Who was Ötzi the Iceman?
Meet Europe’s five-thousand-year-old murder victim.
First spotted in 1991 by hikers traveling the Italian Alps, the mummified body of a man was soon excavated from the glacier where it had lain frozen for over five thousand years. That mummy became known as Ötzi the Iceman, and today, his remains are housed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy. Here are some of the things we’ve learned about him since the discovery.
How long ago did he live?
Using carbon dating and other tools, scientists dated Ötzi’s corpse to around 3350-3120 BCE, during a period known as the Chalcolithic, or “Copper Age”.
WATCH: A 5,000-Year-Old Preserved Body
How old was he when he died?
Studies of Ötzi’s teeth and bones have shown that he was roughly 45 years old (give or take a year).
What did he look like?
After sequencing Ötzi’s genome, researchers determined that he had darker skin than Europeans today and likely also had male-pattern baldness. He had a total of 61 tattoos on his legs, wrists, and back.
How did he die?
Buried in Ötzi’s left shoulder is an arrowhead, which severed a major artery and likely caused his death. He also suffered a major head wound and a cut to his right hand. These injuries have led scholars to conclude that Ötzi was murdered, perhaps at the end of a days-long chase.
WATCH: How Did Ötzi the Iceman Die?
What did he have with him?
Ötzi was well-prepared for the harsh life of the mountains. He was dressed in a coat, pants, and underwear sewn from goat and sheep hide as well as shoes made of deerskin and plant fibers. He also had a bearskin hat and another item made of woven grass, which may have been a cloak or a mat of some kind. A belt that he wore around his waist had a special pouch which contained various small stone and bone tools as well as two types of fungi he likely used as tinder for lighting fires and potentially for medical purposes. Entombed along with him were several weapons: a copper-bladed axe, a flintstone knife and sheath, a bow and a quiver with 14 arrows.
What was his last meal?
The contents of Ötzi’s stomach were well-preserved along with the rest of him. Scientists have determined that he ate meat from a deer and red ibex along with einkorn wheat and a small amount of bracken, a poisonous fern.
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