Posted on 01/12/2020 12:03:32 AM PST by SunkenCiv
A length of cord found alongside the body of Ötzi the Iceman, the Neolithic hunter who was discovered entombed in ice high in the Dolomites, has been identified as a string for his wooden bow.
Experts had long speculated that the two objects were connected but definitive proof has now been obtained by a team of Swiss scientists.
The cord, which was found tucked into a quiver used by the 5,300-year-old Iceman for keeping his arrows, is made of animal sinew - ideal material for producing a strong, powerful bow.
It is two metres long, almost exactly the same length as the bow that was found beside the mummified body of the hunter when he was discovered by a pair of hikers on the Schnalstal glacier in 1991...
It was previously thought the cord was made of plant material, but plant fibres "would not have withstood the tension of the bow and as such wouldn't have been suitable for a bowstring," said experts from the museum in Bolzano, in the German-speaking north of Italy.
The bowstring has been declared the oldest known and best preserved in the world.
The scientists from the Swiss National Science Foundation also discovered that the Copper Age hunter's bow had been freshly-cut from a yew tree.
It was not yet finished - they found marks left by a hatchet which would have been used to whittle and shape the wood.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
So instead of making the tokens they just printed clay tablets backed by nothing!! :)
They actually DID represent something of value then.
Fascinating story and I NEVER heard it before.
And it reads like a logical progression.
It sometimes takes a while to identify items found in the back of my freezer, too.
Cursive writing is still out of the comprehension of some.
Scientists? took over 30 years to surmise that a length of cord, made from sinew, found in his arrow quiver, MIGHT be a bow string.
How to milk that grant money.
It was suicide! He shot HIMSELF in the back with a bow and arrow. /s
An inscription on the bow says “Otzstein didn’t kill himself.”
It wasn't trivial to figure out, and the item is a one of a kind, so the method or methods to be used had to be tested to make sure it wouldn't damage or destroy the sample and show no result.
I guess the "English" (Welsh) longbow has been around for a while.
:^) Sure, but did Otzi use as many consonants describing it? The yew hasn't changed much, its usefulness may have been handed down, or been rediscovered many times.
And a hefty dose of street drugs.
That was the beginning of abstract, symbolic reasoning. Contrary to the simplified version usually taught in high school biology, the environment can change genetic expression, which can then be passed on to succeeding generations. This so-called non-Mendelian inheritance may include more than a little of what is thought of as intelligence, character, and culture.
Duh, it only took how many years?...................
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.