History

Why Did �tzi, the 'Iceman' Mummy, Die?

Bleeding to death

By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor

7th of June 2007, 09:28 GMT

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This is the oldest European mummy, 5,300 years old, and the oldest ice mummy worldwide.

The mummified, frozen body of �tzi was discovered in 1991 by accident by two German tourists and named after the �tztal region between Austria and Italy where it was found.
The body, stuck in the Schnalstal glacier offered a lot of data about the European Copper Age.

Ever since this discovery, everybody has wanted to know why the Iceman died, due to the mysterious place of its rest (that enabled him to 'cross' centuries to reach us).

Now, archaeologists have come with the final solution on the cause of death of the 'Iceman' mummy, closing this case. The mummy has been intensively measured, dated, examined and X-rayed, so that the researchers could get bits of information that put together, could explain the man's last moments, from what he had eaten before dying to the death age (45) of the 1.65 cm (5 ft. 5 in.) and 38 kg (84 lbs) individual.

A team led by Frank R�hli of the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Zurich in Switzerland scanned the mummy's body with computed tomography (CT) and encountered a lesion of an artery near the shoulder, below the clavicle bone.
The wound was caused by an arrowhead, which had previously been tracked into the mummy's back and it was accompanied by a large hematoma (bruise).

The historical and anatomical data on the reaction of the human body to such a severe lesion made the team believe that the Iceman died within a short time due to the arrow shot, the injury making him drop dead.

"It basically means [the Iceman] would bleed to death," R�hli 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. We look forward to further investigating the circumstances surrounding the Iceman's sudden death." R�hli 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.

TAGS:

glacier | mummy | ancient | copper

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