Expedition fall 2016 body would have been rapidly dried by a strong, warm

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13

EXPEDITION  Fall 2016

body would have been rapidly dried by a strong, warm 

wind, and was soon covered by frozen snow. No signs of 

scavenging activity were visible on the body, and all the 

equipment was left untouched. 

  Such a dramatic and even romantic reconstruction 

was simple to communicate and visualize. In the follow-

ing years, after Ötzi was eventually put on exhibit at the 

Bozen Museum in Italy, the mummy became 

a popular tourist attraction and source of 

revenue. For these and other reasons, it 

was hard to question the original recon-

struction of events surrounding the 

Iceman’s death. Even after careful 

excavations in 1992, the complete 

crime scene findspot was not recon-

structed. After 20 years, a detailed 

topographic map of more than 400 

artifacts found at the site and the 

analysis of their distribution 

with computer-aided simula-

tions revealed that body and 

objects had moved downslope with the 

ice flow, but originally came from a spot 

measuring about 2 x 1 meters (a little 

more than 6 feet x 3 feet).

T

he Iceman mummy, nicknamed Ötzi, was dis-

covered in 1991 amidst sheets of melting ice on 

the Tisenjoch pass of the Similaun glacier in the 

Tyrolean Alps. He was found on the border between Italy 

and Austria, at an altitude of 3,200 m above sea level. He 

is a well-preserved male human corpse, dark in color, and 

dates to the early Copper Age, indicating he is more than 

5,000 years old (ca. 3,250 yrs. cal BCE). His belongings, 

scattered around the body, included a bow and quiver 

with arrows, a complete copper-bladed axe, a flint dagger 

with a wicker sheath, two birch wood vessels clad with 

maple leaves, remnants of a backpack, a leather pouch 

with small objects, fur and leather garments, shoes, and 

other minor artifacts. When scientists realized the antiq-

uity of the find, the media response was overwhelming 

and Ötzi captivated audiences far and wide.

Was Ötzi Attacked?

Both scholars and the general public gravitated to the 

so-called disaster theory in which Ötzi had climbed the 

slopes to the Tisenjoch. On the way or on the pass, he 

was mortally wounded in an armed attack. 

With an arrow deeply sunk in 

his left shoulder, he collapsed 

in solitude on the mountain-

top, bleeding to death. His 

left

: The flint dagger and its wicker 

sheath found with Ötzi.

right

: This modern recreation of the Iceman 

shows him dressed in garments made from  

animal hides. Andrea Solero/AFP/Getty Images.

ÖTZI the ICEMAN 

by m. vidale, l. bondioli, d.w. frayer, 

m. gallinaro, and a. vanzetti

Examining New Evidence from 

the Famous Copper Age Mummy 

I T A L Y   •   E U R O P E

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EXPEDITION  Volume 58  Number 2

Was Ötzi Buried?

In 2010, a study was published suggesting that the 

mummy might owe its exceptional preservation to a 

proper burial and the equipment might not be a moun-

tain survival kit, but rather what was needed for a yet 

more arduous trip—the voyage to the otherworld. 

Far from simply a casual killing, Ötzi opened a crucial 

window on the burial rituals and political strategies 

of a moment in European prehistory.  

  These findings paved the way for a comprehensive al-

ternative interpretation. Pollen analysis proves that Ötzi 

died in early spring, when the mountains were probably 

still snow-covered; the body was likely left to rest for a 

few months in a controlled open-air environment, thus 

desiccating the corpse. When the pass became accessible, 

Ötzi may have been formally buried on the mountain 

peak to signal the political control of the tribe over its 

territory. Dug into snow and ice, the grave 

contents were partially dispersed by ice flows, until  

recent climatic fluctuation revealed the grave’s contents. 

This interpretation accounts for many anomalies, such  

as the unexplained mode of preservation of the body, 

unfinished arrows, shoes unsuitable for climbing, and  

the cumbersome equipment he supposedly carried. This 

new interpretation is informed by “social theory” and 

is opposed by Ötzi’s original research group, which still 

favors the “disaster theory.” 

  After thousands of samplings and high-tech analyti-

cal tests, Ötzi is the most intensively studied mummy 

in the history of archaeology. Almost universal agree-

ment indicates that the mummy is not an artifact of 

human action, like Egyptian Dynastic mummies. The 

incredible preservation of Ötzi’s body has been and 

remains a crucial point since its discovery. The mummy 

is much better preserved than more recent bodies found 

in similar glaciers, underscoring its importance. 

Analysis of skin and underlying tissues revealed 

that Ötzi underwent rapid desiccation while 

above

: The Iceman was found in the Tyrolean Alps 

on the border between Italy and Austria.

left

: Ötzi was discovered 

face down in the melting 

ice of the Similaun glacier. 

© Paul Hanny.

left

 

and

 

opposite

 

top

: Ötzi has been intensively studied 

by archaeologists from all over the world. South Tyrol 

Museum of Archaeology/Eurac/Samadelli/Staschitz.

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15

EXPEDITION  Fall 2016

exposed to circulating air, being encapsulated in ice only 

at a later time. Aeolian desiccation may be due to natural 

or intentional processes. Material evidence is compat-

ible with alternative theories: natural desiccation at the 

findspot (“disaster theory”) or a sort of funerary treat-

ment followed by burial at high altitude (“social theory”). 

Today, at Bozen, the body of Ötzi is visible through the 

glass of a special freezing chamber. To keep him publicly 

viewable while minimizing risk of damage and decay is a 

demanding and costly challenge. In both technical and 

economical terms, public presentation and conservation 

are conflicting needs; the present compromise is required 

due to Ötzi’s rarity and extreme popularity.

The Copper Age on the Similaun Glacier

Beyond the details of the mummy’s preservation and 

burial, Ötzi’s discovery sheds new and unexpected light 

on Copper Age societies. Healed injuries, such as a hand 

dagger wound and the fatal arrow shot, possibly coupled 

with a blow to the head, suggest regular warfare and 

imply the use of different weapons. Analysis of the gut 

pollen content suggests that Ötzi had moved at different 

altitudes, which fits well with a model of squad-raiding 

warfare.

  Ötzi the Iceman’s meals demonstrate a fully agrar-

ian and pastoral lifeway, but one that was still deeply 

economically and symbolically involved with the wild, 

probably sacred world of the mountains. Daily village life 

is suggested by ingested cereals, possible cheese residues, 

and pottery grains mixed in the food, as well as by goat 

and cattle skin in the associated garments. However, the 

last meat he ate came from hunted deer and ibex, wild 

animals that had contributed to other parts of his dress. 

He also wore a cap likely made of bearskin.

  Ötzi also had the marks of a leader of his time, with 

prestigious weapons (dagger, axe, bow, and arrows), tools, 

and an ornament (a marble bead). The stone and copper 

components of these objects precisely match those found 

in the contemporary graves of the floodplain, but most 

striking are the preserved, highly refined garments. The 

care with which various animal skins of contrasting 

colors were selected and matched and the elaboration 

and coordination of the attire point to a complex encod-

ing of role and personal identity. Ötzi’s coat and belt 

match the highly symbolic imagery of the monumental 

stone stelae that, in the later Alpine Copper Age, feature 

armed heroic ancestors or deities. In this light, while 

Ötzi may have been a revered tribal chief, later stelae 

celebrate impersonal, perhaps sacred, ancestral identities. 

Growing abstraction of power roles might have been a 

side-effect of the evolution of increasingly formalized 

political institutions.

Other Icemen?

Was Ötzi an isolated case? Although no evidence exists 

for similarly spectacular discoveries, significant artifacts 

dating to the same period surfaced at similar high-

altitude Alpine locations. In some cases, such finds (axes, 

daggers, arrow heads) are alternatively explained as casu-

al losses by travelers and shepherds, or as parts of buried 

caches. However, at least one other high-altitude Alpine 

pass, the Schnidejoch, which has a similar topographic 

setting and gradual glacial melting, has revealed clothing 

fragments, a wooden bow, a quiver and arrows, and shoe 

fragments. This material has been radiocarbon-dated to 

between the early 3rd millennium and the 2nd millen-

nium BCE. Although no bodies have been recovered, 

such finds might come from collapsed graves similar 

to that of Ötzi.  

  Even Alpine folklore suggests that Copper and 

Bronze Age bodies and burials could be preserved by 

ice, only to come slowly to light with the transition to 

a milder climate. The following legend was recorded in 

1862 by the historian Luigi Cibrario on a high Piedmont 

ÖTZI THE ICEMAN

U

N

LE

S

S O

TH

E

R

W

IS

E N

O

TE

D

, A

LL I

M

A

G

E

S C

O

U

R

TE

S

Y O

F T

H

E S

O

U

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Y

R

O

L M

U

S

E

U

M O

F A

R

C

H

A

E

O

LO

G

Y

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EXPEDITION  Volume 58  Number 2



;

=

%

&

+

(

 

§

)

B

A

C

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N

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ÖTZI THE ICEMAN

16

The Iceman's 

Survival Kit

Or were these objects for Ötzi's 

voyage to the otherworld? Over 

400 artifacts were scattered 

around the site where the 

Iceman was found, including 

these tools and weapons.



  

Medicinal Fungus

;

  

Arrow (notch)

=

  

Belt & Pouch

%

  

Flint Tools

&

  

Awl

(

  

Tinder Fungus 

       (Polypore)

)

  

Retoucheur

       (for working flint)

+

  

Needle

§

  

Arrow (head)

EXPEDITION  Volume 58  Number 2

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17

EXPEDITION  Fall 2016

valley: it happens that the glaciers that stretch between 

the mountains cover a crowd of sinners, both male and 

female, to whom the embrace of God is precluded until 

they have destroyed the huge mass of ice with the needles 

that they all hold. It is likely that the legend reflects the 

sighting of one or more high-altitude Bronze Age burials 

in which the dead, according to the funerary habits of 

the time, wore long copper pins. Emerging from ice like 

Ötzi, this could very well match the portrayal of sinners 

in old, traditional outdoor shrines of the same region, 

as black-skinned, almost skeletal figures. 

Ä

acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to Francesco Rubat Borel for telling 

us about the revealing legend of the sinners with needles mentioned 

at the end of this article.  

massimo

 

vidale

, 

ph

.

d

. (University of Padova), 

luca

 

bondi

-

oli

, 

ph

.

d

. (National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnogra-

phy Luigi Pigorini), 

david

 

w

. 

frayer

, 

ph

.

d

. (University of 

Kansas), 

marina

 

gallinaro

, 

ph

.

d

. (Università degli Studi 

di Sassari), and 

alessandro

 

vanzetti

, 

ph

.

d

. (Sapienza 

University of Rome) contributed to this study. 

  

 

 

for

 

further

 

reading

Fowler, B. Iceman: Uncovering the Life and Times of a Prehistoric 

Man Found in an Alpine Glacier. New York: Random House, 

2000.

Grosjean, M., Suter, P.J., Trachsel, M., and Wanne, H. “Ice-

borne Prehistoric Finds in the Swiss Alps Reflect Holocene 

Glacier Fluctuations.” Journal of Quaternary Science 22 

(2007): 203-207.

Oeggl, K., Kofler, W., Schimidl, A., Dickson, J.H., and Egarter 

Vigl, E. “The Reconstruction of the Last Itinerary of Ötzi, 

the Neolithic Iceman, by Pollen Analyses from Sequentially 

Sampled Gut Extracts.” Quaternary Science Reviews 26 

(2007): 853-861.

Pernter, P., Gostner, P., Egarter Vigl, E., and Rühli, F.J. “Radio-

logic Proof for the Iceman’s Cause of Death (ca. 5300 BP).” 

Journal of Archaeological Science 34 (2007): 1784–1786.

Samadelli, M., ed. The Chalcolithic Mummy: In Search of Immor-

tality. Volume 3. Schriften des Südtiroler Archäologiemuse-

ums, Bd. 4. Wien Bozen, Folio Verlag, 2006.

Samadelli, M., Roselli, G., Fernicola, V., Moroder, L. and Zink, 

A.R. “Theoretical Aspects of Physical-chemical Parameters 

for the Correct Conservation of Mummies on Display in 

Museums and Preserved in Storage Rooms.” Journal of 

Cultural Heritage 14 (2013): 480-484.

Schriften des Südtiroler Archäologiemuseums, Bd. 4. Wien-

Bozen, Folio Verlag, 2006.

Vanzetti, A., Vidale, M., Gallinaro, M., Frayer, D.W., and 

Bondioli, L. (2010) “The Iceman as a Burial.” Antiquity 84 

(2010): 681–692. 

ÖTZI THE ICEMAN

right

: This map shows the distribu-

tion of artifacts over the Iceman site. 

Blue diamonds: heavier items such 

as pelt and leather. Yellow “x”s: 

lighter items such as grass and 

hair-like items. Black empty stars: 

intrusive items. Light green area: 

items displaced during excavation. 

White boulders and stones indicate 

the platform, the proposed grave 

location. 

Objects designated by red letters: 

(A) grass mat; (B) backpack frame; 

(C) axe; (D) bow; (E) birch bark 

vessel; (F) dagger; (G)quiver; and 

(H) cap. First published in Antiquity 

84.325 (2010): 681-692.