19 April 2016 – 9:56 pm

Presentation of an Ötzi mummy replica by paleoartist Gary Staab

Bolzano – On Wednesday 20 April 2016, the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology presented a life-size replica of Ötzi’s mummified body. Museum director Angelika Fleckinger described the multi-stage process of how the sculpture was made by the renowned American paleoartist Gary Staab.
The mummy replica is part of the new travelling exhibition on the Iceman, which will be touring the USA and Canada from 2017. The sculpture came about thanks to cooperation with the Cold Spring Harbor DNA Learning Center in New York. We owe this extraordinary collaboration to the huge interest in the story of the Iceman by American research institutes and museums.

Pre-existing CT images of the Iceman were used as a basis to fashion a resin replica of the mummy. These data made it possible to create a model of Ötzi using a 3D printer in the absence of air. After the blank had hardened, the mummy was sculpted and hand-painted by renowned paleoartist Gary Staab and his team – work that took many months to complete. Staab travelled to Bolzano last summer to view the original at first hand. The reconstruction of the hands was a challenge, since they could not be captured on CT scans.

Three replicas were made of the mummy. One of the replicas will be part of a travelling exhibition that is being created on behalf of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology and will tour North America from 2017. The South Tyrol Museum is responding to the huge interest of museums and science centres in the US and Canada that would like to feature the Iceman in their exhibitions. The premiere of the travelling exhibition will be on October, 2017 in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh (1 Million annual visitors). Other stops have been earmarked. This travelling exhibition for the North American market is the third that the South Tyrol Museum has provided on loan to interested museums around the world.

The second and the third replica of the Iceman mummy is being used for teaching purposes in Cold Spring Harbor DNA Learning Center in New York (DNALC), the world’s biggest scientific learning centre for the subject of genetics. 35,000 students and teachers receive instruction in six research laboratories every year. They learn about their own DNA and compare it with the DNA of famous ancient ancestors in the evolution of humans, such as the Neanderthal and examples of homo sapiens sapiens such as the Iceman. Reconstructions of the bones of ancient ancestors and the Iceman mummy copy have been put on display in a dedicated part of the DNA Learning Center.

At the press conference, statements of the DNALC director Dave Micklos and of the artist Gary Staab have been shown via video. They explained the importance of the Ötzi mummy for carrying out genetic research and the creation process of the replica mummy. They also described the background to the cooperation with the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. Please see extra sheet for a summary of the two statements.
The American film production company NOVA filmed the entire process of the mummy reconstruction and used it to summarise the latest research findings on Ötzi the Iceman. The 48-minute documentary entitled Iceman Reborn was broadcast in the US on the PBS channel on 17 February to great acclaim (director and producer: Bonnie Brennan).

Photos

Creative process by the DNALC and Gary Staab and photos of the mummy. See downloads below.

Videos

1. Creative process of the replica
2. Interview with the paleoartist Gary Staab
3. Interview on the cooperation between the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology and the Cold Spring Harbor DNA Learning Center with DNALC Director Dave Micklos

 

Press contact

Katharina Hersel M.A.
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
via Museo 43, 39100 Bolzano Italy
T +39 0471 320114
F +39 0471 320122
press@iceman.it
www.iceman.it
Facebook OetziTheIceman

 

Summary of the video statement by Gary Staab, paleoartist:

In his video, Staab describes the process of creating the replica. Using medical 3D scans of the mummy, a 3D printer produced a 3D resin blank. Staab and his team then covered the blank with clay and sculpted the soft tissue and outer skin. Staab found his visit to Bolzano last summer very helpful for creating an accurate replica of the mummy. He was able to view Ötzi at first hand in the laboratory of the mummy’s cold cell. A mould was then made, and the resulting cast was worked on and hand-painted layer by layer. Finally, the Iceman’s damaged hip section was added. Staab was privileged to work on this project and extends his thanks to the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

Breve informazione sul Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) DNA Learning Center New York
Fondato nel 1890, il Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) ha contribuito durante il secolo scorso in modo deciso allo stato delle attuali conoscenze della scienza biomedica e al suo insegnamento tramite programmi per la ricerca sul cancro, sulle neuroscienze, sulla botanica e sulla biologia di sintesi. Il laboratorio di ricerca è un istituto privato senza scopo di lucro ed ha prodotto sin dalla sua fondazione otto vincitori premi Nobel. Il CSHL oggi impiega circa 1.000 dipendenti, di cui 600 fra scienziati, studenti e tecnici. Ogni anno partecipano 12.000 scienziati di tutto il mondo alle conferenze e programmi di formazione nelle sedi di Long Island (USA) e Suzhou (Cina). Il dipartimento di istruzione all’interno del CSHL contiene anche una casa editrice scientifica, un corso di laurea e il DNA Learning Center (DNALC).

Il DNA Learning Center è stato fondato nel 1988 da CSHL come primo laboratorio mondiale di ricerca esclusivamente concentrato sul DNA. Con un totale di sei laboratori didattici a Cold Spring Harbor, a Lake Success e a Manhattan (NY) il DNALC dedica la sua attività a divulgare i temi della genetica ad un vasto pubblico. Il DNALC ha sviluppato nella sua storia vari metodi ormai ben noti per l’insegnamento di facile comprensione della genetica, tra cui: laboratori e workshop estivi per gli studenti, la formazione per insegnanti di DNA, kit di insegnamento per la biotecnologia, materiali di insegnamento in laboratorio, gruppi di lavoro per attrezzature da laboratorio, il sequenziamento del DNA per alunni e studenti, creazione di siti web, strumenti biotecnologici digitali e multimediali ed elaborato concetti di istruzione nell’insegnamento della biologia.

 

Summary of the video statement by Dave Micklos, director of the DNA Learning Center at the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, NY:

Students learn how to extract their own DNA sequence and to compare it with that of Neanderthals and Ötzi in DNALC workshops. They compare the number of mutations that have occurred over time. Whereas the DNA of Neanderthals is relatively distant from modern-day DNA, Ötzi’s DNA is almost completely identical. This demonstrates to students that Ötzi was a modern human. Moreover, Ötzi’s DNA shows a predisposition to cardiovascular disease, which verifies the discovery of fatty build-up in his arteries. Until now, this clinical picture has always been associated with a modern lifestyle. The conclusions that the students can draw from the analysis of their own DNA and that of Ötzi are therefore diverse and instructive. Micklos is excited to be working with the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology and to be able to show the replica of the Iceman mummy to the students.

 

About the DNA Learning Center

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) was established in 1890. In the ensuing century it contributed enormously to biomedical knowledge and its dissemination thanks to programmes on cancer research, neuroscience, botany and synthetic biology*. Since it was set up, the private non-profit research laboratory has produced eight Nobel Prize Laureates. The CSHL employs around 1000 people, including 600 scientists as well as students and technicians. 12,000 scientists from all corners of the globe take part in conferences and continuing education programmes at sites in Long Island (USA) and Suzhou (China). The CSHL’s Education Department also runs a scientific publishing house, a postgraduate college and, of course, the DNA Learning Center (DNALC).
The DNA Learning Center was established by CSHL in 1988. It was the first DNA research laboratory in the world dedicated to teaching genetics to a wider public. It has six training laboratories in Cold Spring Harbor, Lake Success and Manhattan (NY). The DNALC has developed a range of popular methods for teaching genetics in an easily understandable way. These include laboratory training events and summer camps for schoolchildren and students, continuing education programmes for DNA teaching staff, biotechnology kits, laboratory teaching material, working groups for laboratory equipment, DNA sequencing for schoolchildren and students, websites, digital biotechnology aids and multimedia teaching concepts for biology lessons.