Otzi the Iceman’s well preserved body and belongings told scientists how he was murdered 5,300 years later

In 1991 in the Alps between Austria and Italy a mummified body was discovered and the person became the oldest recorded mummy in Europe.

Unless we manage to find an even older one at some point, he'd spent the time in-between being the oldest unrecorded mummy in Europe, but what's even more fascinating is that we were able to learn exactly how he died.

For over 5,000 years, the body of Ötzi, so named because he was found in the Ötztal Alps, had laid undisturbed as the world turned.

Found by a pair of tourists who initially thought they'd discovered the corpse of a recently deceased mountaineer, once Ötzi the Iceman was recovered, he was taken for study and experts were able to figure out that he'd died at around 3230 BC.

They were even able to figure out what his last meal must have been, with traces of Ibex meat, wheat grains and a fatty meat thought to be bacon found in his body.

Kennis © South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, Foto Ochsenreiter

It probably wouldn't have tasted very nice but the fatty meal would have been the ideal food for the cold weather, so Ötzi knew his stuff when it came to eating.

However, even more interestingly is that poor old Ötzi appears to have been the victim of a murder, and thanks to how well preserved his body, was we can actually work out how he met his maker.

While experts initially thought the punishingly cold temperatures had done him in, the evidence now points towards (very) cold blooded murder.

A gash on his hand had been healing for a few days when he was finally done in and shot in the left shoulder with an arrow which pierced an artery and would have meant dying of blood loss within minutes.

There were other wounds on his body indicating that he'd suffered from bruises and cuts as well as a blow to the head, so in his final moments, somebody clearly had it out for the guy.

M.Samadelli/urac.Southtyrolarchaeologymuseum

His body was found face down with his left arm across the chest, suggesting to experts that he'd tried to take the arrow out, concluding that the arrow shaft had been broken off while the head remained stuck in his body.

Even if he'd succeeded at getting the arrow out, it wouldn't have helped as the blood loss would have done for him anyway.

Further analysis of Ötzi and his belongings also found traces of blood from at least four other people on the things he was carrying.

One person's blood was on his knife, while two were on a single arrow he had with him (not the same one lodged in his shoulder) suggesting that he'd killed one person with a knife and shot two others with the same arrow that he'd managed to retrieve both times.

Blood of a fourth person was found on his coat, though how it got there is anyone's guess, but experts believe it could have come from a wounded companion.

What the evidence does point towards is a man who fought and killed others and was himself killed in return.

Topics: Weird, Science, Crime, True Crime

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker