Otzi's bow

[FrankM]

Interesting study of the man who was found in a peat bog. He was about 8,000 years old and had a yew bow. They would like to see someone duplicate his bow and string and see if their findings are correct. If I was a bowyer, I'd be severely tempted! Has this been done?

 http://www.primitiveways.com/Otzi\\'s_bow.html

[Terry Green]

Move to Trad History/Collecting

[dirtguy]

Actually, he wasn't found in a peat bog, he was found by hikers in a high pass in the alps.  He had been frozen in a glacier, but as it melted, his body was revealed.  

It is questionable as to whether his bow was finished or not - the dimensions indcate it might have required more work to be at a reasonable draw weight.

Otzi has fascinated me since they found him - his whole kit was pretty cool. The fact that they found a point in his back says his enemy's bows worked pretty well...

[Bjorn]

As I recall the Holmgaard bow was found in a peat bog in Denmark.......ir has been replicated from published dimentions many times.
Dirtguy is correct that the consensus is Otzi did have an unfinished bow-this is supported by the dimensions of his bow.
Whoever shot him did not recover the body judging by the items that were still in his possession which included a copper axe-a priceless object of the day.

[FrankM]

There was speculation that his bow was 50#.  Is that true? Holmgaard bow? What about his arrows?

[jrbows]

Pretty sure one of my primitive archery issues has a replica of the bow done by someone who knew how,if nobody else answers I'll try to dig it out.

[Mudd]

I've often wondered if he wasn't shot by some woman's jealous husband or maybe it was a drug deal gone bad?

He did have some pretty cool stuff on him. If his killer had found him I bet all we would have found would have been a naked body.
IMHO
God bless, Mudd

[d. ward]

Jay StCharles built a pretty good reproduction of the bow several years ago or at least his and a few friends consept of what they believed to be Otiz's bow.Some folks said it was not a bow at all but maybe a walking stick.Guess will never really know bd

[dirtguy]

Otzi had several shafts that he was working on (viburnum and dogwood) and a couple of broken arrows.  His bow showed signs of being worked, but some estimates say that it would have drawn about #150, much more than he could have handeled. So the specualtion is that he had been in a fight/battle already and had broken his previous bow and started a new one.  He also had recent cut wounds on his hands.  

Check Wikipedia for some good reading

[tecum-tha]

http://www.iceman.it/en/oetzi-the-iceman

Please do not speculate as much, but read the facts in the above link...
It is even in english...

And that linked article in the first post is lousy. A lot of maybe , could be etc.

There are full time archelogists working on the finds and a lot of them are excellent wood bowyers as well.