The iceman was discovered by German tourists in the September of 1991
in the Oetz Valley - hence the name - still wearing goatskin leggings and
a grass cape. His copper-headed axe and a quiver full of arrows were lying
nearby.
At first, it was thought he died from cold and hunger. It was only
last year that researchers finally established he had a stone arrowhead
embedded in his shoulder and that the nature of the injury - its position
in an area full of blood vessels - probably meant he bled to death.
Rather embarrassingly the presence of the arrowhead was clear to see
on a Cat scan done in 1994 but had been overlooked. A decade of research,
however, has built up a fascinating picture of how Oetzi might have lived.
Oetzi was about 159 centimetres (five feet, 2.5 inches) tall, 46 years
old, arthritic, and infested with whipworm.
He had also been seriously ill three times in the last several months
of his life. High levels of copper and arsenic in his hair indicate that
he had been involved in copper smelting.
Dead mountaineer
He wore three layers of garments made from goat, deerskin and bark
fibre. He had well-made shoes and a bearskin hat.
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