Good Garbottam on Rohini star today – rainfall on 29th & 30th July 2016.

The overall Garbottam for the rainy season June to December 2016 was already noted down as separate blogs one for each day of the 13 day period. This pertains to the entire rainfall season of 2016 starting from June with each day signifying a fortnight. Garbottam for 2016 shows that the rainfall season would start from 21^st June, 2016.

Though this observation period ended on 11^th January 2016, the observation for Garbottam features must be done on a daily basis until the end of Vaikasi month. Each day would correspond to the 195^th day which is identified as the thithi in the reverse phase of the moon (Paksha) that occurs after 6 and a half months.

I am planning to write down the daily observation and its impact on rainfall at a later date, for every fortnight starting from January 1^st 2016. In a day or two I will be posting the 1^st half of January with its corresponding period in July 2016. In the meantime, whenever I am coming across an interesting observation, I will write them also.

As of now what has caught my interest is the conformation of rainfall in the dates that correspond to the 3rd day of Garbottam. Of all the 13 days of this year’s Garbottam, only the 3^rd day stood out with impressive features which can be read in the link to 3^rd day Garbottam. The impact period of this 3^rd day would be from 19^th July to 2^nd August 2016. The interpretation of that day written in that blog was as follows:

“The period between 19^th July and 2^nd August would see wet days with occasional rainfall here and there in my place of observation.”

Further confirmation must be got from the dates that correspond to this fortnight in July- August as mentioned above. At present we are passing through the corresponding prior dates for this period from 19^th July to 2^nd August 2016. The corresponding dates started from 9^th January 2016 and would end on 23^rd January 2016.

The 3^rd day of Garbottam started with moderate features but by the 2^nd half of the day (in the day time), the Garbottam features picked up. By this, it is inferred that rainfall for the period between 19^th July and 2^nd August would be bright in the 2^nd half of the fortnight. The Garbottam feature in the corresponding dates starting from 9^th January was modest or even nil until 12^th January 2016. It started picking up from the 13^th January and reached its peak on 19^th and 20^th January 2016.

In  my blog written on 14^th January (Fine Garbottam on 13th January 2016 & naalaam pirai -நாலாம் பிறை- Impact on 23rd July 2016.) I wrote that the Garbottam on 13^th January which happened to have moon cross the star Sathabhishak (Sadhayam) must yield good rainfall for 8 days from the corresponding 195^th day. It was because if the Garbottam features are found good on the day of Sadhayam in the month of Margazhi, it would rain well for 8 days from the corresponding 195^th day. So I wrote in that blog “That means upcoming days for a week or 10 days must exhibit good Garbottam features.” Starting from 13^th January till the time this current article in written on the night of 20^th January, the Garbottam features are continuing well. This is further confirmation of the good Garbottam of the 3^rd day and how Nature drives itself.

In this prior corresponding period between 9^th January and 23^rd January, 3 important dates came.

The first one was on 13^th January when Sadhayam was running. It had good Garbottam features ensuring abundant rainfall on 23^rd July 2016.

(A marvellous feature of Sun being covered by dark clouds on 13^th January. 

This pic taken at 3 PM. 

The sky was over cast for most part of the day.)

The 2^nd important date was on 15^th January when Uttra Bhadrapada (Uttrattadhi) star was running. That date also had good Garbottam features. Moreover if the Garbottam is good on Uttrattadhi, the 195^th day would see abundant rainfall. That date is 25^th July 2016.

(15^th January 2016. 4-30 PM. 

A big fish like dark cloud swallowing (!) the Sun.

 Marvelous cloud formation of Garbottam on that day)

The 3^rd important date is 20^th January when Rohini was running. Rohini is one among the 5 stars when Garbottam must be good to ensure abundant rainfall on the 195^th day. The other 4 stars are Pooradam, Uttradam, Poorattadhi and Uttrattadhi.

Even from 19^th January onwards when Kriithika star was running, very good Garbottam features started.

Those features are

·         overcast sky,

·         sun often hidden by dark clouds,

·         clouds in aquatic forms and glowing with a halo in sunlight,

·         gentle breeze,

·         gentle showers or drizzle

·         Moon hidden by clouds.

·         Foggy morning as the month is Thai.

The corresponding dates for rainfall are 29^th and 30^th July 2016.

(19^th January 2016, 2 PM. 

Fantastic Garbottam of clouds covering the Sun.)

(Moon in Rohini. 

Night of 19^th January 2016. 

Moon hidden behind the clouds for most part. 

Good feature of Garbottam).

(20^th January 2016. 10.30 AM. 

Sun behind the dark clouds. 

Once again a good Garbottam day)

According to reports some parts of overcast Chennai and Bangalore received drizzles or mild rainfall on 19^th and 20^th January (Rohini day). It is an additional good feature of good Garbottam. Those places would receive abundant rainfall on 29^th and 30^th July 2016. But if the rainfall on this day of Garbottam (19^th or 20^th January) is heavy, there won’t be rains on the corresponding dates on 29^th and 30^th July 2016.

As per the 3^rd day of Garbottam, the current cloud cover and good Garbottam features would not last beyond 23^rd January as the succeeding period of Garbottam day (4^th day) did not show rainfall for the fortnight starting from 2^nd August. Let is wait and see whether prior Garbottam features become absent after 23^rd January 2016.  

Additional caution in observing Garbottam: There should not be any planetary war on the days of Garbottam. In the current period of good cloud cover and good Garbottam starting from 13^th January, there is no planetary war. Planetary war means two planets coming together within 1 degree gap.

Another caution is that there should be no eclipse on the day of good Garbottam. In the current period both these issues were absent. Therefore the corresponding dates must see good rainfall.

From Ganges to Indonesia to Indus - “Sapta Kanni Pongal” shows the link!

A news report in the Tamil daily Dinamalar on the unique way of celebration of “Pongal” festival by the fishermen of a village in Cuddalore made interesting reading. It said that the fishermen of a village called “Mor Pannai” -மோர்பண்ணை  (literally means ‘buttermilk farm’) used to select “Sapta kanni” or seven virgins a few days before “Pongal” festival and assign them the duty of making Pongal, the rice-dish. On the day of Pongal each of these young girls would cook Pongal in a separate pot. This would be offered to the Goddess Rana Bhadra Kali. Then a portion of Pongal from each pot would be collected along with other Puja items in a small sail boat made of coconut ingot. The boat would be ceremoniously taken to the sea shore accompanied by the 7 girls who would be carrying sacred milk-pots in their heads.  At the shores, the girls would offer the milk from the pots to the sea and the boat would then be let into the waters. The belief is that the boat would carry the Puja items along with Pongal offerings to Goddess Ganga who is residing at the depth of the sea. Due to the involvement of the 7 virgins in the preparation of Pongal, this festival of the fisher folks is called as “Sapta Kanni Pongal”

(The picture above shows 2 men carrying the sail boat made from coconut ingot followed by 7 girls carrying milk pots)

Reading this information, I could see some connections from the past and the confirmation of historicity of certain beliefs of the past.

Foremost among them is the belief of these fishermen of Cuddalore village in Ramanathapuram district that River Ganges resides in the depth of the seas. The historic connection of this place is with none other than Rama of Ramayana. This district got its name as Ramanathapuram from Rama who crossed the seas from here. The sea here was originally known as Saagar as it was dug by Sagaras, the sons of King Sagara, the ancestor of Rama. In Valmiki Ramayana, though various names are used to indicate this sea (such as Varunaalaya, samudra, Mahaarnava etc), the name “Sagara” exclusively refers to the king of this sea (Bay of Bengal). Infact the name Bengal in Bay of Bengal was derived from Ganga which flows in the state of Bengal. The Ganga ends up in Ganga Sagar which became Bengal Sagar in course of time.

The speciality of this particular sea is that the river Ganga merges into this sea. When Rama provoked this sea when it didn’t give way for him to cross it to reach Lanka, Sagara, the king of this sea appeared before Rama. How could a sea appear in some form is upto debate by agnostics. But the description given by Valmiki fits with that of an ocean. That description says that Sagara was led or escorted by Ganga and other water bodies!

“Ganga sindhu pradhanaabhir aapagaabhi” (Valmiki Ramayana, 6-22-22). Thoughtless translators could say that this verse refers to river Ganga and river Sindhu (Indus).  But Sindhu joins Arabian Sea and not Bengal Saagar. The term Sindhu in this verse (Ganga sindhu) refers to the waters of Ganga. The waters of Ganga along with waters of other rivers that join the Bay of Bengal reach as far as Rameswaram. Rama built a bund (Setu) to stop these waters. This makes Setu a place where all the sacred rivers starting from Ganga and other rivers in the east coast  that join the Bay of Bengal, get collected thereby making it a sacred spot for bathing.

Valmiki gives prominence to river Ganga in this verse as he says that the Ganga waters were the chief or primary (Pradhana) waters of this Saagar.

If only this idea had stayed on for all these ages since Ramayana period, or rather from Bhagiratha (who brought Ganga from the Himalayas) period, this habit of offering puja to the Ganga in the depth of the seas could have come up. It is also possible that someone in the later period had introduced this idea of making an offering to Ganga in the sea here. But what stands out is the fact that Ganga waters are flowing in this part of the sea - an idea that was also held at Ramayana times.

This belief found among the fishermen community makes it something special as these people are sea-faring ones and could have paid reverences to the sacred river Ganga as they moved across the Saagar. It is amazing that this belief on Ganga’s presence in the depth of this sea is retained in this community while the whole world had failed to recognise it.

The second information is about the importance to given Sapta Kanni – the seven virgins. The local legend about the inclusion of Sapta Kanni in making Pongal dish is not known. But the worship of RaNa Bhadra Kali brings in another dimension of ancient connection. Kali is one of the seven mother goddesses. According to the census records of the British period, the fishermen community of those times had worshiped a goddess called Kaala Kumari.

Kaala Kumari was worshiped as the Naiad of the rivers by the fishermen communities of Bengal namely Kaibartta, Malo and Tiyars. Particularly among Tiyars there was a tradition to invoke Goddess Kaala Kumari during bad fishing seasons by offering her the first fruits.  

The term Tiyar is wrongly understood as Theeyar (தீயர், தீயவர்) meaning bad people. The British saw them as bad people indulging in thefts. But the etymology of this term and the origin of these people show them to be “Islanders” (theevar or தீவர் – people of தீவு / island). British census records show them as Tivars or Teers or Tiyars. All these refer to the same class of sea faring people engaged in fishing. Until the British period they were found in many places along the coast lines of India in Bengal, South India, Malabar and Gujarat. They were even found inland in places like Mysore and Oudh (Ayodhya). Caldwell thought them to be immigrants from Ceylon. But they were generally regarded as fishing people whose chief God was Kaala Kumari, the Naiad of rivers.

The stretch of Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea was frequented by the fishermen from the islands of Indian Ocean which were there in some numbers until 3500 years ago when the last deluge wiped out those islands. That was the last time the ancient Pandian kingdom was relocated and was moved inland, to present day Madurai. The sea faring subjects of that kingdom were disturbed and were forced to find new lands. That is how they went up as far as Bengal. The name Teevar sounding like a Tamil word (for islander) and the worship of Kaala Kumari bring them closer to ancient submerged Tamil lands.

Kumari or Kaumari was one among the Sapta Matas (seven mothers) and she was the mother of Kumara or Skanda, the patron deity of ancient Tamils. (According to Tamil sangam texts, Kumara was the son of Meenakshi and he ruled the Pandian lands. The first Sangam age texts focused on his escapades).

Kumari as a virgin girl was engaged in penance to marry Shiva. The remaining vestige of that worship is still found in the temple of Kumari in Kanya Kumari. Kumari was worshiped for release from the sin of adultery. The Tamil epic Manimegalai contains a reference to a woman from Varanasi who went to this temple of Kumari and worshiped her as a propitiation for the adultery committed by her. This Kanya Kumari also protects the sea faring people in the dead of night and in turbulent storms. Thus the connection between the seafaring people and fishermen of the Indian Ocean goes back in time to the period of the legendary Pandian lands and Virgin Kumari who was also worshiped as one among the Sapta Mathas (seven mothers).

The same idea is found in the deity called Nyai Roro Kidul of Indonesia. The term Kidul in this deity’s name sounds like Tamil “Kadavul” which means God / deity.

She is said to reside in the sea (Indian Ocean) and is said to protect the people crossing the seas. The presence of ancient Tamils in Indonesia or influence of ancient Tamils to Indonesia cannot be ruled out as there is textual evidence of people from Java (Jaavaka in Tamil) having visited Madurai during Chithrai festival. This is reported in the Sangam text called “Madurai-k-Kanchi” whose hero was the Pandyan King Nedum Chezhiyan. The Mangulam Brahmi scripts reveal that he belonged to the 3^rd century BCE!

The Java connection to Pandyan lands can also be ascertained by the fact that there is a place called Madura off Java, separated by the strait of Madura. In all likelihood, Java was the “Thenga Nadu” of the 2^nd Sangam age (between 7000 years BP and 3500 years BP) as a people called "Tengger" exists in Java today. Thengar means coconut ( a place of coconut trees), it also means ‘South’. Pandyans were known as Southerners. The presence of a female deity of the sea (Nyai Roro Kidul) much in the lines of Kanya Kumari in protecting the seafaring and sea bound people cannot be an exclusive or independent development.

Coming to Kaala Kumari, the original idea of Kanya Kumari that existed before the last deluge among the Tamils that peopled the Indian Ocean was retained by the Teevars or Tiyars even after they lost their earlier habitat. This is ascertained from the kind of deities worshiped by the Teeyars and other fishermen communities of Bengal until 2 centuries ago. Their patron deity was Bura – Buri – who were none other than Shiva and Parvathi the patron deities of ancient Pandyans and therefore their subjects, the fishermen.

The worshiped Manasa Devi, a goddess with a child in her hand. She protected the children from diseases. 

(Manasa Devi)

The same deity with a child in hand is Isakki Amman who is worshiped in numerous places in Tamilnadu by numerous people.

(Isakki Amman in a temple in Tamilnadu)

The other deity is Kaala Kumari who was worshiped during troubled periods in fishing and in storms. The deity Kanya Kumari fits in with this description.

The worship of Rana Bhadra Kali with the help of seven virgins (sapta kanni) by the fishermen of Ramanatha puram district shows a connection to all these. The Indus tablet of a seven women also bears resemblance to worship with seven virgins (sapta kanni).

(Mohenjo-Daro seal no 430)

The seven figures in this seal look like seven young girls. They are wearing a head gear. A religious ritual is seen in the background. Going by the Sapta Kanni concept in Pongal festival among the fishermen community in TN, this seal looks no different from a Sapta Kanni festival.

The seven Goddesses or Sapta Matha concept  was the oldest traditon in worship that existed in the Southern seas given the fact the Kaumari (or Kumari), one of the seven Goddesses, with a cock and spear in her hand and a peacock as her mount was related to Skanda or Kumara or Muruga of Tamil lands. The people who worshiped her largely constituted the fishermen community as they were dependent on the seas for livelihood. They were dislocated from the southern seas to regions like the Ganga Saagar (Bay of Bengal) which brought them closer to the worship of Ganges. And they had also gone or rather the idea of Sapta Kanni had gone as far as the Indus – Saraswathi basin from where the above seal was recovered.

The Sapta Kanni Pongal of the fishermen of Ramanatha puram brings all these together with a historical touch.

Perhaps it needs a la Joe de Cruz to appear from this community (which celebrated Sapta Kanni Pongal) to search into their roots to tell us about this unique tradition of combining Sapta Kanni and Ganges. I believe my version would add credence to that story.

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From

http://www.dinamalar.com/news_detail.asp?id=1434090

'சப்தகன்னி பொங்கல்' வைத்து கொண்டாடிய மீனவர்கள்

ராமநாதபுரம்: ராமநாதபுரம் மாவட்டம் கடலுார் அருகே மோர்பண்ணை கிராமத்தில் 'சப்தகன்னி பொங்கல்' வைத்து மீனவர்கள் கொண்டாடினர்.பொங்கல் வைக்க சில தினங்களுக்கு முன் ஊர் கூட்டம் நடத்தி 7 கன்னி பெண்களை தேர்வு செய்தனர். அந்த குழந்தைகள் நேற்று மோர்பண்ணை ரணபத்ர காளியம்மன் கோயில் முன் 7 பானைகளில் பொங்கல் வைத்தனர். பொங்கலை காளியம்மனுக்கு படைத்து கிராமமக்கள் ஒன்று கூடி வழிபட்டனர்.

பின் தென்னை பாளையில் உருவாக்கிய பாய்மர படகில் 7 பானைகளில் எடுக்கப்பட்ட பொங்கல், பூஜைக்குரிய 2 தேங்காய் மூடிகள், பழம், ஊதுபத்தி போன்ற அபிஷேக பொருட்களை வைத்தனர். அந்த படகை மேளதாளத்துடன் கிராமத்தலைவர் மக்குவாட்டர்துரை கடலுக்கு எடுத்து சென்றார்.அவருடன் 7 கன்னி பெண்களும் தலையில் கரகம் சுமந்து சென்றனர். பின் கரக செம்பில் இருந்த மஞ்சள் கலந்த பாலை கடலில் கொட்டி வழிபட்டனர். கிராமத்தலைவர் பாய்மர படகை கடலில் விட்டார்.படகு ஆழ்கடல் நோக்கி சென்றது. அந்த படகில் உள்ள பூஜை பொருட்கள் ஆழ்கடலில் இருக்கும் கங்காதேவியிடம் சேருவதாக கிராமமக்கள் தெரிவித்தனர்.

அவர்கள் கூறுகையில், “எங்களுக்கு வாழ்வு தரும் கடலை கங்காதேவியாக வழிபடுகிறோம். அந்த தேவிக்கு பொங்கல் வைத்து வழிபட்டால் மீன்பிடி தொழில் சிறப்பாக இருக்கும்,” என்றனர்.

5000 year old Iceman Otzi from Alps was from India!

Was The Indian Sub-Continent The Original Genetic Homeland Of The Europeans?

By

Subash Kak

Did Indians migrate to Europe as early as 3300 BC?

Iceman’  theories are often promoted by the colonialist historians and their successors in the field of ancient Indian history. They seem to do that like the eponymous character of The Iceman Cometh, one of the most famous plays by the great American writer Eugene O’Neill, which deals with how people hold on to delusions that provide meaning to their lives only to be shattered by an individual who calls them out for what they are.

The beginnings of this story go back to September 1991. Two tourists found the body of a person, now named Ötzi the Iceman, frozen at 10,000 feet on the Alps near the Austria-Italy border. A variety of medical tests showed that he died around 3300 BC. This is the oldest known natural human mummy in Europe that has provided much information on Chalcolithic (Copper and Bronze Age) Europeans.

DNA tests have shown that the Iceman has living relatives in Austria. Microevolution, as in the mutations of the mitochondrial DNA (inherited from the mother) and the Y chromosome (inherited from the father), makes it possible to trace and connect populations across time and region. When the random mutations are calibrated one has a genetic clock.

Other studies can complement the DNA evidence. Thus, even without historical evidence related to the spread of the potato plant, a scientist can deduce the Andean origin of the plant from the fact that there exist many varieties of it in Peru and just a few lines in Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Pathogens with distinct phylogeographic pattern can also be used to reconstruct recent and ancient human migrations. Researchers at the European Academy of Bolzano (EURAC) thought of doing so and they picked on the stomach bacterium ‘Helicobacter pylori’, which is found in all human populations, with two major strains that are Asian and African. The modern Europeans have ‘H. pylori’ that is a hybrid between Asian and African bacteria.

In research published in the 8 January, 2016 issue of the Science Magazine, the EURAC authors announced that the Iceman’s stomach has ‘H. pylori’ that is of Indian origin (but now extinct) and not related to the hybrid variety of the modern European “admixture.” This means that Indians as migrants were present in Europe in 3300 BC.

This is the earliest example of a pattern that has been repeated in history many a time. We have Mitanni kings with Sanskrit names who ruled in Syria for centuries in the second millennium BC. The Gundestrup cauldron found in a peat bog in Denmark and estimated to have been made about 2000 years ago has images of Indian deities on it (including, most strikingly, that of a goddess worshiped by two elephants, Gajalakshmi), and thus may have been done by craftsmen of Indian origin, perhaps in Thrace. Trade between India and the West has been traced back to the third millennium BC. Such continuing interaction must have led to diffusion of art and culture.

Now let’s go back to DNA evidence harnessed to reconstruct ancient migrations. An extensive genetic study of today’s Europeans, which was published in June 2015 by the journal Nature, shows that they descend from three groups. First of these are the hunter-gatherers who arrived about 45,000 years ago and then came farmers from the Near East about 8,000 years ago. Finally, nomadic sheepherders from western Russia, called the Yamnaya, arrived about 4,500 years ago. The authors of the study suggest that the Yamnaya language most likely gave rise to many of the languages spoken in Europe today. Apparently, Yamnaya were speakers of a Sanskritic (Indo-European) language, and the wave that came in 8,000 years ago might also have been Indo-European.

The Iceman findings appear to corroborate this study as well as the work of Stephen Oppenheimer, who in his book The Real Eve, synthesized the available genetic evidence together with climatology and archeology with conclusions which have bearing on the debate about the post-migration population of India.

Much of Oppenheimer’s theory is based on mitochondrial DNA, inherited through the mother, and Y chromosomes, inherited by males from the father. According to him, modern man left Africa approximately 90,000 years ago, heading east along the Indian Ocean, and established settlements in India. It was only during a break in glacial activity 50,000 years ago, when deserts turned into grasslands, that people left India and headed northwest into the Russian steppes and on into Eastern Europe, as well as northeast through China and over the now submerged Bering Strait into the Americas.

Oppenheimer makes two major conclusions:

First, that the Europeans’ genetic homeland was originally in South Asia in the Pakistan/Gulf region over 50,000 years ago; and second, that the Europeans’ ancestors followed at least two widely separated routes to arrive, ultimately, in the same cold but rich garden. The earliest of these routes was the Fertile Crescent. The second early route from South Asia to Europe may have been up the Indus into Kashmir and on to Central Asia, where perhaps more than 40,000 years ago hunters first started bringing down game as large as mammoths. (pp. 153-154 of The Real Eve)

Oppenheimer’s ideas also help explain regularities in languages that are spread widely across distant lands with an overlap in India. Thus the Indo-Pacific family covers the languages of the Australian aborigines and the Papuans, the Austro-Asiatic cuts across from India to the Pacific (the Munda in India, the Thai, and the Vietnamese), and the Dravidian has connections with the Altaic (Japanese, Korean, and the Turkic).

The idea that the development of the Indo-European languages took place in India explains how a variety of such languages are to be found in the sub-continent. Both the so-called kentum and satem language subfamilies are represented: Bangani is kentum, it is found in the Himalayan region; and languages such as Sanskrit, Hindi, and Assamese are satem.

References:

i. Taylor, The Gundestrup cauldron. Scientific American, 266: 84-89 (1992)

ii.Oppenheimer, The Real Eve. Basic Books (2003)

iii.Kak, The Wishing Tree. Aditya Prakashan (2015)

iv. Maixner et al., The 5300-year-old Helicobacter pylori genome of the Iceman. Science, 8 Jan 2016: Vol. 351, pp. 162-165 (2016)

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From

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/ancient-icemans-h-pylori-genome-hints-at-ancient-migrations-to-europe/

Iceman’s H. pylori Genome Hints at Ancient Migrations to Europe

Posted by Allison Eck on Thu, 07 Jan 2016

In the long list of genomic “firsts,” scientists have added another today: the oldest known pathogen ever sequenced. And it comes from perhaps the most famous “iceman,” Ötzi, who lived in the Alps of Central Europe more than 5,000 years ago. The secrets lurking in its genome suggest surprisingly recent ancient migrations of people into Europe.

Ötzi was found on September 9, 1991 by German hikers at an altitude of 10,000 feet near the Austrian-Italian border. He had a number of physical ailments: Lyme disease, high levels of arsenic, tooth decay…and yet, what killed Ötzi appeared to be an arrowhead, found in his left shoulder. The weapon must have lacerated a major artery once it entered his body.

A little over five years ago, Albert Zink and his colleagues at the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen (EURAC) decided to look for the presence of pathogens and microorganism in Ötzi’s stomach. They were also searching for a special bacterium called Helicobacter pylori.

Our bodies are host to around 100 trillion bacteria—H. pylori is just one species, but it is present in more than 50% of the world’s population. When it was first discovered, H. pylori was thought to cause cancer and ulcers. However, most people with the bacterium do not experience symptoms or complications, despite its association with gastrointestinal problems. Instead, H. pylori appears to play an important role in the overall gut ecosystem, and the absence of it is linked to several immune and metabolic disorders.

Now, a team of scientists working with Zink and microbiologist Frank Maixner—also from the EURAC—has processed Ötzi’s genomic data to better understand the contents of his microbiome and what it can tell us about our microbial “hitchhikers” through the ages. When the team first placed samples from Ötzi’s stomach under the microscope, they were skeptical as to whether or not they would see any H. pylori strains. But once they extracted the entire DNA of the stomach’s contents, they were able to isolate the H. pylori sequence.

What the team found is that this ancient strain of H. pylori belonged to a now-extinct population of the bacterium that was first found in northern India and other parts of southern Asia. In addition, the scientists found little evidence of the African strain which is present in the modern European “admixture.”

“This puts things into wonderful perspective for us with just one genome,” said study co-author Yoshan Moodley of the University of Venda in South Africa. Since H. pylori has been floating around inside the human microbiome for a long time, it has co-evolved with humans, so genetic analyses of H. pylori strains can reflect the history of human geography as a whole. What this new discovery shows is that relatively recent migrations (after Ötzi’s time) must have occurred for the European strain of H. pylori to become what it is today.

“This genome is very unique and gives us an idea of what we can expect from the emerging field of microbiology in the future,” said Thomas Rattei of the University of Vienna. “It allows us this absolutely unique window into the Copper Age.”

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