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Archaeologists have determined the cause of death of the
“Iceman” mummy, putting to rest a Neolithic cold case.
More than 5,000 years ago, a man trekked up the Schnalstal glacier in Italy and
died. The mummified, frozen body, dubbed Ötzi, was discovered in 1991 by
accident. Since then, the glacier mummy has undergone a slew of examinations
from which scientists have gleaned bits of information about the man’s last
steps on Earth, ranging from his last meal to his age when he died
The remaining question: What caused the Iceman’s sudden death?
Frank Rühli of the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Zurich in
Switzerland and his colleagues scanned the mummy’s body using computed
tomography (CT) and found a lesion of an artery near the shoulder, underneath
the clavicle bone.
The wound was caused by an arrowhead, which had previously been detected,
lodged into the mummy’s back. In tissues surrounding the lesion, the scientists
found a large hematoma, or bruise. By combining historic and modern data on how
well one survives such a severe lesion, the scientists concluded that the
Iceman died within a short time as a result of this lesion.
The arrowhead-caused injury caused the Iceman to drop dead. "It basically
means [the Iceman] would bleed to death," Rühli told LiveScience.
“Such obvious proof of a vascular lesion in a body of this historic age is
unique, and it helped to determine the cause of this extraordinary death without
a destructive autopsy,” Rühli said. “We look forward to further investigating
the circumstances surrounding the Iceman’s sudden death.”
In addition, Rühli said the case is more than just a medical
and archaeological curiosity. "We want to have more knowledge of life and
death in ancient times to learn more about the evolution of diseases," he
explained, referring to the study of ancient diseases as the fourth dimension
of medicine.
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