Wounded body

On September 25, 2000, Hibernatus briefly ceased to be the Iceman. His body was thawed for the first time to allow for the collection of intestinal and skin biopsies, the insertion of an endoscope into the intestines, and the analysis of traces of blood present on his body and leather covering. It was there that they expected to find DNA, which was undoubtedly highly degraded but still present. What they found was both unexpected and intriguing. The preserved DNA fragments belonged to four individuals, not one.

Blood was also found on the arrows he was carrying, as well as on the stone knife he held in his right hand at the time of his death. This was reported in 2001 by Alois Pirpamer, a mountain guide who first saw Ótzi after the Simons found him. During the first attempt to recover his body, the knife fell to the ground, and this important evidence of the Iceman's final moments remained hidden for a long time. Following Pirpamer's story, ErgarterVigl, a curator at the Bolzano museum, tried to insert the knife into Ótzi's unnaturally clenched hand—the fingers perfectly matched his shape. It was during this inspection that Vigl noticed a deep wound running from the thumb across the palm of his hand, as well as a serious injury to the wrist.

Even more surprising was the discovery made in June of that year, when it was reported that an X-ray revealed the presence of a flint spearhead in his left shoulder, which had slid down his shoulder blade and come to rest just above his left lung. His left hand was deeply distended, his right forearm had been slashed with a sharp instrument, and three extensive bruises covered the left side of his torso. The earlier account of Ótzi's peaceful death—that he had cowered in the cold, fallen asleep on a rocky ledge, and froze to death without regaining consciousness—could be dismissed as a fairy tale. He wasn't hungry either—he had eaten at least twice that day, and these were no small snacks. At noon, while still in the forest, he ate ibex with berries, and shortly before his death, he feasted on deer. In his time and region, only prominent figures indulged in such luxuries