I just finished reading an interesting article in Archaeology magazine, March/April 2011, about the Copper Age in central Europe—Bulgaria, Romania area. The copper age used to be tacked onto the new stone age, destict from the subsequent Bronze Age when civilization really became much more elaborate. Now from new excavations, they feel that the metalurgical skills of the copper age required a higher level of social organization much closer to the bronze age. This crucial period is thought to be between 5,500 and 7000 years ago. Several large communities went extinct around 6,300 years ago. Numerous copper tool heads have been found looking like picks, adzes, and hammers.
So, anyway, back to Oetzi, 5,300 years old. He was found with a copper tool head in his possession. If I remember correctly it looked like items in the Archaeology article. My theory, this tool had survived the death of the founding copper age culture, and migrated westward with fleeing people who settled up in the Alps where it was hard to bother them. This was a treasured ancient artifact. Oetzi, for whatever reason, was wounded and fled with this precious village treasure. Feel free to add to this story. [Note: I am working on several historical novels.]
There’s a topic you should see then, if you haven’t already:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2251554/posts
In one of the articles shortly after Oetzi was discovered , I'm pretty sure, it said that the discovery of the copper ax with him moved the copper age back about 1,000 years in time.