A 5,200-year-old iceman likely didn't collect many stamps on his prehistoric passport.

The iceman, known as Oetzi, was found frozen in a glacier near the Italian-Austrian border in 1991.

The well-preserved man was probably born in a valley near today's northern Italy, and didn't wander far from home, an international team of researchers says.

Researcher takes sample from"Oetzi" (AP photo)

Wolfgang Mueller of the Australian National University in Canberra and his colleagues from the United States and Switzerland studied varieties of the elements in Oetzi's teeth, bones and intestines.

After comparing different varieties of the elements, called isotopes, to water and soil in the region, the researchers concluded Oetzi wasn't much of a traveller.

The ice man was: 5 feet 2½ inches (159 cm) tall 46 years old arthritic infested with whipworm seriously ill three times near the end of his life involved in copper smelting (arsenic and copper in his hair) clothed in three layers - goat, deerskin and bark fibre had well-made shoes and a bearskin hat lived in a farming community (cereal grains in garments and colon)

Scientists used the ratio of isotopes in body tissue to deduce the source of Oetzi's food and water. He is currently housed at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, about 520 km north of Rome.

They think he spent his life between Bolzano and the Austrian border, about 60 km away.

Isotopes of oxygen vary in Alpine water where Oetzi was found. Rainfall to the north comes from the cool Atlantic, while in the south it comes from the warmer Mediterranean.

Oetzi's tooth enamel suggest he drank southern water as a child. Studying bones provides similar information about adults.

In the iceman's case, bone analysis shows a combination of northern and southern water sources, which suggests he migrated to nearby valleys, the researchers said.

They then turned to analysing isotopes in mica found in Oetzi's intestine. It's thought the iceman ingested the rock by eating stone-ground grain.

• FROM JULY 25, 2001: The iceman may have had an enemy

That enabled the team was able to conclude that Oetzi hadn't lived south of Bolzano.

"Our data indicate that the iceman spent his entire life in the area south of the discovery site," the team wrote in Friday's issue of the journal Science.