He was shot in the back with an arrow from a distance of about 30 meters (32.8 yards). Certainly a homicide, but murder or warfare? After all, “Otzi” was armed with an axe and a bow and arrows when he was killed, and had an injury to his right hand from a previous fight, so he may have been on a mission of violence himself when he was struck down.
There’s a lot of mystery surrounding Ötzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest natural mummy. The best guess is that 5,300 years ago, Ötzi was crossing an alpine ridge in the Italian Alps, where he was murdered and his body preserved in the ice.
His frozen corpse was discovered accidentally by hikers back in 1991, along with his clothing and equipment, on the Schnalstal/Val Senales Valley glacier. The 5,300-year-old mummy was so well-preserved that scientists have been able to piece together — gradually — a compelling picture of how he lived, and his equally fascinating death.
Let’s start with the premise that Ötzi was murdered. An arrowhead was discovered in his left shoulder, but what does it tell us about the circumstances surrounding the crime?
Read more:
A Well of Heroes
link › jameslafond.blogspot.com
Fascinating stuff.
I've just been re-reading the opening chapter of "When You're Food", describing how our behavior v. predators can be traced back to being hunted by leopards, etc and how that behavior can help us know how to act in today's world when faced with the same issues.
Now here's a guy from thousands of years ago ... sounds like he was armed but got dry-gulched (or whatever the Alpine equivalent would be) anyway. Guidance for all of us ...