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Iceman Otzi was a Fighter
Theatetus writes "Yahoo! News is running a story from USA Today that Otzi the iceman's murder is more complicated than we thought. It seems Otzi had blood on his clothes and knife from four different people in patterns that suggested he took out two with his bow and carried a wounded or dead person over his shoulder. I sense an action movie in the making..." If you don't remember Otzi, read the original story.
But at least that's better than going off looking for a Yeti!
+5, Female
Soon, SCO jokes will be treated with the same loathing as "All your base", "In Soviet Russia", and "Imagine a beowolf of..."
no comment
I must say that I find the theory that he caried a wounded friend a bit far fetched. The blood on his back may just as well have come from another attacker. Otzi may himself have been the one who wounded that man, or the man may have accidently wounded himself before or during the fight (e.g. by somehow hitting the rocks), or he may have been wounded by the mysterious friend of Otzi, or ...
While we're at it, for instance, let's speculate that Otzi simply found "his" cape after it had been lost by one of several other man who were indeed having a fight, but who never ever saw Otzi. It's improbable, but not impossible.
Remember that there are just about as many theories about what he was doing up there and how he died as there are (groups of) people who looked into it all.
Linux user since early January 1992.
The first conclusion was that he was walking the alps in Autmn. A sudden storm blew up and he died of Hypothermia.
The guys that proposed this theory and missed the huge (well not huge but not tiny) arrowhead stuck in his shoulder.
Then somebody grabbed samples of 5000 old turd from his anus and discovered spring pollen. So the next theory I believe was that he got into a fight, someone/s beat the shit out of him breaking his ribs and he fled into the mountains, collapsed and died of shock.
Then lo and behold somebody spotted the arrowhead. So then we get the shot in the back theaory and the rib deformation was determined to be post mortem, caused by the pressure of the ice he was frozen in.
Now because they've found bruises on his rib area , the entire Ice pressure hypothesis goes out the window and we're back to the beating, but with a twist. Blood samples on his shoulder spontaneously exagerates into a wounded wisecracking side kick. Other blood samples become ninja assassins and Otzi is now a Lowly Sheep-Hearder turned Vigilante Out for Justice(TM).
Have these guys ever heard of Ockham's Razor? I'm no foresic scientist, but this does not seem like the simplest explanation too me.
In fact this smacks of sensationlism aimed at Joe & Jane Sixpack, so these guys can grab more funding.
I work in research and if I cooked up a wild story everytime I think I've discovered the 21st Century's version of DNA, my boss would have my head.
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
He was clutching a bloodied knife (human blood, but not his own) and had cuts on both hands. Blood from two other people on the tips of an arrow in his quiver, and across his back. Plus a broken arrow in his own back. Why don't you step forward with your hum-drum explanation so we can go back to assuming that ancient man was a gentle and peaceloving creature who sometimes fell victim to the harsh elements?
I'm not claiming the theory is false or true for that matter. I'm questioning the need to sensationlize it like this, instead of just presenting the facts.
Why can't they have stated the above discoveries like you did? Instead they come up with wild theories of a Showdown in the Alps. It just makes them look stupid whenever a new disovery is made that disproves it. While its hard to argue that he hadn't been shot with an arrowhead staring you in the face, its very easy to discount blood stains on his shoulder being from him carrying a wounded friend. The are are least a hundred other equally or more plausible explanations of how the blood got there. But they pick the scenario that turns him into and Action Hero.
Also I don't ever remember expousing the veiw that Otzi was some Proto Hippie.
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
If he was murdered, why didn't the murderers take his knife, axe, etc? Surely these would have been valuable commodities back then. Why would they have been left with the body?
Proverbs 21:19