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Experts
from Bristol, Birmingham, Oxford and Trento (in Italy) will
be discussing the intriguing question of just how Ötzi - as
he is known - perished on the Tyrolean Alps.
Theories vary... some say he bled to death from a wound in
his shoulder, others prefer to say the cause was cold and
hunger.
Among the speakers at Thursday's event will be Professor Annaluisa
Pedrotti, the archaeologist from the team working on Ötzi,
and Dr Franco Nicolis, a specialist on the Copper Age in northern
Italy.
Icy grave
Ötzi
the Iceman was discovered by two hikers in 1991 when they
found a body embedded in the melting ice of the Schnalstal
glacier, high in the Italian Alps.
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| Ötzi
wore a grass cape and goatskin leggings |
He
was still wearing goatskin leggings and a grass cape and his
copper-headed axe and a quiver full of arrows were lying nearby.
Back in the lab, radiocarbon dating revealed the body to be
more than 5,000 years old.
Ötzi
became an archaeological sensation, providing a unique snapshot
of someone who lived in the Alps around the time when humans
were switching from stone to metal tools.
His copper axe is the only one ever found with all its fixings
in place and the preservation of other artifacts is unparalleled.
Speculation
Andrew
Winter, President of Bristol University's
Archaeological Society, said: "There has been much speculation
as to how Ötzi died.
"Years of examination and x-rays had not come up with
an answer until, in June last year, an Italian radiologist
at the local hospital saw what
everyone else had missed - there was a flint arrow head embedded
in Ötzi's shoulder.
"But how had it got there and was it that that killed
him?"
Archaeologists
from Bristol University are putting on an evening of talks
about Ötzi the Iceman.
Along with colleagues from Oxford, Birmingham and Trento they
will present an overview of this remarkable find and debate
the reasons why he died.
The talks are open to the public and aimed at a non-specialist
audience.
They will be held in the Tyndall Lecture Theatre, Department
of Physics, Tyndall Avenue and start at 4pm on Thursday 14
November 2002.
To round off the evening there will be a wine reception at
about 7.30pm.
Admission is £5 on the door, (concessions £2.50)
and you don't have to be there on the dot as latecomers will
be made welcome.
Programme for the evening:
4.00
pm
Professor Dr Annaluisa Pedrotti (Trento) & Professor Lawrence
Barfield (Birmingham) The Iceman: Who, What, Where, When ...
4.30
pm
Dr Paul Pettitt (Bristol) & Professor Robert Hedges (Oxford)
Radiocarbon Dating of the Iceman
5.00
pm
Professor Richard Harrison (Bristol) The Iceman and the Transformation
of Europe
COFFEE
BREAK
6.00
pm
Dr Franco Nicolis (Trento) & Dr Volker Heyd (Bristol)
His Journey Through the Mountains: The Copper Age North and
South of the Alps
6.45
pm
Prof. Dr. Annaluisa Pedrotti (Trento) Current Research on
the Iceman's Archaeology
7.30pm
Wine reception
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