Oetzi the prehistoric iceman may not have been murdered, say scientists, who now believe he could be the world’s first known mountaineering victim.
The ancient natural mummy was believed to have died 5,300 years ago when he was hit by an arrow during a hunting trip.
Scientists – who examined his remains when they were discovered frozen in the Alps between the Austrian and Italian border 20 years ago – thought he’d then been finished off with a vicious club blow to the head.
The 5,300-year-old mummy known as ‘Oetzi’
Now new studies at Austria’s Innsbruck University have revealed that Oetzi is more likely to have died during a fall while he was climbing.
Experts will now carry out a new body-mapping scan of his remains to check if his injuries could have been sustained accidentally.
Study head Wolfgang Recheis said: ‘His death could have been a mountaineering accident rather than him being shot by an arrow as previously thought. The arrow injury could have been an old injury.’
New DNA evidence has revealed that Oetzi had the world’s first-known case of Lyme disease
Cold facts: He was found frozen – and still is… he’s kept at a steady -6C
He was unearthed in September 1991 by a couple of German tourists trekking through the Oetz Valley, after which he was named.
He was about 46 years old when he met his violent death.
It was thought an arrow tore a hole in an artery beneath his left collarbone, leading to massive loss of blood – and the shock caused Oetzi to suffer a heart attack.
Even today, the chances of surviving such an injury long enough to receive hospital treatment are only 40 per cent.
The fact that the arrow’s shaft was pulled out before his death may have worsened the injury.
The iceman has been crucial to our understanding of how prehistoric people lived, what they wore and even what they ate.
Oetzi the iceman’s true identity has been shrouded in myth and mystery – a faceless corpse that has embodied a bygone era of humankind
Researchers examining the contents of his stomach worked out that his final meal consisted of venison and ibex meat.
Archaeologists believe Oetzi, who was carrying a bow, a quiver of arrows and a copper axe, may have been a hunter or warrior killed in a skirmish with a rival tribe.
Researchers say he was about 159cm tall (5ft 2.5in), 46 years old, arthritic and infested with whipworm, an intestinal parasite.
His perfectly preserved body is stored in his own specially designed cold storage chamber at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy at a constant temperature of -6°C. Visitors can view the mummy through a small window.
Alongside his remains is a new Oetzi model created using 3D images of the corpse and forensic technology by two Dutch artists – Alfons and Adrie Kennis.
But the one thing they couldn’t determine was his natural eye colour. So they went with brown.