Michael Halfpenny’s interesting picture of fungi, struck a thought with me…
The use of fungi by humans dates back to prehistory. Otzi’ the Iceman, a well preserved mummy of a 5,300 year old Neolithic man found frozen in the Austrian Alps, carried two types of mushrooms that may have been used for medicinal purposes. Otzi’ was found in September 1991 in the Schnalstal Glacier, and is Europe’s oldest natural human mummy. He is displayed with his belongings in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Northern Italy.
