Ever since the mummified 5300-year-old remains of a late Stone Age man were found near a glacier in the Alps in 1991, scientists have clamored for a chance to study the prehistoric envoy and his effects. The public, meanwhile, has flocked to see the mummy, which the Austrians nicknamed Ötzi, after the Ötztaler Alps.

Chauvinism has helped fuel the boom, as Ötzi, found 93 meters south of the Austrian-Italian border, has been claimed by both countries as one of their own. The Italians, who call him "Similaun Man" after the mountain on which he died, have the body, which has turned into a premier tourist attraction: The South Tyrolean Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano has chalked up 400,000 visitors since its $10 million Ice Man exhibit opened in March 1998. In February, when the exhibit was closed for renovations, the number of visitors plummeted from 800 to 100 a day.

Last month, the Austrians put out a strong bid to capture some of the Ice Man's aura by releasing a feature film, The Ötztal Man and His World, that depicts Ötzi as a mountain man called Akum who lives in a thatched hut and hunts with bow and arrow. "It's not really scientific, but the movie has a nice story," says Klaus Öggl, an archaeobotanist at the University of Innsbruck. The real Ice Man's bow was not even finished, he says, and he was probably more shepherd than hunter.

Meanwhile, Italy's Ice Man enthusiasts are trying to convince the post office to approve a new stamp featuring the man who, they say, judging from the pollen found in his colon, clearly hailed from the Italian side of the Alps.