In 1991, hikers discovered the mummified remains of a man who died 5300 years ago in the Alps with an arrow stuck through his shoulder. His genetics show great affinity to modern Sardinia and it is thought if you have ancestors stem from the region between Sardinia and the Alps, there is a chance you could be related to Ötzi. Found in the Ötztal Alps between Italy and Austria, he was given the nickname Ötzi and represents Europe's oldest known natural mummy.

He is believed to have been murdered as the arrowhead in his left shoulder was a fatal wound. He had brown eyes, O-type blood, was lactose intolerant and probably had Lyme disease. Analysis of his colon showed Ötzi's second-to-last meal included ibex meat, cereals and plants. His last meal included red deer meat, grasses and cereals. He had a gap in his smile, lacked wisdom teeth and also had a fairly rare condition where he lacked the smallest ribs on either side.

Ötzi was well equipped - he had a field kit with numerous tools including a copper-bladed axe, a flint dagger and its tree-fiber sheath, a bow made out of a yew tree, a quiver fashioned from deer hide, and a net for catching birds and rabbits. His hair was found to contain high levels of arsenic which came from smelting ores to make copper. At the time of death he is estimated to have been 45 years of age, 1.60 meters tall and weighing about 50 kilograms.

Ötzi is also the oldest tattooed person ever found - he was covered in 61 different tattoos which had been made by scratching his skin and rubbing charcoal into the wound in the forms of lines and crosses. His loincloth was made of sheepskin, leggings and a coat of goat hide, and he had a brown bear-skin hat. His shoelaces came from wild cows and his quiver from roe deer. His body and belongings are on display in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy.