This post is dedicated… to Ötzi, to endurance, to wild lives, to the mushroom.

Ötzi was murdered, shot in the back, an arrow to his left shoulder. Investigators say he bled to death. His preserved body was found in 1991 by two groovy mountaineers.

Hey Ötzi, who were you, why were you trekking mountains? 

Ötzi the Iceman lived 5300 years ago, a betwixt and between the roughneck Stone Age and the bedazzled Bronze Age, also known as Chalcolithic or Copper Age. Technologies to extract, hammer, smelt and harden copper enabled the crafting of stronger, more durable, more malleable, and prettier objects.

Our man carried a flint dagger and.. a copper axe (a rare object that has people guessing, was he a leader, was he esteemed?) My guess he was a loner, a fugitive perhaps, or sulky.. the type to slam a door hard and do one, stealing your axe as he goes. 

What’s In Your Bag? Who Are You Wearing?

It’s reckoned (scientifically) that our man was 48, 5’3”, dark hair and eyes, with a wiry frame. He was O positive, had a gap tooth too. He carried tools to hunt birds and mammals, dig, cut wood. He wore deer, bear, goat, sheep, swamp grass, linen, all fashioned and frequently repaired to trek and survive the Tyrol mountains. 

The object that has long intrigued me..

Our fella carried two types of mushroom: Hoof fungus (Fomes fomentarius) and Birch Polypore (pictured above). Both are bracket fungi that grow on rotting trees, hardwood and birch respectively.

While there are experts, specialists, all the kinds of scientists, there is also gossip. Living off-grid, foraging and making fires (as I do), there are frequent whispers about how The Iceman used his fungi. 
The hoof fungus is excellent tinder to start a fire, and tough enough as an alternative to animal skin. The birch polypore has medicinal properties, I was given a mug of tea (brewed for 8 hours) with the suggestion it eased depression. 

Knife marks are visible in the rounds of birch polypore. Did Ötzi use them to treat cuts? Two rounds threaded onto a sinew, they look like rosary beads. Personally, the detail that got me, the detail that started something, is the threading of the shroom. 
I got my awl and swivelled, piercing a slight hole. I got a bigger tool and did the same. I took a red hot poker and charred a very satisfactory channel. 
And thus began a journey, and I became the only mushroom carver I knew. 

This article would not be possible without the rich information and imagery from the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology https://www.iceman.it/en