(July 6, 2017) New discovery from the team of researchers of Archeometallurgy of the University of Padua. From the research published on “Plos One”, it emerges that the origin of the Similaun Man, nicknamed Ötzi, originates from the area of southern Tuscany. Until today it was believed that the production and circulation of copper in the Alpine area in the 4th millennium BC originated only from Central European and Balkan deposits. Thanks to the research team led by Gilberto Artioli of the Department of Geosciences at the University of Padua, the maps of socio-economic exchanges between the eneolithic cultures of central Italy and the north of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines can be extended to the populations that occupy the eastern alpine arch where lived of the man who came from the ice. The copper ax found 25 years ago among the tools of the Similaun Man was an incredible source of information for metallurgy of the Copper Age. The ax, the only copper in the Fourth Millennium that has been fully recovered from organic parts (handle, limbs and pitch), has been analyzed with Carbon 14 allowing its unmistakable dating to 3200 BC. Innovative non-invasive crystallographic analysis performed by the research group of the University of Padua a dozen years ago (Applied Physics A – Gilberto Artioli) allowed to scrutinize the manufacturing technique in detail. The ax was fused into a bivalve mold and despite extensive use in daily activities, it never underwent mechanical hardening to preserve its ductility, except perhaps the edge, which, on the contrary, shows signs of use and Metal recrystallization. (Red)