The development in theories surrounding the iceman’s death

The life and death of the Iceman is one of histories greatest and perhaps most interesting mysteries. The area the body was found in, the items he was carrying and the position the corpse was found in is the subject of much speculation surrounding the cause of his death. We can only uncover so much about the iceman as technology will allow us, but thanks to recent advancements we have been able to uncover more and more about the iceman’s life and the moments leading up to his death.

At first, scientists imagined that the iceman was caught in a heavy snowstorm, fell asleep and froze to death. Conrad Spindled theorists and published in this 1995 book titled ‘The Man in the Ice’, that the iceman was a Sheppard from a nearby Neolithic village that had escaped from a barbaric raid. Spindlier theories were biased off the Iceman’s age, strong physique, clothing and equipment, and place of death which is nearby a popular route that Shepherd’s would follow for their flocks to graze.

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Many early theories stating that the iceman had frozen to death were ruled out in 1998 when an examination of the contents of the iceman’s intestines revealed the presence of hop hornbeam pollen. The excellent preservation of this pollen meant that the iceman had ingested it Just before he died. The flowers of the hop hornbeam tree flower between March and June meaning that the iceman had died in late spring/ early summer. More evidence that the iceman had not frozen to death became apparent in June 2001 when a group of scientists in Blazon x-rayed the body and discovered an arrowhead buried in his left shoulder.

Later in 2007 research done by scientists from the South Tyro Museum of Archaeology revealed that the arrow head had severed the civilians artery and it was possible that the iceman ad bled to death. Some of the most exciting news about the iceman’s death came from a group of Australian scientists Molecular biologist Thomas LOL and his team (from the University of Queensland Institute of Molecular Bioscience in Brisbane), studied the iceman’s clothes, tools and equipment for blood traces.

After several DNA tests it was confirmed that blood found on the iceman’s possessions had come from four separate human individuals; one on the knife blade, two different samples on one arrow, and a fourth on his goatskin coat. The blood found on the iceman’s arrow suggests that he had shot one person, retrieved the arrow, then shot another and the blood found on his coat suggests he had carried a victim for a distance.

During the investigation, the team found several signs of trauma on the iceman’s body including bruises and lacerations around the abdomen which suggests that he had been beaten up. The latest theory on how the iceman died is that he was involved in a boundary dispute with several individuals. According to Thomas LOL, using his findings as evidence, “The Iceman shot two different people with his arrow, each time managing o retrieve the arrow from his victim. The Iceman’s success, however, was short-lived.

He mêlées s as target, smattering Nils resonant. He was attempting, Deter en died, to take apart the arrowhead from the broken rheostat and make one useable arrow,” But the iceman was killed before he could fix his weapon, shot in the back by one of the individuals. Although this theory may seem solid and plausible, at the rate that new technologies are developing it is almost certain that we will uncover more of the iceman’s secrets in the many years to come.