Copper in Ötzi the Iceman’s ax came from surprisingly far away
Analysis hints that long-distance trade network connected present-day central and northern Italy
By
Bruce Bower
7:00am, July 14, 2017
Ötzi the Iceman’s copper ax was imported.
The mummy’s frozen body and assorted belongings were found in 1991 poking out of an Alpine glacier at Italy’s northern border with Austria. But Ötzi’s ax originated about 500 kilometers to the south in what is now central Italy’s Southern Tuscany region, say geoscientist Gilberto Artioli of the University of Padua in Italy and colleagues. It’s unclear whether Ötzi acquired the Tuscan copper as raw material or as a finished blade, the investigators report July 5 in PLOS ONE.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/copper-otzi-icemans-ax-came-surprisingly-far-away
