THE ICEMANS FUNGI

Among the numerous items of equipment with the 'Iceman', who died more than 5000 years ago on an alpine glacier, were three fungal objects: two different shaped fruitbody pieces of the polypore Piptoporus betul inus, each mounted separately on a leather thong, and, found in his gi rdle bag, a relatively large quantity of tinder material prepared from the 'true tinder bracket' Fomes fomentarius. A full description of th ese items and a chronological report on their identification is given. The question about the possible use of the fungi is discussed on the basis of a comprehensive collection of ethnomycological and pharmacolo gical literature data.