• A Stone Age Murder MysteryIn the decade since a 5,300-year-old freeze-dried body was pulled from a melting glacier in Austria, theories have been advanced about the cause of death. He got caught in an autumn storm, fell into a crevasse, and froze to death. No, he was carried up the mountain in spring and served as a human sacrifice. Or was it arthritis or malnutrition that killed him? Finally, the verdict is in. The Tyrolean ice man Ötzi was shot from behind with an arrow.
The jury on the case, doctors at the General Regional Hospital in Bolzano, the Italian town where Ötzi now rests, discovered the flint arrowhead on X rays while searching for fractures; CT scans confirmed the verdict. Lodged less than an inch from Ötzi's left lung, the arrowhead not only paralyzed his left arm but also shattered his shoulder blade, tearing major blood vessels and causing him to bleed to death, probably within hours. So why did it take investigators 10 years to determine how the ice man died? Apparently the arrowhead escaped detection because radiologists were looking for bone fractures, malformations, or signs of illness—not for arrows.
The motive for the murder remains a mystery. Perhaps Ötzi was ambushed from behind by a rival who was trying to steal his sheep. Or he could have died in battle, says lead detective Eduard Egarter-Vigl, the pathologist who helped coordinate the scientific investigation of the ice man. Bows and arrows were commonly used during this epoch for hunting, so there's no reason to believe they weren't used for fighting too. In any case, it's clear now that Ötzi's end was not a peaceful one. "He died not naturally," says Egarter-Vigl, "but by violence." — Josie Glausiusz
