Iceman

OTZI – THE ICEMAN

Otzi the Ice man is said to be a mummified body that was actually found near the glacier borders of Italy and Austria in 1991. He is said to have died 5, 300 years ago according to the PBS NOVA Iceman Murder Mystery documentary (2011). According to Stephen S. Halls’ article “Iceman Mystery” stated that the iceman “was a small, sineway, and, for his times, rather elderly man in his mid-40s” (National Geographic, 1997). Halls further elaborated that, the iceman was found with “a precious copper-bladed ax”, thus making an assumption that he was considered to be a person of a considerable social significance. This assumption also came up in the PBS NOVA Iceman Mystery documentary. On the other hand, according to James Owen’s article “5 surprising facts about Otzi the Iceman” stated that the iceman’s body was covered in tattoos, which should have been some kind of acupuncture treatment that people did way back in the days (National Geographic, 2013).

Next, we look at the different types of artifacts that were found with the Iceman upon his body’s discovery in 1991. To begin, the iceman was found wearing about three layers of garments and sturdy shoes with bearskin soles as reported by Halls in his article. In addition, the different types of equipment found with him were “a flint-tipped dagger, a little fire-starting kit, a long, rough shaped stalk of yew, and a birchbark container holding embers wrapped in maple leaves” (National Geographic, 2007). In the same instance, additional equipment not mentioned in the above article according to the Italian website frozen stories Otzi- the Iceman listed more equipment that was found which includes, the retoucheur—which would have been used for working flints, quiver and its contents such as arrows— which two are said to have been finished while the others were not, a backpack made out of wood pieces, a net made out of tree-bast strings, and finally, a first-aid kit. This first-aid kit is said to have had...