IT’S time to rethink Ötzi the iceman’s last hours. The theory that he was caught and killed after a lengthy and exhausting chase through the Alps clashes with new evidence that he sat down for a leisurely meal no more than an hour before his violent death.

Ötzi’s body was discovered in 1991 inside a glacier near the mountainous border between Italy and Austria. It had been naturally mummified by ice about 5300 years ago.

A previous analysis of Ötzi’s stomach concluded it was almost empty of food, leading to the idea that the iceman spent his final moments running on an empty stomach. But when Albert Zink of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy, and colleagues took a closer look, they realised that the empty “stomach” was in fact a section of Ötzi’s colon. They found that the real stomach had been forced upwards, and now lies wedged under the iceman’s ribs.

Zink’s team has now examined its contents, which include plenty of partially digested ibex meat, probably suggesting that Ötzi enjoyed a hearty meal shortly before his death (Journal of Archaeological Science, DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2011.08.003).


“The iceman felt secure and had a rest with a large meal,” says Zink. “At a maximum of 30 to 60 minutes later – because otherwise his stomach would have emptied – he was shot from behind with an arrow.”

Sixty minutes after he ate a large meal of ibex meat, Ötzi was shot from behind with an arrow

The researchers also found that Ötzi had three gallstones, supporting the idea that he had a diet rich in animal fat. Previous work showed his arteries were full of fatty deposits.

The team also looked at the iceman’s skeleton, and found that his knees show evidence of wear and tear caused by the repeated heavy strain of hiking across mountainous terrain. This supports theories that he spent long periods walking in the mountains, possibly hunting animals for food.