In 1991, on the Similawn glacier, tourists discovered the body of a man who lived about 5,300 years ago. The body was so well preserved that at first they thought it was one of our contemporaries. The find was immediately called sensational.
The red arrow (photo below) marks the place where the body frozen in the ice was found. At first, no one could even imagine the importance of the find, so they tried to remove the body using ordinary ice picks and a jackhammer, damaging the mummy’s thigh in the process.
Journalists managed to propose more than 500 names for the discovered mummy. On July 2, 1997, the government adopted the official name - Iceman. The find was made near the Ötztal valley, hence another nickname for the “Ice Man” - Ötzi. This name was coined by Viennese reporter Karl Wendl.
Research has shown that Ötzi's age at the time of his death was about 50 years old. Considering the fact that he lived during , this is a very respectable age. Artists Adris and Alfons Kennis, using computer technology, attempted to recreate Ötzi’s appearance. Special studies of his DNA even managed to determine the color of his eyes - they were brown. DNA analysis also helped determine the hair color; it was wavy and dark. He had excellent teeth without the slightest trace of caries, which he actively used not only for chewing food, but also for processing wood, leather and tendons.
There were 57 tattoos on the Iceman’s body, consisting of crosses, lines and dots. Ötzi's tattoos were made by rubbing coal dust into cuts on the skin. The tattoos coincide quite accurately with acupuncture points, so it has been suggested that in fact Ötzi's tattoos are not decoration, but traces of treatment.
During the process of defrosting the mummy, its temperature was gradually raised to room temperature. All the melt water was collected and sent for bacteriological analysis.
The autopsy of Ötzi's body lasted almost 9 hours, then the mummy was frozen again, lowering the temperature to the original (-6.1 C). The study was carried out at the Museum of Archeology of South Tyrol in Bolzano, Italy.
Among the equipment, Ötzi had a copper ax with him (the presence of a similar ax with a yew handle indicates that Ötzi had a high social status), a stone knife with a wooden handle, a quiver with arrows, a large two-meter bow and two baskets. He also had two types of tinder fungi with him:
- one was used to make fire,
- and the other as a medicine.
Ötzi's shoes were specially adapted for walking in the snow. The soles were made from bear skin, and the upper part of the shoes was made from deerskin. And instead of socks, Ötzi used soft grass.
Ötzi's mummy, on display at the South Tyrolean Museum of Archeology in Bolzano, Italy. Inside the sarcophagus, the conditions of the glacier that preserved the mummy for more than five thousand years were recreated.
"Ice man" on the operating table.
Remains of shoes worn by Ötzi.
Right: Photo showing where the stele was penetrated.
Legs of the Iceman
Chance find
Thanks to the cold, his body was perfectly preserved. Based on the name of the local town, the deceased was dubbed “otzi,” or “ice man.”
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When "otzi" was removed from the glacier, his body was slightly damaged. One of the forensic experts even tried to get the “otzi” with a ski pole. Rescuers then broke his left arm while transporting him to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Innsbruck. Since then, the “otzi” has been treated more carefully. He is now at the Institute of Anatomy in Innsbruck. The storage temperature is the same as inside the glacier - minus six degrees. "Otzi" lies wrapped in plastic-coated cloth under several layers of crushed ice. Once every two to three weeks, a special procedure is performed that does not allow the ice to melt. During this time, researchers transfer the mummy to a laboratory equipped with special equipment to take x-rays or take the smallest particles of the body for analysis. |
In the Ötzgalli Alps, where today lies the border between Italy and Austria, a traveler was moving at a brisk pace. He was not attracted by the beauty of the surrounding glaciers. He was in a hurry. Some emergency circumstances - a quarrel or a sudden attack - forced him to leave his village on this autumn day.
The man walked with all his might: he was wounded. Broken ribs caused unbearable pain. He was angry with himself for losing his bow. Down in the valley, overcoming acute pain, he was able to cut down a small yew tree, split its trunk and carve a springy arch for a bow. He made arrows from the branches of young viburnum, but did not have time to finish his work - his arrows were left without feathers and without tips.
Finally, completely exhausted, he put his ax, an unfinished bow, a shoulder basket, and a vessel made of birch bark on the ground and sat down to refresh himself with a piece of dried goat meat. The weather began to worsen. The man remembered the shelter in the rock, which he had noticed even when he was walking through this pass with his herd. He decided that he could wait out the approaching snowstorm there. With the last of his strength he rose to his feet, but after taking a few steps, he dropped the quiver and staggered. Having reached the shelter, he lay down on his side to alleviate the pain at least a little. This cleft in the rock became his grave. The tragedy occurred about five thousand years ago... Anthropologists reconstructed approximately this picture based on all the data obtained. As a result, the “ice man” turned into a world celebrity.
The last refuge of the "Ice Man". After a grueling journey through the pass, the wounded and exhausted “otzi” hid in a shelter in the rock.
We managed to learn quite a lot about our distant European ancestor. His age was determined - about thirty years, height - 1 meter 58 centimeters, weight - no less than 50 kilograms. The entire body of the "father" was decorated with tattoos. The Tyrolean's health was deplorable: rotten teeth, damaged spine and joints, a broken nose, frostbitten little toe, broken ribs.
The remains of the “father” were studied by a whole army of specialists. Using radiography, tomography and endoscopy, they were able to examine their patient from the stomach to the very tips of the nails.
1. Based on the image of the skull entered into the computer, scientists recreate the virtual appearance of the “father”.
2. Elizabeth Dynes, a plastic reconstruction specialist, restores the face of “Father.”
3. The first model is used to make the mold. A whole series of heads are produced on its basis.
4. Using silicone, the texture of the skin is imitated. Now all that remains is to implant the hair.
By the time the “Ice Man” died, the urban civilizations of Mesopotamia were already engaged in intensive agriculture, trade, and mastered writing. Egypt was a powerful empire. Lagging behind by several centuries, Europeans were just moving from fruit gathering and hunting to agriculture and cattle breeding, as well as to a sedentary lifestyle. The first attempts were made to sculpt pottery. During the Otzi era, Eastern Europeans knew how to breed goats, sheep, cattle, and pigs. They plowed their fields with a wooden plow and grew wheat, barley, flax, peas and lentils. Wheat grains were found in the Otzi's clothing and in one of the vessels.
Thanks to "otzi" it was possible to fill many gaps in our knowledge about the life and clothing of ancient man. It turned out that people of this distant era already knew how to make shoes from leather, and they used dry grass as insulation.
The primitive Tyrolean wore a wide loincloth supported by a belt. The upper part of the body was covered with a shirt made from thin multi-colored strips of leather. To protect himself from the cold, he wore a fur hat and sleeveless cape made of woven straw, similar to those worn by all European and Asian shepherds from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the 19th century. In addition, the “otzi” had two more wicker items: a sheath for a dagger and a net. Previously, scientists believed that in the late Neolithic era people already mastered weaving techniques, but it turned out that the “otzi” skill was limited to simple weaving of strips.
The Iceman was perfectly equipped to survive in the harsh climate. He wore a belt with a pocket made of calfskin, which contained a bone awl, a flint consisting of tinder and a piece of sulfur pyrite, as well as three tools made of flint - a scraper, an awl and a sharp blade similar to a razor. In addition to the dagger, a tool intended for minor repairs was found on the belt: a plate of very hard deer antler, inserted into a handle and shaped like a modern technical diamond for cutting glass. Two mushrooms with the properties of modern antibiotics were found in a travel first aid kit. And in one of the two vessels “otzi” stored coals covered with fresh maple leaves.
The quiver and arrows caused complete delight among archaeological researchers. The notches of the arrows gradually shortened. Clutching the string of his bow in them, the “otzi” was constantly ready to shoot. The blade of the Iceman's ax was made of copper. This fact has caused a lot of speculation. According to recent archaeological data, this metal was first smelted in Anatolia between the 7th and 6th millennia BC, and its production contributed to the development of the Sumerian city-states in the 4th millennium BC. In Western Europe, copper appeared only in the 3rd millennium. Blades of similar daggers were discovered in Italy, the south of France and Spain at the sites of settlements that existed two and a half thousand years before the birth of Christ.
Items found at the site of his father's death
Bear skin hat.
"Otzi" made his headdress from the skin of an animal he killed. 
Neolithic weapons.
“Otzi” used a similar tool to sharpen his arrows and butcher killed animals. 
Iceman shoes.
The soles are made of bearskin, the upper is made of deerskin, insulated with dry grass.
The presence of weapons among the “Otzi” proves that copper was known in the Alpine mountains several centuries earlier. It is likely that this metal spread not only in Mediterranean countries, but also penetrated deeper into the continent. Copper processing first developed in Serbia, then in Hungary and the Lower Alps, and even later in southern Germany and eastern Switzerland.
For some time, heavy and massive metal tools were produced in southeastern Europe, which suddenly disappeared during the Otzi era - only an ax blade was found in his possession. Scientists believe that by this time the easily accessible ore veins were depleted.
But even if archaeologists could determine the place of origin of the metal, they are unlikely to say with great accuracy where the fugitive was from. The death of the “otzi” at this pass only confirms that people living on both sides of the Alpine Mountains communicated with each other. From the pieces of moss found in his clothes, it can be assumed that the “ice man” came from somewhere in the south. Apparently, he was from the Italian part of Tyrol.
During the Otzi era, the mountain slopes were covered with dense forests. The primitive Tyroleans could not cut down these trees. Therefore, in the summer they drove their herds high into the mountains, where there were almost no trees. By studying pollen, botanists from Innsbruck proved that Alpine meadows were already used as pastures seven thousand years ago. But in order to ascend to the pastures of the Ötztal Alps, it was necessary to go through the Hauslab mountain pass, located one day's walk from the supposed home village of the "otzi".
The most fantastic assumptions were made about the occupation of the “father”. He could have been a merchant, a miner, or even a shaman. But scientists have not found any definite evidence of this. Apparently, "otzi" was a shepherd. If he had a weapon, it was only to diversify his menu or protect his livestock from attacks by predators. In the coming years, researchers plan to analyze the structure of Otzi's bones, examine his hair and even the dirt under his nails under an electron microscope, and determine the type of wood from which the tools found on him were made.
Unfortunately, the natural Otzi mummy is so far the only find of its kind, and archaeologists always like to compare their discoveries. In any case, the Alpine "ice man" remains one of the archaeological sensations of our century.
The study of "otzi" continues
Otzi's remains are being examined in Austria, Germany, France and the United States. X-rays, as well as endoscopic tests, showed that his stomach was empty, and only the remains of plant fibers were found in the colon. This indicates the meagerness of his last meal. A comparison of his skull with other skulls from the prehistoric era confirms that "Otzi" belonged to the peoples of northern Italy. Genetic analysis shows that we are talking about a typical European who inhabited the northern and central part of Europe. A careful examination of the nails with a magnifying glass gives reason to believe that this man found himself in critical situations three times in the last five months of his life. Analysis of trace elements in the hair showed high levels of arsenic, copper, nickel and manganese, suggesting that the Iceman's occupation may have been related to metal processing.
On September 19, 1991, in the Ötztal Alps at an altitude of 3200 meters, a German couple discovered a corpse... At first, the find was mistaken for a tourist who had disappeared and froze in the ice. They almost guessed, this tourist was killed 5300 years ago, and he killed four people in front of him. Try to believe it!
Iceman Ötzi, a mummy frozen in ice. The find was discovered by chance, in a melted glacier in the Ötztal Alps (Tyrol), at an altitude of 3200 meters in the Hauslabjoch saddle near Mount Similaun. Using carbon dating, scientists determined the age of the find to be 5,300 years old. The name of the mummy was given according to the place where it was found. Other names: Ötzi, Otzi, Similaun Man, Tyrolean Ice Man, and simply Ice Man. These are the most famous; journalists have come up with more than 500 names for this find.
How did you find it?
Ötzi was mined without archaeological supervision, by ordinary enthusiasts and tourists. The work was carried out using a jackhammer and ice axes. And the perfectly preserved mummy (let me remind you, had lain safely for more than 5,000 years) suffered its first loss - it damaged its hip. With the ice freed, the mummy's clothes began to be taken away as souvenirs. Well, at least there were only clothes, nearby there was a copper ax, a flint knife, the remains of a duffel bag, and more...
What to do with a mummy that is 5300 years old? Send the corpse to the morgue. The found body was transferred to the morgue of the city of Innsbruck (Austria), where the estimated, and later confirmed, age of the find was established.
With the advent of information about 5300 years, Italy instantly claimed the mummy. The find was indeed located in an area where it is difficult to trace the border line. But the Italians were able to prove that the mummy lay 92 meters 56 centimeters from the border with Austria. In the future, a 4-meter pyramid monument was installed on this site.
When Ötzi was found, no one identified who he was. The German tourists who found the mummy decided that it was an unfortunate traveler. The first researchers of the body said it was a priest. As the research progressed, completely different versions emerged. Ötzi was more like a modern soldier than a cattle breeder or farmer. The man was armed with a flint dagger, a yew bow, arrows, and a copper axe. And most importantly, traces of blood were found on the weapon. Before his death, Ötzi killed 4 people...
Death of a Warrior
At the time of death, Ötzi was approximately 165 cm tall, weighed 50 kg, and was 45-46 years old. The corpse found actually weighed 38 kg; the ice that covered the body immediately after death stopped the decomposition process.
In the last days of his life, Ötzi traveled a long way through difficult terrain. Despite his physical ailments, he was a resilient man. Researchers tracked his path thanks to... moss. Two types of moss that grow in damp places were found in his stomach (probably from water), and another type of moss was wrapped in goat meat that was in his backpack. Ötzi descended from the mountains into the alpine lowlands, collected peat moss, and then went back to the mountains. In 2 days he walked almost 60 kilometers. The rectum contained remains of bran, roots, fruits and two types of muscle tissue corresponding to chamois and deer meat. The last time Ötzi ate food was about 8 hours before his death.
Almost every expert who participated in Ötzi's research argues that the story of his murder will never be fully known. However, there is enough evidence to suggest that Ötzi was killed while he was resting and feeling safe. They shot him with a bow and then finished him off. Death probably occurred after being hit in the shoulder with a spear. But before that, Otzi killed himself.
Traces of blood that were found on the mummy's weapons, tools and clothing were tested for DNA in 2003. It turned out that this was human blood belonging to four people besides Ötzi. The blood of two people was found on the arrow, i.e. Ötzi shot one, removed the arrow from his body and killed the other with it. The blood of a third man was found on Ötzi's knife, and traces of a fourth man's blood were found on his jacket.
Clothing and weapons
The yew bow found on the mummy was a high-tech weapon for its time, and only appeared en masse among the English army thousands of years later. Also, Ötzi had a backpack with tools for making fire, canned food, and a first aid kit with a lot of different herbs. The well-armed man was also well dressed: a jacket and trousers made of three layers of leather, lined with felt, a bearskin hat, a grass cloak, and insulated leather shoes.
A bearskin hat with a leather strap across the chin. The wide, waterproof boots were apparently designed for walking in the snow. They used bearskin for the soles, deerskin for the uppers, and bast for lacing. Soft grass was tied around the leg and used as warm socks. The coat, belt, trousers and loincloth were made from strips of leather sewn together with sinew. A bag with useful things was sewn to the belt: a scraper, a drill, flint, a bone awl and a dry mushroom used as tinder.
An analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of Ötzi's clothing showed that the skin of a goat, cow, or sheep was used, the fur hat was made from the skin of a brown bear, and the quiver was made from the skin of a roe deer.
In addition, among Ötzi's belongings, bundles of two types of tinder fungi were found. One of them, birch polypore, has antibacterial properties and was probably used for medicinal purposes. Another species, the true tinder fungus, was part of the flint.
Ötzi's copper ax
When a valuable copper ax was found among Ötzi’s belongings, it threw up many mysteries for scientists. It was previously assumed that the metal for it was mined in the Alpine region. But an examination in 2016 showed that the ax ore originates from Southern Tuscany, Italy. The results for scientists were surprising and unexpected. Where did Ötzi get this ax?
Elevated levels of arsenic and copper in Ötzi's hair have led to speculation that he may have forged the weapons himself, inhaling the chemicals during the manufacturing process. However, no contamination with these substances was found in other areas of the body, meaning he was neither a blacksmith nor a coppersmith.
This copper ax is the only perfectly preserved copper ax from the prehistoric period. The trapezoid-shaped ax blade, 9.5 cm long, consists of 99.7% copper. The carefully polished handle, 60 cm long, is made of yew, and was wrapped with narrow strips of leather to secure the blade to it. There are also traces of sharpening on the ax blade. According to Dr. Gilberto Artioli from the University of Milan, a working group from the Universities of Milan and Triente examined the copper Iceman ax and several other axes from the same period. Using fast neutrons and high-energy X-rays, it is possible to study the structure of copper crystals inside an ax without damaging the object itself. Differences in the copper crystal structure suggest that the thickness of the ax blade changed during the sharpening process. It can be assumed that axes made of copper in 5000 BC. e. could belong to people from the upper strata of society, and they also served as weapons. This gives reason to think that the “ice man” was either the leader of the group or a warrior.
About health problems 5300 years ago
The exact age at which an adult died is difficult to determine, since all the processes of maturation and growth have already been completed. To determine the age of the Ice Man, the structure of his bones was studied, which showed that Ötzi was about 45 years old at the time of death (with a maximum deviation of plus or minus 5 years). Consequently, the “ice man” reached a rather advanced age for a Neolithic man.
Having reached the age of about 45, Ötzi was considered one of the oldest in his society. His body showed clear signs of aging: joints were worn out, blood vessels in the process of calcification. In addition, the 12th pair of ribs was not found, which is a rare anomaly in our time.
Also on the body there are traces of injuries that Ötzi received during his life: a well-healed fracture of the ribs on the left side of the chest and a broken nose were established. The big toe was also damaged on the left foot. The body is covered with tattoos.
Over the course of 20 years, various researchers have compiled a whole list of diseases that ancient man suffered from during his lifetime. For example, Lyme disease (tick-borne borreliosis), gallstones, gum disease, atherosclerosis, trichocephalosis. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, also found that Ötzi suffered from hypolactasia (lactose intolerance) and was predisposed to cardiovascular disease.
Researchers had previously theorized a link between these diseases and the tattoos, clustered in 19 locations throughout the body. More specifically, they wondered whether this was a prehistoric form of acupuncture. The tattoos were not images of anything, but looked like crosses and lines made by rubbing charcoal into incisions in the skin. Interestingly, about 80 percent of tattoos are located along acupuncture lines that are known to modern specialists. If acupuncture was practiced during Ötzi's lifetime, it predates the earliest records of this type of treatment in China by 2,000 years.
The genes of the Copper Age man clarified many things for scientists, but perhaps the most interesting was that Ötzi was likely sterile. Today no one will know whether he had a family, but researchers discovered indicators of infertility in his genes in the mid-2000s.
It is also noteworthy that Ötzi was the first person ever discovered to belong to a previously unknown subcategory of haplogroup K. This means that Ötzi's mother's family most likely came from the south of the Alps or the Ötztal valley in Tyrol.
Scientists conducted two types of genetic analysis on Ötzi. In 2008, they completed a full analysis of the mummy's mitochondrial DNA, and now, almost four years later, they have published the results of an analysis of nuclear DNA, a rarer and more difficult to access part of the human genome.
Genetics have found that Ötzi was closer in kinship to modern inhabitants of southern Europe living on the islands of Sardinia and Corsica in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and not to the inhabitants of the Alpine regions (where the find was made).
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On September 19, 1991, on the border of Italy and Austria, in the Tyrolean Alps, after an extreme melting of ice on the Similawn glacier at an altitude of 10,500 feet, a group of climbers found the body of an ancient man who lived about 5,300 years ago. This is the oldest mummy found in Europe. Thanks to the ice, the body, clothes and his belongings were perfectly preserved.
The mummy is now on display in the South Tyrol Museum in Italy. True, when extracting the “ice man” from the ice, his hip was injured, and the tourists who found him stole pieces of clothing for souvenirs. At first, everyone was allowed to take pictures with Otzi and even touch him. It ended with a fungus appearing on the mummy’s body.
The amazingly preserved mummy still holds many mysteries, although quite a lot of time has passed since its discovery. Dozens of scientists have studied the remains, but prehistoric man continues to hide secrets from modern researchers.
These are the oddities and mysteries...
In honor of the village of Otztal, in the vicinity of which the climbers found the mummy, the deceased wanderer was lovingly christened Otzi. Nowadays he is also known as Erzi, the Similaun Man and the Tyrolean Ice Man.
Scientists were very interested in Otzi: he was extremely well preserved thanks to his ice grave - Egyptian mummies, whose age is much younger, look much worse. It’s no wonder that Italy and Austria began to fight fiercely for the right to possess a unique archaeological find. As a result, the mummy was transferred to... Germany, where its detailed study was carried out for the first time.
Anthropologists heated the body to a temperature of 2 degrees Celsius and took tissue samples for further research without damaging the structure and condition of the mummy. Swiss scientists managed to analyze the dental tissue of an unusual “patient”, thanks to which the whole world learned what kind of diet our ancestors had in those days. Using the latest developments in biology, you can find out from dental tissue what a person ate in childhood, since it is at this stage that enamel is formed. Remnants of bran and muscle tissue were extracted from the rectum, which indicate that ancient man ate goat meat. The high copper and lead contents hint that he was involved in copper production. According to researchers, the Similaun man could well have belonged to a small tribe, one of whose main occupations was agriculture.
Otzi's height is 159 cm, estimated age is 46 years. Strange tattoos were found on the mummy's back and body. Studying them, some scientists agreed that Otzi could well have been a priest or sorcerer. This version is supported by an amulet found on a deceased person, as well as the discovery of a prehistoric sanctuary in the area by the Austrian ethnographer Hans Heid.
Residues of food were found in the intestines! It has been proven that approximately 8 hours before his death, Otzi ate meat, fruit and bran bread. Having studied the proportions of his body, the researchers came to the conclusion that the “ice man” walked a lot in mountainous terrain. Maybe he was a shepherd?
For example, his entire body was painted with patterns of dots, lines and crosses (57 tattoos in total). Why were they applied to the body? Some scientists believe that the patterns indicate that Otzi was a priest. Others believe that only adult men had tattoos. It was applied to the body of young men, which symbolized their transition to adulthood.
The main problem that archaeologists encountered when studying Otzi was the presence of objects on him that should not have been together, because they belonged to different eras. It would seem that everything is normal at first glance: leather shoes with grass for insulation; loincloth made of chamois, mountain goat and deer skins; leather shirt, belt, fur hat, gaiters, straw cape, grass net. With clothes, everything seems to be logical and correct, but with the combination of weapons...
For example, a scraper, arrowheads, a flint knife with a wooden handle belong to three Paleolithic periods (ancient Paleolithic (200 million years ago), Middle Acheulian (200 thousand years ago), Upper Paleolithic (~12 thousand years ago)). In addition, Otzi had an ax and a yew bow! The ax is very reminiscent of items dating back to 4500-5000 years ago, and the bow looks like it was taken from the Middle Ages!
As already mentioned, Otzi himself was “estimated” at 5300 years old. Probably, this assessment would have been completely different if this marvelous set of artifacts had not appeared before scientists. If one thing had been found, then, most likely, the age of the Similaun man would have been equal to the age of the tool found near him.
And so we can only guess, turning over in our heads fantastic versions about aliens or a time machine. However, why not? What if Otzi is a man from the future who decided to take a trip back in time as a tourist, collecting a collection of exhibits from different eras? Still, it’s unlikely, although science fiction writers would willingly support such a version.
And while science fiction writers are thinking, Tyrolean Man has put modern geochronology in a dead end, from which it cannot yet get out.
Initially, scientists believed that Otzi simply froze to death in the mountains, but now the official verdict sounds different. The first to challenge the traditional version of death from cold were the curator of the Bolzano Archaeological Museum Eduard Wigl and the mountaineer Alois Pierpamer, who found the mummy in the mountains. As it turned out, Pirpamer found a knife in the clenched hand of the Tyrolean mummy, which fell out when the body was removed from the ice and transported. Having examined the palm of the ancient man's right hand, Wigle confirmed the climber's words, and also discovered a deep wound that could have been received in hand-to-hand combat and may have caused death
Forensic scientists led by Peter Venezis took up the case. As a result, it was found that Otzi received multiple injuries: his spine was damaged, his ribs and nose were broken, his toe was frostbitten, his right arm was crippled, there were wounds and bruises all over his body.
As scientists now say, Otzi is the victim of an ancient crime. Surprisingly, the mystery of his death can be considered almost solved! Experts believe that the Tyrolean man died as a result of the battle, which lasted two days. Traces of blood from four people were found on Otzi’s body and objects found nearby. The blood of two people was found on a quiver of arrows, another blood was the blood of Otzi himself, and the blood of a fourth person was soaked in a cape found near the body. Forensic experts agreed that Otzi was saving a wounded comrade and carrying him on his shoulder.
In 2001, an Italian researcher determined that Otzi had an arrowhead lodged in his shoulder. Apparently, the shot was fired from behind, and the tip went in so deeply that Otzi did not have enough skill and strength to pull it out. To understand the details of the small battle, scientists are exploring the place where the body of the Similaun Man was discovered: they are looking for traces of a struggle, new evidence, including the body of a comrade.
Perhaps 5,300 years ago, a minor skirmish between two warring communities took place in that place, and Otzi’s body was lost in the mountains, undetected by the surviving tribesmen.
But the most important mystery lay in the circumstances of Otzi's death.
Moreover, immediately before his death, he did not expect an attack. An analysis of the stomach contents showed that Otzi ate goat meat no later than 30 minutes before his death. He did not run away from anyone, but allowed himself to take a break, cooked food, had lunch and was killed from behind. Moreover, he was most likely hit twice. Analysis of a fragment of Otzi's brain showed that he suffered a severe blow to the head - most likely from a stone thrown from a sling. This one blow was enough to kill him, but death was brought to him by an arrow in the back. It was stuck so deep that Otzi, even if he tried, could not pull it out.
Research (or investigation?) continues, and we can expect that new details about this ancient incident will soon become known. But, unfortunately, the answer to the main question for all detectives is “who killed?” - we can't wait.