Hi.
For a number of reasons, methinks Ötzi was fleeing a posse.
5.56mm
Exactly! My thoughts exactly. His axe was a very valuable item in those days. Anyone would’ve taken it, bandit or posse. Why didn’t they? We can speculate all day and all night over that one and many of the scenarios that arise from such speculation are intriguing.
Since they seem to have a pretty good idea what route he followed in the days leading up to his death, I think it could be enlightening to mount ground penetrating radar on drones to fly over the area. Who knows? You might dig up an ancient Neolithic battlefield full of Otzis in a similar state of preservation as the original.