The Chilling Truth Behind Ötzi the Iceman’s Mysterious Death Finally Uncovered

Ever wonder how someone who lived over 5,000 years ago could finally reveal the gritty truth about their own demise? Meet Ötzi the Iceman — Europe’s oldest known mummy, who’s been chilling (quite literally) in the Alps since 3230 BC. Scientists have been poking, prodding, and scanning this Copper Age wanderer for decades, and just when they thought they had him figured out—a murder by arrow, blood loss, maybe even a club to the head—new evidence dropped a major plot twist. Turns out, his cause of death isn’t just a simple stabbing; it’s colder and darker than any true crime fan expected. So, how did Ötzi really meet his frosty fate? Ready for some ancient murder mystery meets survival saga? Let’s dig in. LEARN MORE

Scientists who studied the mummified body of Ötzi the Iceman have discovered his true cause of death – and it’s way worse than they’d previously imagined.

Who was Ötzi the Iceman?

Mummies have been discovered across the world throughout different points in history, but none in Europe are as old as that of Ötzi the Iceman.

Ötzi is believed to have been a 45-year-old man who died in 3230 BC. According to the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, he was walking about during the Copper Age, or the Neolithic period.

So, while stone tools would have been common, he would likely also have a nice, shiny copper axe.

And ever since his discovery, he has been recognised as the oldest recorded mummy in Europe, outlasting Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza, for example.

Where and how was he found?

Say hello to Ötzi the Iceman (Kennis©South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, Foto Ochsenreiter)

The body was found by two hikers in the Alps between Austria and Italy in 1991, with the walkers believing that he was a fairly recent victim of the icy and wintery conditions there, such was the state of his body.

For over 5,000 years, the body of Ötzi, so named because he was found in the Ötztal Alps, had laid pretty much undisturbed and well preserved thanks to the ice around him.

While he wasn’t looking quite as fresh as Captain America after his spell in the ice, his body remained fairly intact, which has allowed scientists to study him closely for the past 34 years.

What has Ötzi’s body revealed?

After scientists were able to examine Ötzi and his well-preserved belongings more closely, they deduced that he had likely killed others using his knife and an arrow, all of which had blood from another person on them.

His body was also covered in cuts and bruises, which suggests that he had certainly been through it in the days leading up to his demise.

What was Ötzi’s cause of death?

Ötzi unfortunately met a grizzly end (M.Samadelli/urac.Southtyrolarchaeologymuseum)

After scientists discovered a gash on his hand and an arrow wound in his left shoulder, it was initially believed that he had died from blood loss after being shot in the left shoulder in a very cold-blooded murder.

A gash on his hand had been healing for a few days when he was finally done in, with the positioning of his body also indicating that he’d attempted to remove the arrowhead from his flesh.

A 2013 scan also showed some head trauma, with some taking this as a sign Ötzi could have been clubbed to death.

However, scans from 2017 have instead suggested that the blood loss wasn’t enough to be fatal – at around 100ml – and the arrow in his shoulder wouldn’t have hit a serious artery.

The head trauma Ötzi also suffered was more consistent with a tumble on some rough ground.

Frank Rühli of the University of Zurich said (via Science News): “Freezing to death is quite likely the main cause of death in this classic cold case.”

What Ötzi ate before he died

Such are the impressive advancements of technology, that scientists were even able to figure out what was likely the last meal of Ötzi.

Given he lived such a long time ago, when things like hot sauce and ketchup didn’t exist, he was subject to a pretty horrible tasting meal, consisting of the high-fat meat Ibex, as well as medicinal bark and perhaps even some bacon.