The changing interpretations about the Iceman's cause of death, from the time of his discovery to the present.

There have been various changing interpretations for the cause of the Iceman’s death. One of the earliest theories of the death of the iceman was"A peaceful death," including himself getting caught in a heavy snowfall and falling asleep to his death. The only conclusion made at this time was this theory of freezing to death as there were no other traces of death including no visible damage from predators. This was due to the fact that during the discovery of the iceman, observations by the naked eye did not reveal what X rays later on showed 10 years after, along with CT scans on June 2001 the tip of an arrow lodged in him.

Following this theory, scientists presumed the Iceman was injured in a fight or brawl before dying. An injury in his hand, suggesting a knife fight beforehand in conjunction with X-rays revealing broken ribs, placed question on whether he was in a brawl or suffered injury from a fall. Although this was put to rest once X-rays were redone and observations proved the ribs were compressed by snow and overlapping of rib bones were misread.

Another theory of his death would be that the Otzi Iceman was a homicide, this theory was widely accepted and has been finalized and the Otzi iceman's cause of death. An arrow was found lodged in the iceman’s left shoulder blade causing him to bleed for hours as it pentrated an essential artery causing him to die a painful and agonizing death. An injury in his hand from a fight a few days before his death leading on with his escape from town (thus the unfinished weapons) draws conclusion to the fact that he was escaping from someone else who murdered him later on.

Following this, another imposed theory was that the iceman died from an unsuccessful plan. Theory was placed that the iceman got into a brawl with his attacker and injuring his hand in the knife fight and whilst escaping got shot by an arrow for his prized axe. He then devised a plan to save himself by setting up camp and placing his items on rocks and positioning his quiver for the kill. Otzi took along a dagger in case is plan failed. Covering himself in snowdrift to hide himself from the attacker, it is presumed that the attacker gave up and Otzi fell asleep and died. Additionally, According to Walter Leitner of the Institute for Ancient and Early History at the University of Innsbruck in Austria The Otzi iceman was a victim of “powerplay” and was killed by another group for his high status and to assume his power as he could have been a shaman (assumed from his copper axe which was not common). They killed him at a distance in order to make it seem like an accident and left his items in order to not raise suspicion.

In conclusion, scientists have ended their theory that because the iceman had a large meal before he died, he was not struggling or rushing to escape from anyone and because his killer was scared to be identified, evident in the removal of their arrow and the fact that they did not take his valuable axe, they conclude that the ice man was killed by someone he knew.