The “Iceman,” found frozen in the Italian Alps in 1991 (with a remarkably well preserved body after dying nearly 5,000 years ago), has continued to provide scientists with data about prehistoric peoples of the period. The data includes facts about his diet from studies of his gut, stomach and teeth.
Examinations of his teeth showed that besides not being a good brusher — never mind flosser — Iceman ate a predominantly carb-based diet based on cereals and breads (the teeth exam also showed our boy Iceman got a pretty good sock to the chops at some point — was he a prehistoric cave-wrecker who ran into an outraged Neanderthal hubby home early from work?).
An examination of Iceman's bowels further showed that he had changed up his diet and dined on red deer about four hours before his death, according to a recent article in Science magazine. Now, a more recent examination of Iceman's stomach shows another protein binge only about an hour before he cashed in his chips on that mountain. This time it was a meal of ibex, a kind of mountain deer.
The chronology seems to indicate that the two meat-based meals weren't that far apart (and were different animals). Maybe he had a run of good hunting luck just before that last run of bad luck that left him to become such a valuable historical artifact…