Otzi - The Iceman

Since I am on this primitive kick, I thought I would share the story of Otzi. He is better known as the Iceman, Europe's oldest naturally preserved mummy, found in 1991 in the Otzal Alps by two German tourists. The glacier he was frozen in for an estimated 5,300 years, warmed enough to reveal this hunter from the Copper Age along with his Neolithic hunting accessories.

This find was miraculous in that the body of the 46 year old man was almost perfectly preserved as well as everything he carried the day that he died. A bow made of yew. A chamois quiver full of arrows (14), only two of which were completed, made of viburnum and dogwood. A yew handled axe with haft ed copper blade. A flint blade knife with an ash handle in a scabbard made of lime bash. A lime wood tool for knapping arrowheads tipped with stag antler. A larch wood framed backpack. Ibex bones. Two birch bark cylinders. A calf leather belt pouch holding a fire starting kit.

Since his discovery, Scientists have determined that this wildman died by the same manner in which he lived. The bow. He was shot in the back with a flint arrow, reason unknown of course. I just thought this might be of interest to all of my hunter friends!!!