On a spring afternoon 5,300 years ago, give or take, a shortish man in his mid-40s with brown hair and eyes limping on his left foot, paused in his ascent of the east ridge of what would come to be known as the Fineilspitze in the Ötztal Alps.

 Despite being unwell and suffering from stomach problems, he ate an exceptionally satisfying meal. The meal consisted mainly of Ibex—a kind of goat—some fungus and plant material, unleavened bread, and a little fatty bacon, while he rested his aching joints.

Roughly two hours later, he was dead, shot in the back by a stone arrow that severed his subclavian artery on his left-hand side. He fell first to his knees and then flat on his face. The last thing he did was try to pull out the arrow that had shattered his scapula and had finally come to rest in his lung. He would have lost consciousness within a few minutes; it’s possible that the mortal blow came as he lay defenceless.

 He would remain frozen in this position, arm stretched out under him, until he was discovered – aeons later – on September 19^th, 1991, by a pair of German hikers, Helmut and Erika Simon. It was a chance encounter; they hurriedly left the marked trail to take a shortcut.

The pair first assumed that the deep brown lump protruding from the ice was rubbish. When they took a closer look and realised that it was human remains, they took the body to be that of an unfortunate hiker, there for a few years at most.

Prehistoric bling

Over the next few years, the mysterious man who would become affectionately known as Ötzi (named for the Ötztal Alps where he was discovered) would divulge secrets about his life and his death, that would shed new light on the Chalcolithic period – the copper age. We assume that Ötzi was quite important, based on a very impressive piece of prehistoric bling he had, the copper axe he was carrying at the time of his demise. Such a tool would have been quite a status symbol, and, given that he was shot in the back, it’s rather a valuable thing to just leave for the snow, something like a murder victim today being left with a ten-thousand-pound Rolex watch.

It wasn’t just a symbolic item either; judging by forensic analysis of how the blade was deformed, it was used as a tool for cutting wood, rather than a weapon.  The axe has a handle made of yew and is approximately 60 cm long, worked at a right angle. the head is 99.7% pure copper and is 9.5 cm long. Judging by the forensic composition of the metal used in the blade, the copper in the axe head is most likely from a source in southern Tuscany, around 420 kilometres from where he was found. The axe head was attached to the shaft with birch tar and leather lashing and was ideal for felling trees. 

Modern facsimiles have proven to be able to fell a sizable yew tree in around 35 minutes without needing to be sharpened.  The axe is the only part of Ötzi’s equipment that was kept in good condition, he also had a stone knife with an ash handle, that was close to the end of its useful lifespan, and he was in the process of making new arrows, out of a quiver of 14 arrows, only two were tipped. They had fletching (stabilising fins) ready to fire. His bow, a 1.82-meter-long longbow made of yew, was also unfinished. He also had an antler tool that may have been a retoucher, which was used to sharpen Chert tools.  Chert is a type of sedimentary rock, rich in microcrystalline quartz. It was used extensively for tools and weapons due to its ability to maintain a razor-sharp edge. Still, it is very brittle, so tools made of chert needed periodic retouching.

In his personal effects, some fungus could have been used to treat parasitic worms he suffered from. There was also a fire-starting kit comprising various types of tinder, flint, and pyrite—also known as fool’s gold—which would have been ideal for creating sparks.

Neolithic Fashion Week

Ötzi’s clothes are also quite remarkable, at the time of his death he would have been wearing a kind of cloak made from woven grass, this could have been for extra protection from the elements or as a early attempt at camouflage, and a thick coat for warmth and a loincloth with a pair of leggings held up with a belt, he also had a very fetching bearskin cap held on with a leather chin strap, all very intricately made. 

Of particular interest were his shoes, which are very complex and indeed have caused academics to reconsider the structure of Chalcolithic man, as the shoes alone are so complex in their construction, there was very likely something like a cobbler making the shoes for Ötzi and his peers.  It was important in particular for Ötzi to have comfortable feet, as he was healing from frostbite in his left foot and walking would have been painful, the shoes are particularly wide, this could be to allow room around his injured toes. Still, it is more likely that they were designed like this for walking on snow, Ötzi would have stuffed the shoes with plant material that would act like socks to prevent the shoes from rubbing and to keep his feet nice and warm.

CSI 5000BC

We know that he was in a fight a couple of days before his death; he had a nasty cut on his hand, all the way down to the bone, extending from the palm to the back of the hand between the thumb and index finger. It’s improbable that such an injury (typically a defensive wound) would have been sustained by accident. Biologist, Tom Loy, has theorised that Ötzi was in a skirmish with at least two other people before he died, going on blood found on his weapons and clothes, it’s possible that Ötzi was on the run, having had a violent run in with a group who then followed him into the alps to finish the job. Ötzi also had several broken ribs that had healed over time.  One theory is that Ötzi and a companion got into a fight, the companion was wounded, Ötzi carried him over his shoulder, hence the blood stains found on his coat.

Ötzi’s body Art

Ötzi’s body is adorned with 61 tattoos, grouped in 19 sets of thin lines, varying in length between 7 and 40 millimetres. It’s unlikely that Ötzi’s ink had any religious or tribal connotations as these markings are all over areas that, we can tell by his skeleton, would have caused him pain. Current thinking is that the tattoos served a therapeutic purpose; the groupings are around clusters in places like his lower back and joints in his legs, where he would have been suffering from joint pain, due to osteoarthritis. This is extremely exciting because the points where the tattoos are corresponded uncannily well to acupuncture points, known in Chinese medicine.  The first recorded description of these points dates back only around 2,200 years, meaning that Ötzi’s therapeutic ink predates it by thousands of years. Ötzi’s tattoos would have been made by making small incisions, possibly with a bone ‘needle’ and rubbing charcoal into the wound. Ötzi suffered from several medical problems, from tooth decay – possibly from his grain-intensive diet, which would also be very high in carbohydrates- to Trichuris trichiura (a parasitic gut worm).

According to bone samples, Ötzi is also the first known human being to have suffered from Lyme disease.  Analysis of his fingernails has shown three Beaus’ lines (indentations that run across the nails), indicating that he was unwell three times in the six months before he died. One bout of illness, about two months before his death, lasted for two weeks. We also know, from DNA analysis, that he was lactose intolerant, which helps to prove the theory that lactose intolerance was common at this point because human beings were still adjusting to animal milk.  We also know now that, had he not met a violent end, Ötzi would likely have died of a heart attack very shortly, due to his diet of rich red meat, and his heart showed significant plaque build-up.

Ötzi’s Final Journey   

            A study in the journal Science has found that Ötzi has at least 19 living relatives in Austria. Ötzi had a rare genetic mutation on his Y-chromosome known as G-L91, which is passed down the male line.  Scientists have used this mutation to track population migration between the Italian and Austrian Alps over multiple generations.  Over 3,700 blood and DNA samples were analysed from volunteers as part of the study, and Ötzi’s mutation was identified in 19 others. However, that number is expected to grow as the sample size increases—no word yet on who has inherited his kick-ass axe.

            Ötzi’s final resting place, after some legal wrangling between the Italian and Austrian governments over who was the rightful owner of the priceless historical remains, is in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology (Italy), a museum dedicated to the enigmatic ice man.  His remains are kept in a strictly controlled climate that perfectly replicates his erstwhile resting place in the glacier, at 99% humidity and at a temperature of -6°C, the air itself sterilised to completely remove any bacteria or spores that could damage or degrade the remains.

To counter any loss of humidity, the mummy is regularly nebulised with sterilised water. The museum is considering replacing the air in Ötzi’s chamber with pure Nitrogen. Experiments are pending as to the efficacy of this idea. On average, 300,000 people a year visit Ötzi.  The wanderer from the Ötztal Alps has found a home, and now his story has been pieced together by the best minds in medicine, archaeology, and anthropology.

You can visit Ötzi today is displayed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, together with his clothing and equipment.