Red blood cells are pretty useless for forensic/archeology science. There's no nucleus and no mitochondria and therefore no DNA. There may be some hemoglobin left but not very useful.
There is DNA bound to and stablished in the bones and if I remember correctly some DNA extraction and analysis has been done already on this specimen and it matched closely with people still in the region.
Which is interesting. For much of Southern Europe (greece, Italy, Spain) the current inhabitants are not related to the ancient inhabitants. But for isolated areas like the alps and Northern Europe the genetics are similar.
For much of Southern Europe (greece, Italy, Spain) the current inhabitants are not related to the ancient inhabitants. But for isolated areas like the alps and Northern Europe the genetics are similar.
This article is really disappointing : I have to read your comment to know that they can't get any DNA from this find.
The TL;DR would be : we used nano-tech to confirm that there is blood in Otzi mummy and we found evidence that his death had been fast. I'm sure with a bit of thinking they could have made a tweet of this article and be done with it ! (yes I'm being sarcastic about modern journalism here ;-)
There is DNA bound to and stablished in the bones and if I remember correctly some DNA extraction and analysis has been done already on this specimen and it matched closely with people still in the region.
Which is interesting. For much of Southern Europe (greece, Italy, Spain) the current inhabitants are not related to the ancient inhabitants. But for isolated areas like the alps and Northern Europe the genetics are similar.