The long trail of hard evidence leads to the reward of eventual truth. Her particular hero is Klaus Oeggl, an Innsbruck paleobotanist whose stock in trade is organic samples from prehistoric bogs. Given the chance to apply his techniques to the Iceman's gut, Oeggl showed that the ill-fated cadaver contained undigested pollen from the hop hornbean, a plant that blossoms only in the spring. This meant that the Iceman couldn't possibly have perished in a snowstorm. He must have died earlier in the year, probably from a fall, which would explain his injuries without any need to bring in yarns of jealousy or flight.
Fowler relates a number of other facts that the researchers have wrung from the data the hard way.
The Iceman came from the Italian side of the mountain and seems to have been primitive even by the undemanding standards of his time. He wore furs with leather undergarments, which he appears not to have changed from month to month, and which may well retain his body odor to this day. If he did herd sheep, there is no sign that he used them for milk or wool, as opposed to simple slaughter. His one modern characteristic was his abnormally hardened arteries, due no doubt to his unhealthily high-cholesterol diet. The Iceman now lies in a specially constructed museum in Bolzano, capital of the Italian Tyrol.