The Iceman Research Paper

The Iceman, also called Ötzi, is a mummy from the Stone Ages who was discovered by hikers, Erika and Helmut Simon in the Alps in the late 1900s. The Iceman when he was found was stuck in a glacier called the Niederjoch Glacier. This glacier is part of what kept the Iceman preserved for so long. He is one of the oldest mummies in the world, at about 5,300 years old and he lived around 3300 BCE. When the Iceman was first discovered, he was thought to have died of natural causes. This was thought because when the body was examined it was found that the Iceman had over 40 health issues. A few of them were hardened arteries, worn joints, and a growth on his toe. He also could possibly have had Lyme disease. However, it was discovered in July of 2001 that the Iceman was actually murdered. There were three injuries found on his body, a blow to his head, an arrowhead in his left shoulder, and one other to his hip caused by the neglect of the excavators. The worst injury and possibly the one that killed him was the arrowhead in his left shoulder. It created a 2-cm wide wide hole in his shoulder blade. The arrowhead landed just a few centimeters short of …show more content…
However, they were not able to get the body out of the ice due to bad weather. The body was not officially extracted until September 23-24 which was 3-4 days after it was found. The excavation was carried out by Konrad Spindler on October 3-5, 1991. The purpose of the excavation was to find the exact position of the Iceman. However there was bad weather again and the excavation could not be continued until July of 1992. Because they had waited for better weather to come most of the ice had melted but the excavators found leather, hide remnants, grasses, string, pieces of skin, muscle fibers, hair, a fingernail, a section of a broken longbow, and the Iceman’s bearskin