There are, and always have been many theories on how and why Oetzi the Iceman was killed. Many theories say he was murdered by an enemy, tracked down and hunted after surviving a battle with an enemy clan, or even that he was sacrificed to the god of the mountains. There is no way to surely determine how he died to a tee, and ever since the Iceman’s discovery, new evidence has been consistently presenting itself, suggesting new and improved theories, while also dismissing the old. After extensive research in and out of class, it has been concluded that Oetzi the Iceman was indeed murdered, and by someone he knew.
When Oetzi was first found, he was just thought to be another hiker who had died from extreme temperature and fatigue in the mountains. At first, his body was treated with no extra precautions, whatsoever, causing artifacts that belonged to Oetzi, Oetzi’s left hip, and his thigh, to all be damaged. (Testimony From the Iceman, p.1) What the rescue team did not know at the time, however, was how old this mummy was, and the story that lying behind his death. Although luckily, years later, many wounds were discovered that led archeologists to come to the conclusion that Oezti the Iceman was indeed murdered, contrary to what had been previously thought. The of newly discovered wounds was an arrowhead lodged into Oetzi’s back just under his left shoulder blade, which fatally severed…show more content… He had with him the remains of a backpack, a leather pouch, an unfinished bow and arrows, a grass net, a flint dagger, and most importantly a copper ax. The importance of the copper ax lies with the fact that something of this value would only be trusted with someone of very high authority, such as a town leader. Ergo, the most plausible theory emerging to be that someone Oetzi knew in his village wanted Oetzi dead to assume his position as the town