Ötzi

On Wednesday I decided to visit Ötzi in Bolzano. I had heard of Ötzi but until Ewan informed me about it this week, I had no idea of his location. My visit to Bolzano involved a pleasant 40 minute bus ride down the valley, and the bus stop was just along the road from the hotel. I arrived late morning in sunny Bolzano, where the weather was so mild that many people were sitting outside in the very attractive town square. I sat outside Walther’s café where the waiters were very attentive and swiftly provided me with brunch of spinach ravioli. Re-energised, I walked onwards through the narrow pedestrian streets to the Ötzi Museum. 

Ötzi was a man who died five thousand years ago in South Tyrol, just on the Italian side of the border between Italy and Austria. His body became mummified by a series of chances involving weather and snow conditions, later covered by a glacier, and emerged in 1991 when he was discovered by a couple of German tourists who were hiking in the area. Not only was his body preserved but so were his clothes including shoes and hat, his backpack, longbow, arrows and an axe with a copper blade. All of these are on display at the museum and it’s hard to comprehend how ancient they are. It wasn’t until ten years after his discovery that x-rays showed that Ötzi was murdered; there was an arrowhead lodged under his arm which had caused him to bleed to death. And more recent DNA analysis has revealed the alpine bloodlines of his ancestors. I had no desire to peer through the viewing window to see the refrigerated figure of Ötzi; there are plenty of photos of his mummified body around the museum and I found it kind of disrespectful and unnecessary that Ötzi himself should be on display. I didn’t feel really strongly about this, I just didn’t want to see him myself. However it’s a great wee museum and it was a fascinating visit which I would highly recommend.