Oetzi buried?

[Rokcet Scientist]

Oetzi the Iceman may have been buried, says team


Oetzi was killed by an arrow wound to the shoulder an autopsy suggests

Oetzi, the 5,000 year old "Iceman" found in the Italian Alps, may have been ceremonially buried, archaeologists claim.

An autopsy showed that Oetzi had been murdered, dying of an arrow wound.

While this is not disputed, a new study suggests that months after his death, Oetzi's corpse was carried to the high mountain pass where it was found.

The discovery site therefore may not be a murder scene after all, but a burial ground.

The new study, led by Professor Luca Bondioli of the National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnology in Rome and his US-Italian team, is published in the journal Antiquity.

Oetzi was discovered on the alpine border between Italy and Austria in 1991.

Although thought at first to be the corpse of a modern climber, scientists later proved that the mummified body was more than 5,000 years old.

An autopsy in 2001 further showed that he had been killed by an arrow wound to the shoulder.

Dead and buried

In the new study, researchers produced a detailed map of where the corpse and artefacts were found.

Based on guesses about how the artefacts had dispersed down slope over time, they inferred that the body had originated on a rock platform nearby. They argued that this was a later burial site, and not the original scene of his murder.

This "burial theory" may explain some perplexing facts about Oetzi.

For example, analysis suggests he died in the spring because the pollen of plants that bloom at that time of year is found in his gut. However, pollen within the ice suggests that the corpse was deposited in the late summer.

Professor Bondioli and his team say that these facts makes most sense if the body was deliberately carried to its site of discovery many months after death.

This suggests a burial.

Professor Bondioli elaborated: "Oetzi must have been a very important person to be taken to this high mountain pass for burial. Perhaps he was some sort of a chieftan."

Not bullet proof

However, Professor Frank Ruehli of the University of Zurich, the medical doctor who performed the original autopsy, is not totally convinced by the burial theory.

He remarked: "The left arm of the corpse is in a weird position. This must have happened at the time of death."

"If Oetzi was a chieftan, why did his people not move the twisted arm into a more natural position?" he told BBC News. "This would be expected in the burial of an important person".

Also somewhat sceptical is Dr Wolfgang Muller of Royal Holloway University of London. He studied the chemistry of Oetzi's teeth and bones to track his migration route through the Alps.

"It's an interesting new interpretation but it's not bullet proof," he said. "However, if Oetzi was buried they must have carried the body a long way because the nearby villages would have been at a low altitude."

While much remains to be learned about the enigmatic Iceman - as the mummified corpse has been dubbed - one thing is certain: This famous mummy will remain the subject of intense speculation and new research for decades to come.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11086027

[Digit]

He is supposed to have died in the spring/early summer, (stomach contents etc) so where was his body before the burial, why had it not decomposed?

Roy.

[Rokcet Scientist]

He is supposed to have died in the spring/early summer, (stomach contents etc) so where was his body before the burial, why had it not decomposed?

The same way they'd do it today: they put him on ice for preservation until the formal burial could have been organised. Plenty glaciers in the Alps.

More interesting, imo, is why they (who?) might have gone to such lengths (IF they did). That might be understandable if Oetzi was an important man in his community/clan. E.g. the headman, or a shaman, or a valued wise elder, etc.
But afaik current analyses (of what he wore and was found with him) don't point in that direction at all.

[Digit]

don't point in that direction at all

No they don't, and taking your idea further about freezing then burial sounds as though someone atempted to hide the body perhaps.
If he was buried later why not a normal graveyoud, again sounds as though somebody wanted the body hidden.

Roy.

[kbs2244]

Maybe a respected guide or bodyguard for the merchants that traveled the pass?

I think the site is near the high point, where the trans action was from uphill to easier downhill walking.
An important location.
His customers might think it was an appropriate burial point.

That is from an entirely commercial point of view.

The same site may have been picked if he was also a spiritual connector between cultures on each side.
For the same reasons.
It was a crossover point.

[Rokcet Scientist]

If he was buried later why not a normal graveyoud, again sounds as though somebody wanted the body hidden.

Naaah, if he was killed in the valley and his body needed to be hidden for some reason, I can't see the (apparent) murderers (plural; this couldn't have been pulled off by one man, or even by 2 or 3; this scenario requires at least a handful of people; a criminal gang? The Stone Age's Hell's Angels...? ) going to the extreme length to first put him on ice for, say, 6 months, and then picking him up and schlepping that solidly frozen body, a.k.a. a block of ice, all the way up the mountain to abandon it at high altitude.
Sounds like a very unlikely scenario to me. If he was killed in the valley and his body needed hiding there was no need at all to look elsewhere: just chuck the body in a stream, weigh it down with some rocks, and it will be gone in 2 weeks.

[Digit]

Again I would have to agree, which weakens the idea that there was a second interment I think.

Roy.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Again I would have to agree, which weakens the idea that there was a second interment I think.

Not really. This weakens only the 'criminal scenario', imo. It doesn't touch the ritual/ceremonial scenario, I think. I could see the community/clan go to that length. For some reason, as yet unbeknownst to us. People are crazy enough for it.
But it is unlikely! There are perfectly good eternal burial places much lower on the mountain, or in the valley. Saves a group of people in the Chalcolithic Age schlepping a dead body all the way up a mountain!
What would you do, given that choice?

[Digit]

That's why I suspect the reburial scenario is weak. Why cart a corpse all that way. The only reasons I can think of are, the desire to hide the corpse, following the deceased's wishes, or the need to remove the corpse from their locality, cursed, infected?
Pass!

Roy.