaware and sealed in volcanic ash in the middle of their everyday lives, preserving everything. Most other ancient ruins have been picked clean over the eons by animals, survivors, relatives, and looters.
There's a lot of stuff which was never recorded by historians of the time because it was so commonplace that "everyone" knew it, so there was no need to record it. And it's only through preserved sites that we get answers.
Man dies 5000 years later sponsored by hello fresh - epic
Max, I cannot with words express how grateful I am for you actually pronouncing Ötzi, rather than just ignoring the ö and approximate it with an o like many of your countrymen would. I liked you before but I love you now! Tasting pre-history is my favourite♥️
He always makes sure to pronounce things the right way, it's very satisfying to me everytime
Was looking for that comment! I was thoroughly impressed by his pronunciation!
Normally I watch these videos on my PC. But it feels appropriate to watch this one on my tablet. It's a nice granite slab I carved a like button into!
and you can use it to bake your flatbread !
Ötzi, you have contributed far more than you can ever have imagined
I'm watching this while making and eating a burrito bowl. It's hard not to appreciate just how many seasonings and ingredients my meal has access to, and the thousands of hands it took to grow, process, and transport to me and my pantry. When you include the people involved in making the trucks and farm implements and fertilizers and fuel and the pantry itself, I think it's safe to say at least a million people were involved and necessary in making this meal. Civilization has it's perks.
Fun fact! I (conclusively!) have Lyme Disease, and a lot of chronic pain caused by it. I happened to learn about Ötzi's tattoos while doing some research, and I decided to have a go at medicinal tattooing myself. Some of the worst of my pain has been at the fronts and backs of my shoulders when I'm trying to sleep on them, causing me to wake up multiple times a night, so I got a set of matching tattoos (purple roses, if you're curious) on the fronts of my shoulders. Once they had healed, I noticed that the pain actually did significantly improve! For about five years or so, at least; I got the tattoos around 2017 or 2018, and the pain has been getting worse in the last year or so. But it absolutely made a difference. Thanks Ötzi!
Wow. My cousin was diagnosed with Lyme disease a couple of years ago (in her 50s). Finally having some answers was a complete revelation. You have my deepest sympathies.
Long live the Placebo Effect. People like to joke about it, but it's a real phenomenon. If you think it's working, it often does.
@@Unpainted_Huffhines When you have double blind studies it has frequently been found that roughly 30% of the people taking the sugar pill will have an improvement in their symptoms. Its pretty crazy
Desecration of the human skin
@@hakijinMinding of your own business
Being more a theologian/historian, figuring out what Otzi had in his stomach reminds me of the new ability for scientists to read charred, ancient scrolls without unrolling them, which might destroy them. Kudos on reproducing it to the best of your knowledge! Fascinating.
Crazy how the first people to find the Herculaneum scrolls thought they were firewood and burnt a bunch of them before realizing they were scrolls...
@@TrueFork IRCC that was the Dead Sea Scrolls (the wife of one of the guys who found them was mad that he brought back these "useless" things, and tried burning some as firewood). The Herculaneum scrolls were found during a proper excavation. So the ones lost were destroyed when people digging didn't realize what they were, and assumed they were just dirt and ash they were supposed to be breaking up and removing.
It should be noted that some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were originally stored in a building which burned down about 1400 years ago. So they were carbonized much like the Herculaneum papyrii, and similar technology is being used to read them.
All of your videos are interesting but this one was downright fascinating.
Couldn’t agree more!