Body Of Austrian Soldier Preserved Since 1918 Goes To Museum
ROME, Aug 24 (AFP) - The body of an Austrian soldier preserved in an Alpine glacier since 1918 will be handed over to an Italian archaeological museum for research, authorities in the province of Trento said on Tuesday.
The body is one of a World War I soldier whose remains were discovered on Sunday along with the corpses of two of his colleagues in an unsually well preserved state after 86 years under ice in the Italian Alps.
The museum at Bolzano in northern Italy will be allowed to preserve and study the remains, discovered at the foot of a glacier 3,400 metres (11,000 feet) above sea level.
The other two Austrian soldiers were scheduled to be buried on Tuesday afternoon at an Italian military cemetery at Peio.
The corpses of the three were discovered not far from the summit of San Matteo mountain, the scene of bitter fighting between Austrian and Italian forces near the end of World War I.
They were found by Maurizio Vincenzi, director of the military history museum at Peio in the Trentino region, who is a member of a mountain rescue team and a military history buff.
Vincenzi brought them out after spotting a suspicious-looking dark patch in the ice through binoculars.
Experts at the museum hope their study of the Austrian soldier will reveal more of the secrets of Oetzi, the Stone Age "iceman" whose 5,000 year-old remains were found in northern Italy in 1991, and which are likewise preserved in Bolzano.
They also hope to establish the optimal climate conditions for preserving Oetzi in Bolzano Museum, where he is currently kept in a room at a temperature of minus six degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit) and in 96-percent humidity.
The world's oldest and best-preserved mummy was discovered by two German tourists after they strayed from a path on a hiking trip in the Italian Alps.