OT: Iceman
Off topic, sort of.
The National Geographic this month has an interesting article on the "Iceman", discovered in the Alps back in 1991.
One of the puzzles of Iceman, is that he was found with a copper ax. This was very valuable. Only very important man, likely a chief, would own such a copper ax. Before the discovery of Iceman, it was believed that the knowledge of how to smelt copper was still confined to the Middle East and had not yet spread to Europe. So the mystery was, why was this very valuable copper ax left with Otzi?
Mystery 1: Why wasn't the valuable copper ax taken from him?
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Right from the beginning, Iceman was studied by the top Pathologists of Europe.
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Login3. Cause of Death
There have been various theories about what killed him.
Initially it was found that Otzi likely died from exposure. He was traveling over a high pass and was caught by a bad storm. This sort of thing happens each year in the Alps, even today.
Later, they thought Otzi may have been a victim of a ritual sacrifice, as several other ancient bodies that have been found in Europe. Likely he was killed and left in a remote place as a sacrifice to the gods.
Finally, after ten years of study, it was noticed that an X-ray showed that he had an arrow in his chest. The arrow shaft itself missing. It would have been very difficult for him to pull it out of his back. Likely someone else pulled it out. In additions, the autopsy doctors also examined his stomach and found he had not eaten for many hours. A study of pollen concluded he had died in the early autumn.
Mystery 2: Who pulled out the arrow shaft and why?
The best guess was that he was wounded in a scrimmage with another tribe. He and some companions retreated over the mountains. Likely one of them pulled out the arrow. Reaching near the high pass, he could not keep up and his companions, wishing to be caught out in the open at night in the Alps, were forced to leave him behind.
Another theory was he was still being pursued by his enemies up into the mountains when he died from his wound after a few hours.
Finally, this year, there was yet another autopsy. And this one seems to have finally found the truth. What was found was:
* The latest pollen analysis showed he died in the late spring, not the autumn.
* Otzi had a deep wound in his hand that had partially healed. This wound had occurred several months before he died.
* What was thought to be his stomach was actually his colon. His stomach had been pushed up into the ribcage by the weight of the glacier and his stomach was found to be filled with a very full meal.
* The arrow cut an artery that caused massive bleeding. Otzi could only survive this wound for a few minutes, even if modern medical care was immediately available.
* Otzi did not receive any kind of medical care. Instead, the back of his skull was bashed in and blood clots at the site show was still alive when this blow was struck. His skull was not, at least initially, crushed by the weight of a glacier.
Putting all the facts together, one can now make a good guess what happened:
Otzi died in the spring.
Otzi was not running for his life from enemies. No one would stop and eat a heavy meal while doing so. Instead, Otzi was probably eating his lunch on an empty, cold, rocky hillside, not far from a glacier.
Someone sneaked up behind him and shot him in the back.
While he was dying, the murderer struck him hard in the back of the head to make certain. And then walked away, leaving all of Ozti's possessions behind.
Now, for our two mysteries:
Why was the arrow shaft taken out?
Because different people have individual styles on how to make an arrow. How to attach the fletchings to it. From the arrow shaft, one may be able to identify who shot the arrow if the body is found.
Why was the ax left behind?
Because the ax can be recognize and others would become very suspicious if one of their tribal members showed up with the ax of a man who disappeared.
So Otzi was not killed in a battle with another tribe. Otzi was killed by a member of his own tribe, a man he knew. A man he removed the arrow shaft and left the ax, so if the body was found he could not be tied to the murder.
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This story indicates that conducting an autopsy is an art as much as a science. It was not cut and dried. Different doctors can look at the body and come to radical different conclusions. The history of the study of Otzi's body is littered with errors and professional disagreements.
None of these errors were the result of autopsy doctors being hurried through an autopsy be generals. These errors did not occur because powerful men were trying to hide the identity of the real murderer. These errors did not occur because science had not advanced enough until recently. A more skillful autopsy would have found the truth back in 1991.
It is not that strange that different experts think JFK was hit by a bullet in the head near the EOP while others thing it was near the cowlick. The disagreements over the years with Otzi make the disagreements on the medical evidence in the JFK case seem minor.
* It was though plant analysis showed he died in the autumn. But others determined he died in the spring.
* Some thought the damage to his skull could have been from the weight of the glacier. Others found the damage occurred while he was still alive.
* Some did not notice the arrow head. When noticed, some though he could have taken hours to die and may had died from the cold as much as from the wound. Others determined he could only have lived a few minutes from such a wound.
Otzi gives us a case where it's not just the location of a head wound is in dispute, but whether their was a head wound at all while he was alive.
Errors in autopsies and interpretation of autopsies are more common than people realize. We are only given rare glimpses of these problems in rare cases that people are intently interested in, like the JFK and Otzi mysteries. Most, if not all, autopsies would have similar controversies if they were studied as intently as the JFK and Otzi cases.
