Thurso High School S2 History

Otzi the Iceman

Sourcebook

Thurso High School S2 HistorySource 1 – from huffingtonpost.com

In 1991, the mummified body of a 5,000-year-old murder victim was discovered in melting ice high in the Italian Alps. Nicknamed “Otzi“, the man and his possessions were incredibly well preserved. His skin, hair, bones, and organs were preserved in time, allowing archaeological researchers a phenomenal insight into human life in the Copper Age.

The story began on a sunny September day, when two hikers were crossing a mountain pass and saw a brown, leathery shape sticking out from the ice. Examining closely, they found a human body which they thought might be the victim of a past mountaineering accident.

The hikers reported it to Austrian police who attended the following day and quickly realized they were dealing with an ancient archaeological site. A scientific team was assembled and the remains were extracted and taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine.

Source 2 - from the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

Age: Examination of Ötzi’s femur (thigh bone) put his likely age to be around 45. This was a good age considering the short life expectancy 5300 years ago.

Height: The mummy is 1.54 m in length. In life, Ötzi must have been about 1.60 m tall (5ft2) His shoe size would have been today’s equivalent of a 5.5– the average for the population at the time.

Weight: The mummy weighs 13 kg. In life, he would have weighed about 50 kg (just under 8st). Since there is very little fat on the body, he must have cut quite a wiry, sporty figure.

Source 3 - from National Geographic Website

Ötzi's frozen mummy preserves a fine collection of Copper Age tattoos. Numbering 61 in total, they cover

him from head to foot. These weren't produced using a needle, but by making fine cuts in the skin and then rubbing in charcoal. The result was a series of lines and crosses mostly located on parts of the body that are prone to injury or pain, such as the joints and along the back. This has led some researchers to believe that the tattoos marked acupuncture points.

Source 4 – from the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

Thurso High School S2 HistoryPart of Ötzi’s equipment were two pieces of birch polypore (birch fungus), which were threaded onto leather strips. It is assumed that the fungus had therapeutic (healing) purposes, since it was used as a medicine as recently as the 20th century. The fungus is said to have antibiotic qualities and to be able to stop bleeding.

Source 5 – from Hong Kong Institute of Science and Technology

A large amount of Einkorn, a type of wheat was found in Otzi’s stomach. This is in line with the theory that during the Neolithic Era, people lived in villages and survived on farming. The remains of his last meal also contained muscle fibres and small fragments of burnt bones. Researchers think that these muscle fibres most likely belonged to a wild mountain goat known as an ibex. Small traces of pollen were also found in Otzi’s stomach. The pollen showed that Ötzi’s time of death was around pollination season, between March and June. His last journey was made through a forest to his final destination.

Source 6 - from the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

Ötzi’s hide coat reached almost down to his knees, covering his upper body and thighs. The coat was made from light and dark strips of goat and sheep hide stitched together with animal sinews. Ötzi wore the coat with the fur on the outside. Since no recognisable fasteners were found, the coat was probably held closed with a belt. The coat had been in use for a long time, because the inside was very dirty, and some torn seams had been repaired with grass fibres – probably by Ötzi himself.

Source 7 – from author Bill Bryson, ‘At Home’

The boots were the greatest surprise of all. They were made from string netting covered with deer skin and stuffed with grass. The soles were made from bear skin. Intrigued, a shoe expert made an exact replica and tried them on a mountain walk. They were, he reported, ‘more comfortable and capable’ than any modern boots he had ever worn. Their grip on slippery rock was better than modern rubber and they were exceedingly effective against the cold.

Thurso High School S2 HistorySource 8 - from the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

A bearskin cap was uncovered during the archaeologic excavation. Pieces of bearskin had been stitched together to form a circular shape. A chin strap held the cap in place.

Source 9 – from South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

Two birch-bark containers - about 20 cm high – were found near the mummy. They were made from a single piece of bark. The interior of one of the containers was blackened and contained freshly picked maple leaves and charcoal fragments. It is assumed that Ötzi wrapped charcoal embers in the leaves and carried them in the birch-bark container. In this way, the embers could be kept for several hours and fanned into fire in a few seconds. 

Source 10 – from www.mnn.com

Until the discovery of Otzi and his beautifully-preserved copper axe, it was assumed that people in 3500 B.C. had not yet mastered the technology to make such tools. Made from a yew tree and containing a 9.5 centimetre blade of almost pure copper, the axe was likely both a weapon and a tool for felling trees. Making such a tool is not easy and many researchers have suggested that Otzi must have been an important individual to own such a valuable item.

Source 11 – from South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

Copper was the first metal to be used to make weapons and tools. Around 3000 BC, high-ranking men owned a copper axe, which was often buried with them. A copper axe was used not only for woodworking and felling trees

but was also a powerful close-combat weapon. Was Ötzi a tribal leader? It remains a mystery why the attacker didn’t take this valuable copper axe. Would it have exposed him as a murderer?

Source 12 – South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

Ötzi carried a 1.8 m-long bow made from yew. The bow was not finished yet and did not have a string fitted. It’s unclear why Ötzi needed a new bow. Perhaps his old bow broke or was stolen. Experiments with a model of the bow have shown that animals or people can easily be killed from 30 to 50 metres away.

Ötzi carried a quiver made from deer hide for his arrows. The quiver contained 12 arrow shafts and 2 finished arrows.

Ötzi owned a functional dagger. The dagger has a flint blade and an ash wood handle. Ötzi’s dagger is the only fully preserved dagger from the Copper Age.

Source 13 – from National Geographic News, 2002

Thurso High School S2 HistoryIn 1991 hikers who were climbing the mountains that lie between Austria and Italy discovered in melting snow the remains of a man that had been preserved in a glacier for 5,000 years.An examination last year showed that an arrowhead was embedded in the left shoulder—an injury that clearly could not have been self-inflicted. But who did it, and why?

Now, based on new evidence, an archaeologist has proposed that the "Iceman" was killed as a sacrifice to the gods. "I know it's controversial," Johan Reinhard said of his theory, but it's time to re-examine the evidence”.Reinhard, a National Geographic explorer, is an expert on cultures of the Andes, the Himalaya, and other regions and an authority on mummies and ritual sacrifices. Among the many mummies he has discovered is the Inca "Ice Maiden," which was found on the frozen summit in 1995 in Peru and was a victim of sacrifice.

Reinhard said the arrowhead wound, which was overlooked in previous examinations, makes it clear that the Iceman was shot in the back. "It might have been murder," said Reinhard, "or it might have been ritual sacrifice."

The Iceman's remains were found between two of the highest peaks in the Ötztal Alps. "This is the kind of place where people from mountain cultures have traditionally made offerings to their mountain gods," said Reinhard.

"We know that mountain worship was important in prehistoric Europe during the Bronze Age," he explained, "and there is good evidence that it played a role earlier, in the Copper Age," when the Iceman lived.

Because the body was found in a trench, researchers speculated earlier that the man died when he sought refuge from bad weather. Reinhard finds that, as well as other theories about the cause of the Iceman's death, unconvincing. "The trench is not deep and is at a high point of the pass," he pointed out. "It would have been a poor place to sit out a storm."

Reinhard thinks the Iceman may have been buried in the trench by whoever killed him, which would help explain why the body was so well preserved, as it would not have been if exposed to the elements.

Among the questions surrounding the Iceman's death is why a copper axe, with its bindings and handle still intact, was left with the body.

Murderers would likely have taken something so useful with them, said Reinhard. He believes the axe may have been deliberately left with the body during a ritual of sacrifice to serve the victim in the afterlife or as a tribute to the gods.

Thurso High School S2 HistorySource 14 – from the Guardian newspaper, 2002

Scientists have discovered that the world's oldest and best preserved mummy, known as Otzi the Iceman, was engaged in hand-to-hand combat shortly before perishing in the Alps 5,300 years ago.

Two wounds to his right hand and wrist show he was stabbed while trying to defend himself with a dagger against an attacker. The finding boosts theories that Copper Age tribes waged war on mountain peaks, and argues against a recent claim that Otzi may have been a human sacrifice. Instead, he may have been a warrior or the victim of an ambush who fought hard to save his life.

The findings were revealed by the archaeological museum in the northern Italian town of Bolzano, which keeps the mummy in a refrigerated room. "This is very exciting. It tells us that Otzi was involved in a battle, or at least in hand-to-hand combat of some kind," said Dr.Vigl, the main caretaker of the corpse.

A sharp object, possibly a flint-tipped spear or dagger, punctured the base of the Iceman's thumb, shredding skin and muscle right to the bone. A second blow damaged a bone on his wrist. The thumb wound had no scar, meaning it was fresh when the Iceman died.

Forensic scientists and archaeologists have become detectives, coming up with theories about why and how he died. The discovery last year of an arrow blade in his left shoulder showed his death was violent, not the result of drowning, hypothermia, or a fall.

Some researchers speculated that he was a sacrifice to appease the gods or the victim of an accident or a long-range ambush. The injured hand shows instead that Otzi knew he was in danger and had time to defend himself.

One of the German hikers who found Otzi revealed that Otzi's dagger was not beside the corpse, as previously thought, but in his right hand, suggesting the killer was close. That detail prompted the scientist to re-examine the hand, which revealed a 15-millimeter-deep zigzag wound.

It is thought that Otzi bled to death after the arrow shattered the shoulder blade and damaged nerves and blood vessels before lodging near the lung.

Thurso High School S2 HistorySource 15 – from Garry Rodgers, a retired detective and coroner. Written in 2017.

One theory is that Otzi might have been fleeing some danger. This theory strengthened in 2001 when new X-rays identified a small, flint arrowhead in Otzi’s left shoulder which was missed 10 years earlier. In 2005, Otzi was put through a high-resolution scanning machine which focused on the arrow wound. It discovered that the arrow had caused a tear near an artery. Such a serious tear would have caused massive internal bleeding and rapid death — probably within two minutes. The scan showed something else. There was serious bleeding at the base of the brain. He’d suffered a serious head injury right at the time of death. With the cause of death now certain to be from a violent act of murder, the prime question centred on the circumstances of how all this went down.

Researchers felt the answer may lay in the Iceman’s possessions. Among the artefacts found on and around Otzi’s body were a copper axe, a flint dagger, a quiver with twelve blank arrow shafts and two completed arrows with stone heads. There was also winter clothing and supplies to support wilderness survival. This speaks to motive, for if robbery was behind Otzi’s murder, it’s certain that the perpetrator(s) would have made off with these valuables. Glaringly missing was the shaft of the fatal arrow.

Dr. Vigl, a research expert on the Iceman, believes that the assailant tried to pull out the fatal arrow to destroy evidence, only to snap off the arrowhead inside.

Tell-tale markings on the arrows could be used to identify the archer much in the way modern ballistics can link a bullet to a gun. The killer yanked out the arrow to cover his tracks. For similar motives, the attacker did not run off with any precious artefacts that remained at the scene, especially the distinctive copper-bladed axe; the appearance of such a remarkable object in the possession of a villager would automatically implicate its owner of the crime.

I’d have to agree with Dr.Vigl and I’d like to add an observation of my own. In the hundreds and hundreds of dead bodies I’ve examined as a cop and a coroner, I’ve never seen one with its arms outstretched in a position like how Otzi the Iceman was found. This appears unnatural and speaks to me that someone placed the arms in that position after death.

I think it’s safe to speculate on what might have happened and here’s what Otzi’s crime scene evidence suggests to me. The day before Otzi’s death, he was in a fight down at the village on the valley floor where he suffered the cut hand and possibly the broken right ribs. This caused him to pack up and flee, climbing to the pass where he was overcome by his

attacker(s) and shot with the arrow from behind and below. This wound would have put Otzi into shock and he would have quickly collapsed and bled to death. Following his collapse, the murderer(s) went up and caved-in the back of Otzi’s head to finish him off.

I don’t think this happened in the gully. I’ve looked at the scene photos and can’t envision how Otzi could have been shot from below in that tight gully, which is what the forensic evidence clearly shows on the arrowhead’s track through the body — even if Otzi were bending over. No, I suspect Otzi was shot elsewhere, dragged by the arms, dumped in the gully with all his possessions, rolled over to remove the arrow, and then covered with ice and/or snow to hide the crime.