Ice man Otzi was treacherously murdered: study

Ice man Otzi, the 5,300-year-old well-preserved mummy found in the Austrian Alps, was likely shot and murdered by a treacherous acquaintance while enjoying a hearty meal, a new study has claimed.

An arrow head discovered in 2001 in Otzi's left shoulder suggests that he was murdered.

To understand the circumstances surrounding the crime, the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy commissioned Chief Inspector Alexander Horn of the Munich Criminal Investigation Department to investigate the "Otzi Murder Case" using the latest criminological methods.

Horn interrogated archaeologists from the museum who had been looking after Otzi for years, or experts from forensic medicine, radiology and anthropology.

The results of this investigation were that Otzi probably did not feel threatened shortly before his murder, because the situation at the Tisenjoch location where he was found indicates that he had been resting while enjoying a hearty meal.

In the days prior to the murder he had incurred an injury to his right hand, probably as a result of defensive action during the course of a physical altercation.

No further injuries could be found, and this might serve to indicate that he had not been defeated in this particular conflict.

The arrow shot, which was probably fatal, seems to have been launched from a great distance and took the victim by surprise, from which we may infer that it was an act of treachery.

Further medical findings suggest that the victim fell and that the perpetrator used no further violence.

The perpetrator probably did not wish to risk a physical altercation, but instead chose a long distance attack to kill the man from the ice.

As valuable objects such as the copper axe remained at the crime scene, theft can be excluded as the motive.

The reason for the offence is more likely to be found in some sort of personal conflict situation, in a previous hostile encounter - "a behavioural pattern which is prevalent even today in the bulk of murder crimes," Horn said.

Scientists from all over the world presented these and other new insights, at the recent International Mummy Congress held this month in Bozen-Bolzano to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Otzi's discovery.

Researchers also believe that copper used to make Otzi's axe blade did not come from the Alpine region as had previously been supposed, but from ore mined in southern Tuscany in Italy.

Otzi was probably not involved in working the metal himself, as the high levels of arsenic and copper found in his hair had, until now, led researchers to assume.

His murder over 5,000 years ago seems to have been brought about due to a personal conflict a few days before his demise, and the man from the ice, despite his normal weight and active life-style, suffered from extensive vascular calcification.