He died 5,300 years ago, but now he's been reimagined. Named after the Ötztal Alps where he was found, Ötzi the iceman is Europe's oldest natural human mummy. And now the mummy has been reconstructed more accurately than ever before, based on data obtained from CT scans, X-rays and DNA analyses. Ötzi died in a high mountain pass in Italy and was covered by ice. He was buried for millennia until two German hikers found him in 1991. Now two Dutch reconstruction experts, Adrie and Alfons Kennis, have reconstructed him based on examinations of the body and knowledge of what the faces, hands and skin of modern-day people who live mostly outdoors look like. DNA analy- ses revealed that Ötzi’s eyes were not blue, as previously thought, but brown. Researchers determined his dark-brown hair color by examining preserved hairs found on his body.

Ötzi stood 5 feet 3 inches and was around 46 years old when he died after being wounded in the shoulder by an arrow. There are several theories about the circumstances of his death in the pass. One is that he was pursued by enemies and was shot with an arrow from behind, at which point he collapsed and bled to death. Another theory is that he was taken to the pass after his death to be buried. There is a stone platform 60 feet away from where the body was found, which could have possibly been used for a burial ceremony. Luca Bondioli of the National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome has proposed that warming and freezing cycles could have moved the body downhill from its original burial site. Proponents of this theory also think that if Ötzi was carried up to the pass from the low- lands for burial, he may have been an important, high-ranking member of his society. Since the circumstances of his death were violent, the recon- struction experts wanted to imbue the model with a haunted, insecure expression instead of portraying Ötzi as a competent, superior mountain wanderer. They also chose to portray Ötzi bare-chested to show how muscular he was, though in reality he was dressed for the harsh weather of the Alps when he died, wearing animal hide, a cap and an insulating grass cape.