Anyone see that documentary about Otzi the Iceman last week?
From the info now available it's completely obvious how he came to end up where he was found.
As anyone who has read The Golden Bough by Sir James G Frazer will know, primitive societies often killed their leaders when these lost their vigour or seemed to have brought misfortune on the tribe, and it's rarely a question of some young blood making a personal challenge and killing the incumbent in combat but agreement reached by the whole society and a ritual killing, or sacrifice one might say.
That's clearly what happened to poor old Otzi. He was the local King but cogging on in years, had genes for low fertility (hence no offspring possibly?). He'd had a large meal high up on the mountain a mere few moments before dying, as sacrificial victims did. I reckon the arrow in his back was probably fired while he was still eating, with him probably knowing it was coming although maybe not exactly when.
That would also explain why his killer(s) left his valuable copper axe, if he was left on top of the mountain as a sacrifice to the Gods, or closest to Heaven as his tribe would have believed.
Also, the very fact he was frozen in ice where he fell and stayed that way, means there was no ice there at the time and a cold spell had started. So maybe his tribe was fed up with the sudden onset of a colder climate, with maybe bad harvests etc, and Otzi as their leader was blamed.
From the info now available it's completely obvious how he came to end up where he was found.
As anyone who has read The Golden Bough by Sir James G Frazer will know, primitive societies often killed their leaders when these lost their vigour or seemed to have brought misfortune on the tribe, and it's rarely a question of some young blood making a personal challenge and killing the incumbent in combat but agreement reached by the whole society and a ritual killing, or sacrifice one might say.
That's clearly what happened to poor old Otzi. He was the local King but cogging on in years, had genes for low fertility (hence no offspring possibly?). He'd had a large meal high up on the mountain a mere few moments before dying, as sacrificial victims did. I reckon the arrow in his back was probably fired while he was still eating, with him probably knowing it was coming although maybe not exactly when.
That would also explain why his killer(s) left his valuable copper axe, if he was left on top of the mountain as a sacrifice to the Gods, or closest to Heaven as his tribe would have believed.
Also, the very fact he was frozen in ice where he fell and stayed that way, means there was no ice there at the time and a cold spell had started. So maybe his tribe was fed up with the sudden onset of a colder climate, with maybe bad harvests etc, and Otzi as their leader was blamed.
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