Oetzi, the 5,000-year-old ‘Iceman’ may have had ceremonial burial

LONDON - Archaeologists have claimed that Oetzi, the 5,000-year-old “Iceman” found in the Italian Alps, may have been buried in a ceremony.

An autopsy suggested that an arrow wound to the shoulder had killed Oetzi, reports the BBC.

While this is not disputed, a new study suggests that months after his death, Oetzi’s corpse was carried to the high mountain pass where it was found.

Professor Luca Bondioli of the National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnology in Rome and his US-Italian team led the new study.

Oetzi was discovered on the alpine border between Italy and Austria in 1991.

Although thought at first to be the corpse of a modern climber, scientists later proved that the mummified body was more than 5,000 years old.

In the new study, researchers produced a detailed map of where the corpse and artifacts were found.

Based on guesses about how the artifacts had dispersed down slope over time, they inferred that the body had originated on a rock platform nearby.

They argued that this was a later burial site, and not the original scene of his murder.

The study has been published in the journal Antiquity. (ANI)