How to reach the Museum of Archaeology
Three floors of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology are dedicated to original finds and the story of Ötzi, the Man from the Ice: from the media hype surrounding his discovery to the research into the 5,000-year-old, exceptionally well-preserved mummy and the associated items, as well as all sorts of oddities, fascinating interviews and interactive experiences. The highlight of the exhibition is a lifelike reconstruction of Ötzi himself. The top floor of the Museum hosts an annually changing exhibition of archaeological topics.
Ötzi the Iceman
Archaeologic sensation, media star, research topic, museum object:
Ötzi is a glacier mummy from the Copper Age, who, thanks to extraordinary circumstances, has been preserved down to the present day. Little by little, he has imparted genuine stores of knowledge. He was discovered accidentally by hikers in 1991, together with his clothing and equipment, on the Schnalstal/Val Senales Valley glacier and has been the subject of intensive research ever since.
A man from another era
Over 5300 years ago, Ötzi was crossing Tisenjoch/Giogo di Tisa in the Schnalstal/Val Senales Valley, South Tyrol, where he was murdered and preserved naturally in the ice.
He is, therefore, older than the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge and the result of a series of highly improbable coincidences. Ötzi lived during the Copper Age, a period of the late Neolithic. He was still using stone tools but owned an innovative and very valuable copper ax. The skill of extracting and processing metal had recently arrived in Europe from Asia Minor. The advent of copper marked the beginning of the Bronze Age.
Ötzi in the Museum
Ötzi and his artifacts have been exhibited at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy since 1998.
The mummy is stored in a specially devised cold cell and can be viewed through a small window. Ötzi’s numerous pieces of equipment and clothing have been painstakingly restored. Visitors have been amazed by the skills of Stone Age people. The mummy was dubbed Ötzi by the Austrian journalist Karl Wendl, who was looking for a catchy name. The name refers to the discovery site in the Ötztal Valley Alps.
The South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology belongs to the autonomous province of Bolzano and is associated with the South Tyrol Regional Museums.
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Contact:
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
Via Museo 43
39100 Bolzano
+39 0471 320100