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Prepared as he was for an Alpine outing, how did the Iceman perish? And what was he doing so high in the mountains? To Egg, the evidence suggests that the Iceman could have been a shepherd, part of a group tending sheep or cattle. Ekkehard Dreiseitel, a University of Innsbruck climatologist, agrees. "We know the weather 5,000 years ago was somewhat warmer. The pasturage in the high Alps ((above the tree line)) would have been tempting in the summer, since it requires no clearing of the forest." Because the ax resembles those found in Stone Age settlements near Brescia, Italy, Egg suggests that the Iceman and fellow shepherds had worked their way through the Alpine foothills from the south, grazing their flocks. It is also possible that he was seeking flint in the highlands.
At some point, Egg says, the Iceman could have left his group to search for yew to replace a broken bow or to hunt for food. His route may have taken him over the Alpine crest and down to the tree line on the other side. There he cut himself a new bow, fetched more arrow wood, and prepared to rejoin his friends.
It was late summer or autumn -- evidenced by the sloeberry, which was then in season -- and a sudden storm and drop in temperature while the Iceman was crossing the crest may have forced him to take refuge in a basin 3 m to 5 m (10 ft. to 16 ft.) deep, ridged on both sides. There he died. Writing in last week's issue of Science, a team of experts suggested that the Iceman "was in a state of exhaustion perhaps as a consequence of adverse weather conditions. He therefore may have lain down . . . fallen asleep and frozen to death."
While the Iceman lay exposed, a bird might have torn the small hole found on the back of his head, but a heavy snowfall soon covered the body, protecting it from further depredation. Soon the glacier moved in, flowing over the basin. "We know that if he had been trapped in the glacier," says glaciologist Gerhard Markl, "the body and the implements would have been ground up beyond recognition. When we recover bodies from a glacier, we often find a leg here, an arm there."
Safely tucked away in a deep "pool" in the glacial stream, protected from currents and preserved by the frigid -6 degrees C temperature, the Iceman lay undisturbed for more than 53 centuries. And centuries more might have passed before he was discovered were it not for a foehn that last year delivered tons of North African desert sand to the Alpine ridges. "This is a common phenomenon," explains climatologist Dreiseitel, "but in 1991 it coincided with a winter that produced little snow, and the coating of sand increased the rate of melt on the high peaks." All over the Alps that summer, glaciers retreated -- including Similaun. Even then, it was only by chance that the world learned of the Iceman. "By the end of September," says Spindler, "he would have been buried under a half-meter of snow. Most probably, he would have remained in his glacial grave for at least another hundred years."
THE CUSTODY CONUNDRUM