Ötzi the Iceman's Tools Shed Light on Copper Age Trade

Daggers like Ötzi’s may have had symbolic significance during the Copper Age. (Credit: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology) Though he died 5300 years ago in the Alps near the Austrian-Italian border, the prehistoric man known as Ötzi the Iceman has had a remarkable afterlife in the sciences. His mummified body chiseled out of ice in 1991 has undergone extensive examination, revealing details about his life and times. The work has offered a glimpse into the everyday life of Alpine inhabitants in the late 4th millennium BC. A paper published Wednesday in PLOS One reveals the extent to which the Iceman maintained his tools and arrows, and adds to the research on the trade networks of the time.