Bull.
They are closer with this than with their earlier theories, but this is still bull.
I don't know why archeologists and anthropologists continue to believe that early man was peaceful and in tune with nature, but they do.
When this first came out, they were speculating that he was a trader who died after a fall in the alps. After all, he was from Southern Germany, but he had some scraps of food from Northern Italy in a bag.
But this is nonsense. Otzi was a raider, plain and simple. I said this when it happened to a archeology group at a local university and was asked not to come back because I believed in violence.
But the fact is he suffered, and recovered from, several battle type wounds. He had tatoos over several of the wound areas, a very common form of mystical protection for primative man.
No, Otzi's last days happened like this...
His group of raiders stormed into the village that they were targeting and killed all who resisted them. They stole any goods, weapons and food that they could carry, and took back young women as slaves. Otzi was shot by an arrow during the attack, but was able to continue on with his group.
A few days into their walk back to their home, Otzi (who was suffering a lot of pain and had developed a fever a few hours after the attack) collapsed and lay dying. His fellow warriors took all of his food, his tool, extra clothing, etc. and watched him die. Afterwards they put him in a narrow gully with his copper axe and bow (but no arrows) and covered him with his wooden shield. They then covered him with snow so that animals wouldn't find and eat him.
That is how he was found with a copper axe (his rival hunter wouldn't have taken that valuable piece of equipment? Really?) and no food or other items of value.