The Economic Times

A melting glacier exposed a body in the Alps in 1991; 5,300 years after his death, scientists turned tzi into one of history's most studied humans

On September 19, 1991, German mountaineers Helmut and Erika Simon were hiking across the Tisenjoch ridge in the tztal Alps along the border between Austria and Italy. Stepping off the marked trail near the Hauslabjoch pass at an altitude of 3,210 meters, they noticed something unusual emerging from the melting ice of the Schnalstal glacier. A human torso lay face down in a pool of meltwater, dark skin stretched tightly across frozen bone. Believing they had stumbled upon an unfortunate modern climber or perhaps a lost soldier from the First World War, the couple photographed the site and reported their finding to alpine authorities at a nearby mountain refuge.