Ötzi the Iceman, the world's oldest and best-preserved mummy, might have been murdered in a struggle for power, according to a new theory that identifies the 5,300-year-old mummy as the powerful leader of a Neolithic community. Discovered in 1991 in a melting glacier in the Ötztal Alps — hence the name — by the German hiker Helmut Simon, Ötzi is thought to have died at about 45. He was hit by an arrowhead while being assaulted by his enemies, some of whose blood was found on the mummy's cloak and weapons."Ötzi was a leader, perhaps a shaman. He might have gotten many enemies as he did not want to give up his power even though he was very old, a sort of Methuselah for his time," Walter Leitner, an expert at the Institute for Ancient and Early History at the University of Innsbruck, told Discovery News. Leitner presented his new theory at a recent archaeological conference in Hannover, Germany. According to Leitner, a member of the team who studied the mummy when it was first transferred to the University of Innsbruck, Ötzi's high social status is testified by the items he carried with him. As he emerged from the ice, the mummy was still wearing goatskin leggings and a grass cape, while a copper-headed axe, a quiver full of arrows and a medicine kit with herbal remedies were lying nearby."Only a leader would have owned a copper axe. Copper was very precious and a symbol of power at that time," Leitner said.According to his reconstruction, the Iceman was assaulted not far from the Similaun Glacier where his mummified body was found.
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