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Theories Of Otzi's Death

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Found in the Alps between Austria and Italy in 1991 Ötzi’s death has been a mystery for years. When they first saw the mummy, they thought it was a modern day hiker that died of hypothermia, however as scientists came in they concluded that it was a mummy a 5,300 year old mummy, that was freeze-dried by the freezing weather. No matter what they did, they could not figure out how the once-alive man died. One of the first things scientists found were the wounds, hands had deep cuts, arrow head in his left shoulder which hit the subclavian artery, head wounds, four broken ribs (however this may have not happened before, or when he died.), broken fingers, and possibly suffered from whipworms (CT scan showed this, it found eggs of Whipworms in his colon). Autopsies gave more clues about his health, for example, some of his fingernails and toenails were missing however out of the ones found they saw that he had been sick three times before death this was mentioned in “ÖTZI, THE ICEMAN” (by Jeffrey Hays, Subtitle: Iceman’s Health). They also found out that his lungs were those of a smoker and could’ve been caused by living in an open house. …show more content…

In total he had 61 tattoos that were on his wrists, ankles, and other areas on the body and they are all the oldest tattoos that have been found, according to @smithsonian (subtitle: Determining the Age of Tattoos). Some of the tattoos were lines on the body that might have some religious meaning. The tattoos were possibly made by putting the ash underneath the skin with a wooden needle. The tattoos were mostly located in places where Ötzi had cartilage damage or joint discomfort which could be for pain relief which is also mentioned in “What we learned from Ötzi the Iceman” (@csm_michelle, Subtitle:

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