Otzi, “The Iceman,” naturalistic reconstruction.  Credit: Otzi’s museum

My December 2016 Post 126. Forensics on Otzi the Iceman’s Murder! is very thorough and if you have limited time and haven’t read it, I suggest reading that and its links before going any further here. Otzi lived and died over 5,000 years ago. He suffered a violent death, as have many millions since (e.g. 70-85 million in WWII alone). But he and his clothing and equipment have turned into an archaeological treasure trove that demonstrates the enormous impact of recent DNA analysis upon archaeology.

The latest Wikipedia simply named “Otzi“ (now famous on a first-name basis like “Cher”) was last updated 28 December 2019 (last Saturday). I highly recommend you read that Wiki because it illustrates the breadth and depth of what we have learned since finding Otzi’s body.

Otzi now has an informal fan club of survivalists and other people curious as to how they can survive a year without electricity (since modern national and international politics are increasingly dicey and they consider the risk of dropping back to the Chalcolithic as high enough to hedge against). I show one example of this below: the replication of Otzi’s bow, arrows, and quiver, including killing a deer with the replicas at the end of 2018 Step 2.

Otzi’s bow, arrows, and quiver (2019). Let’s use a series of videos by Shawn Woods. In logical order, let’s start with Shawn making an exact replica of Otzi’s bow (2018): Step 1, and Step 2. Shawn had earlier copied Otzi’s arrow (2011):  Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3 and then a replica of Otzi’s quiver (2013): Complete.

Thanks for visiting,

R. E. J. Burke