FIRE

Fire may have been critical to Otzi's survival in the cold mountains , and he carried a firemaking kit with him in a pair of birch-bark containers with charcoal. A belt pouch contained flints for starting sparks, and fungus for tinder. For fuel he would have used reticulated willow, green alder, Norway spruce, pine, elm and maybe amelanchier. Otzi would have carried live embers with him, insulating the bark container with Norway maple leaves and grass.

FOOD

One of the most amazing things about Otzi is that scientists can determine what he ate for his last meal, and can learn a great deal about his dietary habits. What they found was evidence of an agricultural society in part, but also of hunters and gatherers. Scientists think Otzi and those he lived with grew and cultivated primitive grain, but also hunted and actively foraged for wild foods, from mushrooms to fruit.

Otzi's teeth were very worn down, which could be explained in part by the eating of dried meat and grain that had been ground in quartz-sandstone containers. However, because food was virtually unprocessed, Otzi had no cavities.

Experts think that Otzi ate his last meal about eight hours before he died, well down in a valley to the south of the high mountains where he ended up that night. His last meal was unleaved bread made of einkorn wheat (a staple of his diet), probably an herb, and a bit of meat.

Researchers think that Otzi didn't have an ounce of extra fat on his body because of a combination of difficult lifestyle and irregular diet.

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