Subject Directory > Research > Mummies > Ice Man
Ötzi the Iceman - Wikipedia® [ New Window ]
"Ötzi the Iceman , and Similaun Man are modern names of a well-preserved natural mummy of a man from about 3300 BC (53 centuries ago). The mummy was found in 1991 in the Schnalstal glacier in the Ötztal Alps, near Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy..."
Items found with the Iceman were a copper axe with a yew handle, a flint knife with an ash handle, a quiver of 14 arrows with viburnum and dogwood shafts. Two of the arrows, which were broken, were tipped with flint and had fletching (stabilizing vents), while the other 12 were unfinished and untipped. The arrows were found in a quiver with what is presumed to be a bow string, a tool of some sort, and some antler which might have been used for making arrow points
Otzi Oetzi at the Mummy Tombs: The Iceman of the Alps [ New Window ]
Mummy Toumbs, is a web site by James M. Deem, a retired college professor (with a Ph.D. in education) who
researches and writes books for children.The mummies real name, will always remain a mystery, but the scientific have named him Ötzi after the Ötzal Alps, the region in which his body was discovered. He is also known as the Similaun Man, the Man from Hauslabjoch, and even Frozen Fritz.
"From the time of his discovery in 1991, scientists and others have speculated that the Iceman was a hunter. But a recent study published in the Journal of Human Evolution ("Body size, body proportions, and mobility in the Tyrolean ' Iceman,' " volume 51, issue 1, July 2006) suggests that he may have been a shepherd instead."
NOVA Online | Ice Mummies | The Iceman's Last Meal [ New Window ]
The Iceman's Last Meal
by Brenda Fowler
The Iceman did not die on a full stomach. Eight hours before his death on a barren Alpine pass, he was in the valley to the south, in what is today Italy's Schnals Valley. There, according to Dr. Klaus Oeggl, a botanist from the University of Innsbruck who recently examined his gut contents, the man took his last meal, not long before setting out on a hike from which he was never to return.
BBC > Science & Nature > TV & Radio Follow-up > Horizon [ New Window ]
Aired by BBC as "Death of the Iceman"
"...Now scientists can tell a new story of the Iceman's death. Ötzi was attacked and managed to flee. As he ran he was shot in the back with an arrow. He pulled out the arrow shaft but the head remained stuck in his shoulder. He reached the top of the mountains but was now exhausted and weakened from bleeding. He could go no further, lay down and died..."
"Although this story fits the latest results, there are still many unanswered questions. Scientists hope soon to conduct an autopsy to remove the arrowhead and only then will we be able to say for certain what killed Ötzi. The Iceman may still be hiding more secrets."
From Fox News;
Scientists: Alpine 'Ice Man' Was Killed by Head Trauma, Not Arrow [ New Window ]
ROME, Italy — Researchers studying Iceman, the 5,000-year-old mummy found frozen in the Italian Alps, now believe he died of head trauma, not the wound of an arrow.
"But radiologists, pathologists and other researchers, using new forensic information and CAT scans, now say they believe blood loss from the arrow wound only made Oetzi lose consciousness. They now say he died either from hitting his head on a rock when he passed out or because his attacker hit him in the head."
What He May Have Looked Like
Ötzi the Iceman (Frozen Fritz, Similaun Man): as exhibited in Museum Bélesta (Aričge), France; reconstruction of his equipement. Photo from the Wikimedia Commons.
