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Otzi

icemanthestoryofotzi

About Me

In the 4th millennium BC, I climbed to the icy heights of the Ötzal Alps and died.

But how?

I’m Ötzi – the Iceman, the oldest known wet mummy in the world. My body was discovered in 1991 in the Schnalstal glacier and remains on display at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. This November my story comes to the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, and to mark the occasion, I’m going to solve the mystery of my death, right here, with the world's first prehistoric blog WHO ICED ÖTZI?

Every day November 8-February 17, I'll add a new chapter to the mystery, so subscribe to my blog and receive daily updates.

My Interests

forensic archaeology, plastination,
anthropology, bog bodies, etymology, cryobiology, ethnology, cryonics, palaeontology, mountaineering, global warming, polynias, taxodermy, cytology, geology, hydrology, sokushinbutsu, necrology, ontology, phrenology, neurovitrification, aufeis, pagophagia, natural mummies

I'd like to meet:

The countdown has begun.
It's time for us to chase a killer.
We're counting down to my death.

Were you there?
Did you see me die?
Or did we just meet sharing a roasted leg of antelope?

I could use all the clues I can get...

Subscribe to my blog and we'll piece it all together. Each day my story continues as my last desperate days count down and we come closer and closer to discovering the identity of who I'd like to meet most - my murderer. Join the storytelling in WHO ICED ÖTZI?

Five hundred years before Stonehenge, 600 years before the pyramids of Egypt, high in the Tyrolean Alps, a man lies dying. Unarmed, alone, and fatally wounded, Ötzi waits for death as his lifeblood ebbs out onto the ice. As he slips in and out of consciousness, visions flash before his eyes. From amid this jumbled storm of memory, Ötzi must piece together his final days before it's too late. For up ahead, the crunch of footsteps echoes through the pass, and through the drifting snow, the silhouette of his killer takes shape.

Journey back to the late Neolithic Age and join Ötzi for a three-month prehistoric adventure.

WHO ICED OTZI? The world's first prehistoric blog.

Music:

Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice
Cold as Ice - Foreigner
Electric Blue - Icehouse
Wouldn't it be Nice - Beach Boys
Natural Born Killers - Ice Cube
Blood on the Ice - Riverdales
Ice Cream - Muscles
Message in a Bottle - The Police
Wannabe - The Spice Girls
Mr Icecream - Soft Tigers
Tropical Iceland - Fiery Furnaces
Ice in the Sun - Tex Perkins
Fire and Ice - Pat Benatar

Movies:

The Thing
Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom
The Empire Strikes Back
The Day After Tomorrow

Television:

Days of Our Lives
The Bold and the Beautiful
Crossing Over
The Young and the Restless
Home and Away
The Ghost Whisperer
Neighbours
Passions

Heroes:

Edmund Hillary, Tollund Man,
Ice Maiden, Salt Man,
Gallagh Man, Yde Girl,
Lindow Man, Vladimir Lenin,
Hurley and Ponting, Cherchen Man,
Rameses II, Mummy Juanita,
Douglas Mawson, Seti I,
Tutankhamun, Tenzing Norgay,
Roald Amundsen, Eva Perón,
Grauballe Man, Lykkegard Man,
Mao Zedong,
Helmut & Erika Simon

Word Up! Click here for the official Iceman story.

All Iceman images are copywright the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology www.iceman.it

My Blog

SEVENTY-TWO: The Furnace

When I get to the forge Hufnir is hard at work.  I stand and admire him for a while, the easy grace of his movements, the steady rhythm of his work, as he hammers the copper into shape.  He ...
Posted by Otzi on Sat, 08 Dec 2007 08:50:00 PST

SEVENTY-THREE: Enkis Story

We stand there, metres apart.  Then he whistles.  And Whitefoot cocks her head.  He whistles again and she trots over to him.  He crouches down on the path and wrestles with the do...
Posted by Otzi on Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:05:00 PST

SEVENTY FOUR: Enki

The dog by my side lets out another low snarl and I stand there, body tense, feet spread wide, knife clutched in my fist, ready to attack.  Silence.  Even the leaves in the trees have stoppe...
Posted by Otzi on Thu, 06 Dec 2007 02:08:00 PST

SEVENTY-FIVE: The Path

After watching the boys leave my mind is heavy.  At last I turn my back on the mountain praying my son will stay safe.  Stupid to get so concerned, I'm getting old and sentimental, acting l...
Posted by Otzi on Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:07:00 PST

SEVENTY-SIX: The axe

I stare down at it in shock.  Though I have no idea how it came to be here with me, no memory of ever taking it nor recollection of being given the thing, the truth rests undeniably in my right h...
Posted by Otzi on Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:57:00 PST

SEVENTY-SEVEN: On the mountain

I awaken high on the mountain, faint with loss of blood, body curled up on its side like a question mark.  The arrow is deep inside me.  I can feel it pushing up through muscle, bone and car...
Posted by Otzi on Sun, 02 Dec 2007 02:30:00 PST

SEVENTY-EIGHT

At midday the horn is sounded and the people assemble at the centre of the village.  The trees nearby bend gracefully as the breeze picks up off the mountain, sending pollen and motes of dust cas...
Posted by Otzi on Sat, 01 Dec 2007 12:01:00 PST

SEVENTY-NINE: Morning

It is nearly morning.  The moon is low and the stars fade to ghosts in the sky. Inside my hut.  Ravi sits by the hearth and glowers into the fire, a clay figurine in his hands.  The fla...
Posted by Otzi on Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:50:00 PST

EIGHTY: Telfens decision

The crowd hushes, waiting for Telfen to speak.  He turns to Ravi..."And you, who've been silent til now, and the cause of all this mess.""Yes Telfen""Do you love this girl?""I do.""But she is pro...
Posted by Otzi on Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:12:00 PST

EIGHTY-ONE - Scandal

Ravi and Toka stand chastised and forlorn.  The clearing is filled with men now and the barking of dogs.  But even the dogs go silent when Telfen speaks."What happened here?"His voice is ric...
Posted by Otzi on Wed, 28 Nov 2007 07:36:00 PST