When the 5300-year-old mummy was found in the Tyrolean Alps, scientists figured he had died alone while hunting. But computed tomography (CT) scans have revealed a 2-centimeter-long flint arrowhead that ripped through his scapula and is buried about 6 cm deep under his shoulder.

The arrow missed vital organs, which means the man probably suffered a drawn-out and painful death, pathologist Eduard Egarter-Vigl and radiologist Paul Gostner of the Bolzano hospital in Italy related at a press conference. The missile also damaged nerves and possibly paralyzed his left arm. Its path indicates that the bow man was standing behind and slightly below the Ice Man.

Anthropologist Horst Seidler of the University of Vienna, head of the Ice Man research team, says that the mummy --which is kept chilled at the archaeological museum in Bolzano--had been turned so that researchers could take new x-rays before extracting bone and tissue samples for research. The x-rays indicated that there was something in the shoulder; CT scans--which had never before been done on the mummy--then revealed it to be an arrowhead. The tissue around the wound is relatively dense, says Seidler, indicating "extended heavy bleeding."

Seidler notes that back in 1994 he was among a team of scientists who proposed that the Ice Man did not just collapse from cold or illness but suffered "personal disaster before death." That was based on "extremely weak arguments," he says; now it turns out they were right.