Modern technology solves mystery of iceman's death

The longest autopsy in medical history has finally worked out what happened to a prehistoric man who died on an Alpine slope more than 5,000 years ago. He bled to death from an arrow in his back.

A team of scientists used X-ray scanners to conclude that the arrowhead cut through a vital artery in his shoulder, which led to massive internal bleeding. They believe that the arrow tore a hole in an artery beneath his left collarbone, leading to huge loss of blood and shock that probably led to a heart attack.

Even today, the chance of surviving such an injury for long enough to receive effective hospital treatment is estimated to be only 40 per cent, according to the scientists.

The iceman, nicknamed Ötzi, died about 3300BC and his frozen body was discovered in 1991 by Alpine walkers who saw it emerging from a glacier on the Italian side of the border with Austria. Initially, the hikers thought that the body was that of a modern climber.

The Neolithic man carried a flint dagger, a longbow made of yew, a quiver full of arrows, plants with powerful pharmacological properties, three layers of clothing made of deer and goat hides, a bearskin hat, a copper axe, fire-making flints and boots stuffed with straw.

Theories about who he was ranged from a shepherd trying to recover his flock from the mountainside as winter drew in, to a shaman making his way to the summit to commune with the gods.

It was originally thought that he died in autumn and was caught out by an early snowstorm. But an analysis of his gut in 2001 found that he had possibly drunk water containing hop hornbeam pollen grains that could only have been present in early summer.

Then scientists discovered that Ötzi had a stone arrowhead embedded in his shoulder, and that his last meal was venison - red deer that he had probably caught while hunting.

Frank Rühli, of the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Zurich, believes that the same arrowhead sliced through a vital artery in the iceman's shoulder, causing him to bleed to death.

A computer tomographic (CT) scan shows that the arrowhead had caused a lesion or cut in the dorsal wall of the subclavian artery, the artery underneath the collarbone. In addition, Dr Ruhli's team found a large haematoma - internal bleeding - around the surrounding tissue.

"Such obvious proof of a vascular lesion in a body of this historic age is unique, and it helped to determine the cause of this extraordinary death without a destructive autopsy," Dr Rühli said. The fact that the arrow's shaft was pulled out before his death may have worsened the injury, said Dr Rühli, who carried out the research with scientists from Bolzano, Italy, where the body is preserved.

The study is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Bodies of evidence

Siberian Ice Maiden

One of the best preserved mummies ever discovered, scientists found the ornately tattooed body in the Altay mountains in 1993. She is believed to be at least 2,400 years old.

Tollund Man

Discovered in a peat bog on Denmark's Jutland peninsula, Tollund Man was so well preserved police initially thought they had stumbled on a recent murder. In fact he had died in around 350 BC.

Moinia Juanita

The perfectly preserved body of a 14-year-old Inca girl who lived in the mid 15th century was discovered by an anthropologist in Peru. Tests suggested she had been a human sacrifice.