July 25, 2001

4:07 PM

Iceman the Bronze Age hunter whose 5,300-year-old frozen body was discovered in the Alps.. cause of death found.. ``Maybe there was a combat, maybe he was in a battle. There is a whole series of new implications. The story needs to be rewritten.''
posted by stbalbach (5 comments total)

Of course, only the mummies that die tragically end up in the papers; if it bleeds, it leads. Look at this: For the latest Iceman News.
posted by rschram at 4:17 PM on July 25, 2001

It took ten years of intensive study to notice an arrowhead in his chest?
posted by sylloge at 6:20 PM on July 25, 2001

Actually, if you look at the X-ray it's completely believable that they missed it. It was only when they did a CAT scan last week that they picked it up. They had in fact spotted the arrowhead in the X-ray but couldn't figure out what it was.

Since the body has to be kept frozen, it wasn't easy to set up a CAT scan on him. And it's not like there's any big hurry studying it; he's been waiting patiently for 5000 years; a few years more won't matter. Better to take the time to make sure to get it right while not damaging the corpse.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:55 AM on July 26, 2001

This is the same guy who doesn't have sperm in his rectum, right?
Wrecked 'im? You killed 'im!
posted by pracowity at 7:14 AM on July 26, 2001