Mystery in the ice: Couple who disappeared 75 years ago, shell arrows and lunch box

Ötzi the Iceman

When German tourists Helmut and Erika Simon toured the Ötztal Alps on the border of Austria and Italy in 1991, they had no idea what, or rather who, they would find under the ice. At first, they thought they had come across the body of a climber who had recently died. But it soon became clear that it was a much older discovery.

Ötzi, as archaeologists later called “ice” lived about 5,300 years ago, ie at the end of the Stone Age. Research into Ötzi’s body has revealed many insights into his health, diet, and even the cause of his death – someone shot him in the back with an arrow. He also had various items and weapons with him – an axe, a bow and arrows. The discovery became crucial to understanding the prehistoric cultures of Europe, and the body of the ice man is still under study by scientists.