Palynology is the study of pollen. Not immediately obvious as a forensic science, but some plants live in very limited geographical areas, or produce pollen at very specific times. Palynologists reckon that the pollen of the hop hornbeam tree found in Otzi’s stomach means that he died in early spring or summer, and was probably at low altitude at most a day before he died.

Like all crime scenes, the scientist here is faced with trying to discover how the scene came to be the way it was discovered. This is the evidence and you must use that evidence to create a story; not the other way around. In modern crime terms; you don’t find a suspect and then try to fit the evidence around that suspect. A scientist tries to find evidence against any story, and the more that they look and find that the story stands up, the more they are inclined to believe it. But the evidence can fit many stories. The job of the scientist is to devise tests that can disprove or prove some of these stories.

Otzi may have died peacefully, been attacked by one or more people, or animals, or had a tragic accident. Some pieces of evidence fit one or more of these stories better than others. As in real life crime investigation, we will never be absolutely sure of the truth.

Examination of ‘the scene’ where Otzi lay, discovered some weapons, tools, and other bits and pieces.

Alongside fingerprints, DNA is of course, now the technique that most people think of when they think of forensic science. Yet DNA fingerprinting, as the original technique was called, was first used in court in 1988. Current forensic DNA technology, now called DNA profiling, can detect less than 100 picograms of DNA. That is 0.0000000001 grams of DNA. One single cell’s DNA, and you have about 100,000,000,000,000 cells in your body, can be detected.There’s not much chance that you won’t leave some trace at a scene!

DNA analysis of these and his clothes apparently revealed the DNA of at least four individuals. Some claim that this may show that he was attacked by three people, and the finding of blood on his cloak is thought to suggest that he carried someone on his back.

However, there is nothing to suggest that all of the blood got there during the same incident. Some of these stains could have been made weeks or months before he died. DNA from several animals was found on his weapons. Did this prove that was what he hunted? How else could the DNA have got onto the spears?

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Content last updated: 10/01/2006

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