Otzi the Iceman & his axe

Yuri Kuchinsky · 2004-06-28T19:39:24+00:00

Greetings, all,The famous Otzi the Iceman had a very interesting copper axewith him -- 99.7 percent pure copper!Here's the photo of the axe, on the Autsrian-Italian border discovered this Icemanin 1991 in the Otzal Alps at about 10,500 feet. NicknamedOtzi for the place he was found, he lived around 5,300 yearsago (3,300 BC).[quote]The scientists were most surprised by a copper axfound close to the body. They were surprisedbecause the copper age was thought to havestarted about 4,000 years ago in that region ofEurope, over 500 years after Otzi died. The axhandle is two feet long and made of yew wood,the blade is a little less than four inches long andis slightly curved at the end with small points atthe tip. An analysis done on the blade showed thatit is 99.7 percent copper, 0.22 percent arsenic, and0.9 percent silver. Because of the arsenic andsilver the copper probably came from a localsource.[unquote]Hmm... Whoever wrote this was obviously very weak in math.Both some of the dates have been confused, and the purity ofmetals. It should be "0.09 percent silver", I suppose.Way to go, Otzi! Your axe is quite something...I wonder if it was cast?All the best,Yuri.Yuri Kuchinsky -=O=- -=O=-TorontoBut scientists, who ought to knowAssure us that it must be so.Oh, let us never, never doubtWhat nobody is sure about. -- Hilaire Belloc

Jun 28, 2004 24 Replies

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Yuri Kuchinsky 22 years ago

These are personal attacks, Tom. Any more of these, and you'll end up in my bozo file, together with a whole bunch of other bozos.

Yuri.

Yuri Kuchinsky -=O=-

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History repeats itself. It has to, because nobody listens.

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Tom McDonald 22 years ago

Yuri,

They are my observations, Yuri, and my opinions. If I have gotten something wrong, show me. If you think I should not present my opinions when I choose, go ahead and kill file me. I prefer folks like Gary Coffman over you any day, especially in the matters of research and discussion.

Tom McDonald

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George 22 years ago

Well Dave it's like this. If Yuris hero heyerdahl didn't mention it then it doesn't exist and any modern sources (from year zero to current) are therefor invalid... your group has been dragged in here by Yuri because he suffers under the belief that you would leap to his defence :-)))

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Martyn Harrison 22 years ago

But it must be added that this has been to our advantage, learning loads of stuff about metallurgy that we would otherwise have not.

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Eric Stevens 22 years ago

You may well be right but my admittedly limited reading on the subject suggests that there is a general agreement that Otzi was carrying an axe of the same kind of arsenical copper as he seems to have been engaged in smelting. Rather than claiming the axe was copper it may be that the axe was a typical arsenical bronze of the period. Unfortunately I have not encountered a report on the composition of the axe.

Gary Coffman's remark that the axe was cast "Only if he threw it" was excellent repartee but otherwise seems to have been wrong.

Eric Stevens

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