A new study suggests that almost everything archaeologists thought they knew about the preservation of the 5,300-year-old corpse was wrong.

Hikers discovered Ötzi the ice mummy in September 1991 in the Tyrolean Alps. PH๏τo by Leopold Nekula/Sygma via Getty Images

In September 1991, German hikers exploring the Tyrolean Alps between Italy and Austria made a shocking discovery: a human corpse. Although officials initially ᴀssumed the man had recently died, archaeologists later revealed that the body, which had been sH๏τ in the back with an arrow, was approximately 5,300 years old. Somehow, ice, snow, sun, wind, and other conditions of the alpine environment had preserved the body for centuries.

The ice mummy later earned the nickname “Ötzi,” in reference to the nearby Ötztal valley. Since 1998, the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, has housed his body in a special cold cell unit. Visitors can look at Ötzi through a small window, as well as see restored pieces of his clothing and equipment.

Reconstruction of the Iceman by Alfons and Adrie Kennis Courtesy of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology / Ochsenreiter

At the time, researchers ᴀssumed the find was unusual and unique, the result of a perfect storm of timing and weather conditions that happened to coalesce to preserve the body — essentially, they thought it was a happy accident.

But new research suggests otherwise. And as global temperatures rise due to human-caused climate change and ice melts around the world, more historical bodies and other artifacts are likely to emerge, according to a new paper published this week in The Holocene.

When archaeologists began to ponder the conditions that preserved Ötzi, one prevailing theory was this: Late in the year, the Iceman was fleeing from someone or something, possibly a conflict, and decided to hide in the mountains. He eventually died there and was quickly buried in the winter snow. Ötzi fell into a shallow ravine that protected him from the movement of the glaciers. Then, soon afterward, the climate evolved and temperatures dropped for hundreds of years, encasing his body in ice.

It remained that way until 1991, scientists agreed, when the snow and ice began to melt, revealing part of its body.

“The general understanding was that Ötzi marked the beginning of a colder period, as people were certain that he must have been inside the ice without interruption since his death,” Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at ETH Zürich in Switzerland who was not involved in the new paper, tells Science’s Andrew Curry.

Scientific examination of the ice mummy. Courtesy of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology / EURAC / Samadelli / Staschitz

 Now, however, archaeologists believe there wasn’t such a fluke involved. About 30 years after Ötzi’s discovery, some researchers decided to revisit the evidence, and that led them to a new theory. Based on radiocarbon dating and other analyses of the leaves, seeds, moss, grᴀss, and dung found near his body, they believe Ötzi actually died in the spring, rather than the fall, meaning his corpse was exposed during the summer. And because some of this organic material was found to be younger than Ötzi, the team posits that the site was open to the air on multiple occasions over the past 5,300 years. All of this points to a different story: that Ötzi was regularly exposed to the elements, not wrapped in a frozen, iron-lined time capsule.

They now also believe that Ötzi died somewhere other than the ravine where he was discovered. Archaeologists found his damaged belongings scattered around the site, suggesting that he died at a higher elevation and that, some time later, spring and summer runoff or moving ice likely pushed his body into the ravine.

“The big test is to imagine that Ötzi was found today,” study co-author Lars Pilø, an archaeologist at the Oppland County Glacier Archaeology Programme in Norway, tells ScienceNorway’s Ida Irene Bergstrøm. “With everything we know now about how glacial archaeological localities work, would anyone have come up with [this] theory? The answer to that is no. We don’t need the chain of miracles – Ötzi was saved by regular natural processes.”

In fact, since Ötzi’s discovery, archaeologists have uncovered other human bodies, horse remains, skis, hunting equipment and other historical artifacts in melting glaciers. Although in the early 1990s researchers ᴀssumed that Ötzi’s preservation was a fluke, this now appears not to be the case.

Visitors to the museum can see the Iceman mummy through a small window. Courtesy of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology / Ochsenreiter

 Taken together, these new findings go against the long-held belief that Ötzi’s death marked the beginning of a long-lasting cold climate era.

Plus, as the ice continues to melt as a result of global warming, the findings suggest that hikers (and researchers) may want to keep an eye out for even more remarkable finds like Ötzi’s.

“The circumstances of Ötzi’s find are quite normal in glacial archaeology,” the researchers write in the paper. “The chances of finding another prehistoric human body in a similar topographical setting… should therefore be higher than previously believed, since no special set of circumstances are needed for the preservation of this type of find, and the relevant locations are now affected by strong melting events.”