Living in the Alps , you ’d reckon Ötzi the Iceman had an ample supply of stones . However , Modern enquiry suggests that before he died on the glacier some 5,300 years ago , Ötzi was shinny to get time lag of the raw materialneeded to craft newfangled chert tool .
Discovered unthaw out of a glacier that lies on the limit between Austria and Italy in 1991 , Ötzi ’s unbelievable conservation has give way investigator astound insight into the lives of Europeans during the Copper Age . Not only was his dead body mostly intact , showing that he was heavy tattooed and likely around 45 when he choke , but so were his venter contents , bring out he had recently eaten ibex nitty-gritty and wheat .
But it was the other objects found with his bodythat interested the researchersof this late study published inPLOS One .
attach to his belt , he was carrying a pouch that contained a personal toolkit of an end - scraper , a woodborer , and a flint flake . He was also carry a inadequate chert Isidor Feinstein Stone dagger , a handful of free arrowheads , and 14 arrows in his quiver . By look at how these tools were made and maintained , the team have revealed some new insights into his sprightliness .
They were capable to show that Ötzi had occupy immaculate charge of his stone tools , frequently and meticulously resharpening them with the antler retoucher he carried . But interestingly , they found that he would not have been able to keep doing so for much longer , as the prick were so small they were at the end of their living . This suggests he was unable to get his hands on the raw textile call for to make new I .
The study determined that the stone that was used to craft the tool in Ötzi ’s kit came from at least three different location , with one arrowhead being made from chert spring up 70 kilometers ( 43 sea mile ) from where he finally died . Intriguingly , the wear on the tools tip at the fact that Ötzi was decent - handed , but one of the arrows he was carrying had feather fletching wound to the left , which means it may have been made by a different individual altogether .
It shows how the communities and hoi polloi living in that neighborhood of Europe some 5,400 age ago had a detailed and extensive trading meshing between different groups in distant areas . For a time before he fail , Ötzi was likely cut - off from these routes .
