Ötzi

Ötzi is the naturally preserved body of a man who died in the eastern Alps around 3300 BCE. Discovered in 1991 with clothing, weapons and tools, the mummy provides exceptional evidence for Copper Age diet, health, technology and violence, including the arrow wound that probably caused his death.

Ötzi was born in Feldthurns and died in Tisenjoch. Scientific examination has revealed tattoos, healed injuries, intestinal parasites and evidence of a final meal shortly before death; the arrowhead lodged in his shoulder and accompanying trauma indicate that he died violently.

In Jeanne Blanchet’s The Iceman, Born into a Copper Age community in the Alpine world, Ötzi grows up beneath a shaman’s prophecy that his life will carry knowledge far beyond his own generation.