Prematurely aged, with leathery, wrinkled skin, deep-set eyes, and a shaggy beard, this new reconstruction of "Ötzi" the Iceman is a far cry from past reconstructions that showed him as a strapping middle-aged man.


Notably, the new model, developed by Dutch artists Alfons and Adrie Kennis, has brown eyes based on recent research that showed the 5,000-year-old Iceman did not have blue eyes, as previously thought.

The latest Iceman reconstruction is based on new 3-D scans of Ötzi's body and will be the focus of an exhibition called "Ötzi 20," which will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the naturally mummified body's discovery in the Italian Alps. "Ötzi 20" will run from March 1 to January 15, 2012, at the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology in Bolzano, Italy.

"The aim of the exhibition is to present a more rounded picture of Ötzi beyond the purely scientific aspect," museum director Angelika Fleckinger said in a statement.

Source: National Geographic [February 26, 2011]