Posted on 01/04/2005 12:42:21 PM PST by SteveH
Theory: Oetzi Murdered in Power Play
By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News
Jan. 4, 2005
Ötzi the Iceman, the world's oldest and best-preserved mummy, might have been murdered in a struggle for power, according to a new theory that identifies the 5,300-year-old mummy as the powerful leader of a Neolithic community.
Discovered in 1991 in a melting glacier in the Ötztal Alps — hence the name — by the German hiker Helmut Simon, Ötzi is thought to have died at about 45.
He was hit by an arrowhead while being assaulted by his enemies, some of whose blood was found on the mummy's cloak and weapons.
"Ötzi was a leader, perhaps a shaman. He might have gotten many enemies as he did not want to give up his power even though he was very old, a sort of Methuselah for his time," Walter Leitner, an expert at the Institute for Ancient and Early History at the University of Innsbruck, told Discovery News.
Leitner presented his new theory at a recent archaeological conference in Hannover, Germany.
According to Leitner, a member of the team who studied the mummy when it was first transferred to the University of Innsbruck, Ötzi's high social status is testified by the items he carried with him. .
As he emerged from the ice, the mummy was still wearing goatskin leggings and a grass cape, while a copper-headed axe, a quiver full of arrows and a medicine kit with herbal remedies were lying nearby.
"Only a leader would have owned a copper axe. Copper was very precious and a symbol of power at that time," Leitner said.
According to his reconstruction, the Iceman was assaulted not far from the Similaun Glacier where his mummified body was found.
The assailants kept Ötzi at a distance because they were afraid of him, Leitner said. One attacker hit him with an arrow in the back, near his left shoulder, others threw more arrows at him, while another one got closer and hit Ötzi's right hand with a knife.
"Then the attackers removed the arrow from Ötzi's shoulder and left him there. As they came back to the village, the murderers said that the old man got lost in the mountains. For this reason, they did not steal his precious axe. It had to look like an accident, not a murder," Leitner said.
His theory contrasts with that one of Eduard Egarter Vigl, the official caretaker of the 5,300-year-old mummy at the South Tyrol Archaeological Museum in Bolzano, which attracts around 300,000 visitors a year.
The researcher believes Ötzi did manage to flee up the mountain until he collapsed and was entombed in the Similaun Glacier's ice.
Probably caught in a storm at 10,000 feet, the right hand cut to the tendons and the left arm possibly bent in the effort to stop the blood, Ötzi spent at least three days in excruciating pain before he died, according to Egarter, who carried out histological and biochemical analysis on the deep knife wound.
"The presence of haemosiderin containing macrophages in skin wounds would indicate that the injury happened between three to eight days before Ötzi's death. Most likely, he managed to escape in the mountains and there he died after a few days because of blood loss, hunger, cold and weakness," Egarter told Discovery News.
But according to Leitner, it would be highly unlikely for Ötzi to climb up the mountains with an arrow deep inside his shoulder.
"I based my theory on the archaeological finds and some logic. I know the Ötztal Alps pretty well and I believe that a man wounded so badly would have tried to escape going downhill, not up in the mountains," Leitner said.
Curse of Ötzi?
The same Ötztal Alps were fatal to Helmut Simon, whose body was found trapped in ice last October just like his famous find. Simon's death strengthened the legend of a "Ötzi curse", according to the German magazine Die Zeit.
Three other people who had a direct contact with the mummy died under mysterious circumstances in the past years.
The first one was Guenter Henn, the forensic pathologist who picked the mummy from the snow with naked hands. A year later, Henn died in a head-on collision while on his way to present "sensational findings" on the mummy at a conference.
Shortly after, it was the time of Kurt Fritz, the mountain guide who dug into the ice to bring to light the mummy's face. Fritz was the only one out of a group of climbers killed in an avalanche on a slope he was very familiar with.
The third victim, who died of a brain tumor, was Rainer Hoelzl, the only journalist allowed to film the removal of the mummy from the ice for a TV documentary.
As if that wasn't enough, Dieter Warnecke, head of the rescue service who found Simon's frozen body, died of a heart attack an hour after Simon's funeral.
"I do not believe in the curse, but I was a bit nervous last October when I worked on a documentary on the mummy and had to be rescued from the Similaun glacier with an helicopter," Leitner said.
Hey, I bet EVERYBODY who came in contact with the mummy dies - eventually.
someone call John Edwards, Ötzi might want to sue his killers...
some people have met Helen Thomas and are still alive!
You ask me -- he had tried to knock over a liquour store and was on the lam.
Yeah, it is kind of pointless to speculate on the motive of the murder, if there was a murder.
They left the axe "to make it look like an accident". And when was the coroner suppose to show up?? And the trial judge?
Fun stuff though!!!
Since interest in our frozen friend has waned, I guess making him some "powerful leader" would heat him up again.
IWe've our "Ötzi", and he is deeply deeply deeply saddened...
We've our "Ötzi", and he is deeply deeply deeply saddened...
It appears that Otzi was the victim of a hate crime: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_229.html
I hope you're happy...
It's Bush's fault of course...
That's some home page you've got there.
I like that chart of the Reagan Years.
Was that the arrowhead from the school tablet depository, or the grassy knoll? Where's the Zapruder cave painting?
Yeah, my guess is that in 100 years, we will all be dead.
That's really scarey!!!
Everybody has a theory. Mine is that he was trying to get over the pass into his home territory on the other side. I suspect he was part of a raiding party and either got separated or was left behind when he couldn't keep up.
You'd think a science writer for Discovery could get something correct.
"Ötzi the Iceman, the world's oldest and best-preserved mummy, might have been murdered in a struggle for power, according to a new theory that identifies the 5,300-year-old mummy as the powerful leader of a Neolithic community."
Here's an article about 8,000 year old mummies in Florida...almost 100 of them.
Here's an article about 9,400 year old mummy Spirit Cave Man found in a cave in Nevada.
Spirit Cave Man
You'd think a science writer for Discovery could get something correct.
"Ötzi the Iceman, the world's oldest and best-preserved mummy, might have been murdered in a struggle for power, according to a new theory that identifies the 5,300-year-old mummy as the powerful leader of a Neolithic community."
Here's an article about 8,000 year old mummies in Florida...almost 100 of them.
Here's an article about 9,400 year old mummy Spirit Cave Man found in a cave in Nevada.
Spirit Cave Man
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