Workplace Violence: Was Otzi The Iceman Iced On The Job?

Filed under: Features,Legal,Safety & Workplace Violence |

By ROBERT SCALLY — There are new leads in the coldest of cold cases. New evidence uncovered in the 5,300-year-old homicide case of Otzi the iceman points to a possible act of workplace violence.

OtzI, the mummified Copper Age man found in a melting glacier in the Italian Alps in 1991, Otzi was a murder victim. He shot in the back with an arrow, scientist have discovered.

A reconstruction of Otzi the iceman's appearance at the time of his death.
A reconstruction of the Otzi the iceman’s appearance at the time of his death. Was he killed on the job?

Evidence points to a scenario that has Otzi killed in a violent quarrel. There is evidence that Otzi’s killer tried to cover his tracks, suggesting the perpetrator may have known the victim, scientists say.

The nickname Otzi comes from the Otztal Alps, near the border of Austria and Italy at an elevation of 10,500-feet.

Otzi’s Life And Health

Scientists have established a number of facts about Otzi’s life and death. These facts reveal what he looked like and life was like.

He lived in the South Tyrol region, just south of the Alps.

Researchers know when he lived and about how old he was. Otzi lived during the Copper Age, 5,300 years ago. He was about 46 when he died, making him a senior member of his community.

Otzi was an average size Copper Age man, and was 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 110 pounds when he died. He had deep-set brown eyes, a hooked nose, dark hair and a beard.

Otzi was not a well iceman. Otzi was sick three times in the six months before he died. His last illness happened two months before his death and lasted two weeks.

His knees were arthritic, he had cavities in his teeth, suffered from Lyme Disease and had whipworm, an intestinal parasite. He had well-healed rib fractures and a broken nose.

One item stands out among Otzi’s possessions. The iceman owned a technologically advanced tool, status symbol and his prized possession: a copper axe.

Otzi At Work

Otzi worked as a shepherd in the mountains and probably in the copper smelting trade.

The Vinschgau Vally and the Alps: This is where Otzi the iceman, lived, worked and died.
The Vinschgau Vally and the Alps: This is where Otzi the iceman lived, worked and died.

Examination of Otzi’s tibia, femur and pelvis found he often took long walks across hilly terrain, a kind of frequent travel that was uncommon for most Copper Age Europeans.

Hair found on his clothing shows he herded sheep, goats and cows, according to a 2008 study in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry.

Otzi apparently smelted copper. His hair has High levels of copper particles. Otzi’s axe is 99.7% pure copper.

Otzi’s lungs were black, probably from breathing campfire or copper smelter smoke.

Who Killed Otzi?

Why was Otzi murdered? Who killed him?

Did he die in battle? Did he know his killer? Was it a robbery? Did he die in a prehistoric war, a dispute about grazing land or livestock?

If  Otzi’s death came in battle with rivals, why didn’t they take his valuable axe or other possessions including food, a stone knife, fire starter kit, a bow and arrows?

The arrow that killed the iceman came from behind him and from a considerable distance. It pierced his left shoulder blade cutting an artery.

Otzi the Iceman mummy
Otzi the Iceman mummy

Scientists know that as Otzi bled to death someone rolled him on his stomach, pulled the arrow shaft out of his back leaving him face down, left arm bent across the chest.

There are more mysterious clues.

For example, Otzi also sustained a potentially fatal head injury. Did hit his head when he fell after the arrow’s impact or if an assailant hit him?

Why did someone pull out the arrow shaft? Was the arrow shaft to conceal the killer’s identity? Why leave valuable axe left behind?

Last Meals

Despite his age and ailments, Otzi was well fed and his last meals offer clues about the hours before his murder. Analysis of Otzi’s intestines found two meals and that he ate one meal was about eight hours before his death.

A 2009 CAT scan of Otzi’s stomach found his last meal of deer meat, unleavened bread, and fruit. He ate less than two hours before his death.

Pollen reveals he ate the meal in a mid-altitude conifer forest. Fresh pollen grains from the hop-hornbeam plant, which blooms in June, were in his intestine. The pollen was just a few hours old when Otzi died. This means he died in early summer. This a possible clue as to why he was in the mountains. If Otzi worked as a shepherd, late spring and early summer would have been when he moved his flock to Alpine pastures.

A Man On The Move

Otzi was in motion in the hours before his murder.

In just a few hours he went from the location where he dined in the forest at about 4,000-feet to well above the tree line at 10,500-feet where he met his doom.

Archeologists know that Copper Age residents South Tyrol area were familiar with mountains, going to higher elevations searching for copper ore and grazing livestock in summer.

Today shepherds from Italy’s Schnals Valley drive their sheep across the Austrian border to Alpine pastures. It’s the same pass Otzi was crossing on his final journey.

One other fact adds to the mystery. Otzi’s right hand has a deep cut from hand-to-hand combat that took place shortly before his death.

Was he fleeing to a place he knew, traveling north into safe pastures?

Crime Scene Preserved In Ice

What do we really know about Otzai’s death? On a cold June day in the Italian Alps sometime after breakfast but before lunch, persons unknown shot a sick and wounded shepherd in the back with an arrow, piercing an artery.

Mortally wounded, he fell into a small ravine. As the shepherd lay dying, someone rolled him on his stomach, and pulled out the shaft of the arrow.

The assailant left behind the shepherd’s personal possessions, including a valuable copper axe.

High in the mountains, ice and snow soon covered the shepherd’s body. Eventually the snow piled 50-feet thick.

His position in the ravine combined with the ice and snow preserved his body and the crime scene where the iceman shepherd may have become the first known victim of workplace violence.

http://www.iceman.it/en/faqs-oetzi-en

See also:

Otzi The Iceman Reveals Evidence Of Prehistoric Specialized Jobs

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