The Assassination of Ötzi Murdered! He was murdered. Who? The 5,300 year old human time capsule, and his name is.... Ötzi. There is many a theory on this topic. One that seems to make sense is that he was assassinated by a clanmate who was jealous of his position. This is likely because of his copper axe, the arrowhead’s type and its location in his back and a large stone inside the cave which depicted the assassination. First, the Iceman’s axe was made of smelted copper which was advanced for his time, and signified that he was a man of power or position. Although a small detail, it would make sense that someone could have desired his status. In Ötzi’s time and culture, when people of authority were killed, their position would go to their killer. He was running from the avenging clan mate, and the killer rolled him over and likely took something back with him to prove he …show more content…
The cave art depicts a scene of a man shooting an arrow at another man on a mountain. The circumstances of this depiction, such as the man chasing down another man shows details that were almost like a documentary of what happened to Ötzi. This could be the actual story or could be a tribal depiction of what this covetous culture’s methods used to acquire power and position. Perhaps the killer told his own story or maybe there were witnesses who depicted the horrors they saw. In conclusion, it seems obvious that that there was foul play involved in the slaughter of Ötzi. The evidence also suggests that a fellow clansman was the killer. Further evidence was the copper axe, Ötzi’s symbol of status to be coveted, the similar arrowheads of Ötzi and his killer along with the skill of the archer, and the cave art depicting the dirty deed. Ötzi was clearly killed by a skilled assassin of malintent. Hopefully, someday we can conclusively find Ötzi’s killer and lay the case to