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His
Equipment
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Ötzi
the Iceman carried a long list of equipment on his final day.
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His equipment included:
a longbow made of yew
a chamois hide
quiver
fourteen arrows (only two
finished)
a copper ax
a flint-bladed dagger with a
woven sheath
a tool for sharpening
(retouching) flint
a larch wood frame and cords of
a backpack (pannier)
ibex bones
two birch-bark cylinders
a calf leather belt pouch
a tassel made with a white
marble bead and twisted hide strips
two pieces of birch fungus
(each threaded with hide strips)
other tools
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Some of the items are
particularly interesting to scientists and historians. These include:
 1. The copper ax.
Scientists were thrilled to find the ax, the only complete
prehistoric ax ever discovered.
About
two feet long, it was made from a portion of the trunk of a yew
tree where a right-angled branch grew. The haft of the ax (i.e.,
the handle) came from the trunk; the shaft (the part onto which
the copper blade was fitted) came from the branch--naturally
joined. This allowed maximum durability. Most copper age axes
are made from ash wood (Otzi's was the first one to be found
made from yew). The copper blade was fitted into the shaft and
wrapped with a leather binding; the binding was coated with
birch tar (i.e., boiled sap from the birch tree). The shaft was
forked at the end (about 3 inches long). The ax blade extended
out of the leather binding about one inch. The
ax would be used quite differently from a modern one: three
chops of the Iceman's ax would equal one swing from a modern
one. Scientists even reconstructed his ax to make sure that it
would work. It took 45 minutes, but a man was able to chop down
a yew tree using the ax. |
2. The dagger and sheath. The
Iceman's knife was only 5 inches long. Its flint blade resembles
an arrowhead; it was driven into the wooden handle. Since the
handle split when the blade was attached, someone had tied the
handle securely together with sinew (or animal tendon). The
sheath was woven from lime
bast (that is, cords made from the inner bark of a lime
tree).
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| 3. The
birch fungus medicine.
Perhaps the most
unusual possession, according to many
scientists, was his medicine. At first, researchers thought that the "two walnut-sized
lumps with a consistency somewhere between cork and leather"
( according to author John Noble Wilford) was
not medicine at all--but material to start fires. However, anthropologist
Luigi Capasso reported that the material was actually a birch fungus used as a
laxative and as a natural antibiotic. Since the Iceman had intestinal
parasites, this medicine might have been a helpful
remedy. If you're interested in Ötzi, you won't
want to miss this article! (The New York Times, 12/8/98, p. F3). A
photo of the medicine kit is included with the article.
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 4.
The flint sharpener or retouching tool (also called a
retoucheur). The handle is made from lime wood, with a small
piece of deer antler (hardened by fire) inserted at the tip of the tool.
You can see the antler tip sticking out behind the plastic disc
in the photo on the left.
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SOURCES:
The Chalcolithic
Mummy; Ötzi, the Iceman: The Full Facts at a Glance; The
Glacier Mummy
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