Call it the world's oldest whodunnit. Scientists say the 5,300-year-old corpse known as "Otzi" was murdered in a bloody Stone Age fight.
There was plenty of evidence of foul play on Otzi's 5,300 naturally mummified body. Climbers who found Otzi in 1991 reported the bearskin-clad man clutched a knife in his right hand. In 2001, a radiologist discovered an arrowhead in Otzi's shoulder.
Now further research has turned up a gash on Otzi's knife hand, a cut on his left hand, and bruises from a beating on his body. Forensic analysis of Otzi's accoutrements has turned up DNA from at least four individuals. Blood on the back of his cloak belonged to one person, blood from two more people was found on the one arrow in his quiver, and blood from a fourth coated his knife blade.
Otzi may have carried a bleeding comrade over his shoulder, reused the arrow to kill or wound two enemies, and slashed another with the knife. The arrowhead in his shoulder suggests he had tried to pull the projectile out but broke the shaft in the attempt.