The journalist Josef Rohrer takes his readership to the scene of a murder of over 5,000 years old in the Alps. The victim is the “man out of the ice” discovered by hikers at 3,000 meters in 1991, better known as “Ötzi”.
Rohrer has quartered himself with three proven experts for a weekend in a hut near the crime scene: the case analyst Alexander Horn, forensic doctor Oliver Peschel and the alpine archaeologist Andreas Putzler. Together they reconstruct the last days of Ötzi, which started a dangerous journey with insufficient equipment and a hand injury and was finally shot behind. The ice mummy and the finds tell of an exciting era. Chic leather legs and a coat made of goat and sheep leather strips, a valuable copper head, a travel pharmacy and other objects from Ötzi’s backpack give us insights into the knowledge and skills of that time.
The journalist leads the case analysis with skillful questions. To explain Ötzi’s wounds and find the murder motif, the specialists add up a handmade and the fatal shot. The true crime atmosphere seems a bit put on, chatting and the results are mixed together. In terms of color, the book gives a top -up overview of the state of research and the interdisciplinarity of modern archeology. Bettina Wurche
Josef Rohrer
A securing of evidence by Alexander Horn, Oliver Peschel and Andreas Putzer
Folio, 176 pages, € 24, –
ISBN 978-3-85256-904-8