Ötzi The Iceman: A Very Cold Case
A 5000-Year-Old Murder Mystery
A Remarkable Discovery
In 1991 two German tourists stumbled across a body emerging from glacial ice on the Öztal Alps in Southern Tyrol. The couple initially assumed the body to be relatively new; most likely that of a mountaineer who had slipped or succumbed to the elements. The couple alerted the authorities and it didn’t take long for scientists to realise that they had stumbled upon something truly remarkable. Far from being a modern hiker, the body was dated as over 5000 years old, pre-dating the pyramids. He was dubbed Ötzi after the Ötztal valley in which he was discovered.
Ötzi is an archaeological treasure trove, and his tools and clothing- found with or near his remains- have granted us an unprecedented look into life during the Copper age. Continuing, Ötzi was so well preserved that in 2018 his last meal was determined as Ibex meat and fat, toxic bracken fern (either accidentally ingested or used medicinally to treat his bacterial infection), red deer meat and einkorn wheat. Initially researchers could not locate Ötzi’s stomach as it had moved upwards during the mummification process, though it was later spotted in a CT scan.
Ötzi also had 61 tattoos on his body, which some have surmised might have been functional as opposed to aesthetic, helping to mark spots for an early form of acupuncture. If true, this would be 2000 years earlier than its previous first known use in China.
Moreover, Ötzi was afflicted by many ailments; at 45 years of age he had whipworm, lyme disease, calcium buildup around his heart and tooth decay. To put it simply, Ötzi was no poster boy for the Paleo diet!
The Plot Thickens
10 years after Ötzi’s body was discovered, a scientist spotted an arrow shaft in his shoulder on an X-ray. The arrow shaft was removed surgically whilst the body was thawed in a controlled way, as can be witnessed in this documentary.
Analysis of the wound depth suggested that Ötzi had been shot from about 30 metres, a distance killing, and had bled to death quickly when the arrow entered his armpit and struck his subclavian artery. Additionally, Ötzi had a deep cut, almost to the bone, between his thumb and finger which had occurred days before his death. It is a classic example of an active defence wound which would be sustained in hand-to-hand combat, suggesting that Ötzi had been in a fight soon before his demise.
In short, the evidence increasingly suggested that Ötzi’s final days were frantic and violent.
Enter The Detective
5000 years after the fact, the case of Ötzi was reopened. Detective Chief Inspector Alexander Horn of the Munich Police Department was called in to give his perspective on what might have happened to Ötzi. Initially he was skeptical that he could gather much from a corpse 600 years older than the pyramids, but the glacial preservation was so remarkable, and the wealth of information gathered from his body so telling, that he soon put together a theory. His verdict?
“It looks a lot like murder”.
Murder in battle? According to Horn, quite the opposite…
Firstly, Horn noted that Ötzi’s bow was not ready for use, suggesting he was relaxed and not aware of any immediate threat when he was shot.
Furthermore, the heavy meal he consumed- estimated to be around half an hour before his death- suggested that he was in no rush and was resting. Most interesting to Horn was the defence wound on his hand. The amount of healing suggested it had occurred 1–2 days prior to his death. Ötzi had also travelled far in his last two days; according to the New York Times:
“He consumed three distinct meals and walked from an elevation of about 6,500 feet, down to the valley floor and then up into the mountains again, where he was found at the crime site, 10,500 feet up”
In the absence of any other wounds, Horn deduced that Ötzi most likely won the altercation- which would have occurred in the lower valley- where he received the hand wound. He also believed that his eventual death on the glaciers was a continuation of this violence, mostly because it was unlikely he’d run into others at such an altitude.
Horn’s prime suspect is whoever fought with Ötzi in the lower valley- or someone who knew them- and the reason for a long distance kill was, he surmised, to avoid coming face to face once again as the killer feared he would be bettered.
Continuing, whilst impossible to pinpoint the exact motive, Horn discounted one; the killer- or killers- did not take Ötzi’s copper blade which would have been a high-status item at the time. This would be like someone today committing murder and then leaving the victims Rolex. That alone is enough to discount the idea that it was murder for profit, and suggests it was motivated by a grudge. Horn vaguely speculates that it was probably down to “some strong personal emotion”.
Whilst we can sit and despair that this is one homicide which will never be solved, we should instead be deeply moved about how much we can know about both the killer and Ötzi who are separated from us by over 5000 years.
To date, we know his last movements, his health condition, that he had a gravelly voice, that he was roughly 5ft 5 and had brown eyes, that he died in early summer or late spring, that he had been in a physical altercation shortly before his death, eaten a hearty meal and was around 45 years of age, give or take a few years. Moreover, we know his killer shot him from a distance and murdered him for something other than profit.
Final Thoughts
Questions remain, of course; was he a warrior, a shaman, a shepherd or an outlaw? Was there one killer, or multiple? Did they leave his axe for some unknown spiritual reason, or simply because it would identify them as murderers to those who knew him?
Perhaps half the magic of the story is in the mystery. Whoever Ötzi was in life, he continues to have a profound influence in death, as his body and tools teach us the secrets of his age. Additionally, whilst his death raises questions, his body answers more. One thing is for sure; Ötzi’s death continues to capture our imagination; a German feature film been made about the oldest murder mystery, alongside multiple documentaries, and Brad Pitt has a tattoo of Ötzi’s body on his arm also. It seems fitting that one would commemorate Ötzi in ink.
To conclude, Ötzi is history in the flesh, and by studying him we build a bridge to a time that would otherwise seem unfathomable. As Logan Kistler, curator at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, notes:
“It’s one of these extraordinary cases that makes life in the past real”.
