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Introduction
In 1991, the archaeological find of the century was made in the tzaler Alps near the AustrianItalian border. In addition to tzi's body frozen in the snow there were clothing, tools of stone, copper, bone and antler and archery equipment. This was a snapshot of the technology of 5,300 years ago. It is a challenge to derive as much information from the scanty set of data that he left for us. Oh, for a time machine! What can we conclude from examining tzi's bow and arrows? Was it a finished ready-to shoot weapon or a work in progress? Several features can be examined to determine the answer to this question. We know the dimensions of his bow, the material it was made from, the dimensions of arrows, both finished and unfinished, in his quiver; the dimensions of an alleged bowstring and tzi's height and physique. Each of these contains clues to the mystery of the Ice Man. Throughout this article we have based conclusions on the physical dimensions of artifacts found with tzi. Small errors in measuring these dimensions can have major consequences in our conclusions. For example, a 1 mm error in measuring the thickness of tzi's bow would cause a 10 % error in computing the draw weight and a 10 % error in measuring the thickness of tzi's bow would cause a 30 % error in computing the draw weight.
From the dimensions, cross sectional shape and assumed modulus of elasticity of yew wood, we can compute the draw weight and internal strain in the bow limbs versus draw length. This is a fairly straightforward calculation that would be very familiar to a structural engineer. We can also compare the dimensions of tzi's bow with other finished yew longbows. For comparison, the dimensions of a 72 inches long-50 pound yew longbow were obtained from L.E. Stemmler's Essentials of Archery, a classic first published in 1942. The limbs were semielliptical (D shaped) in cross section.
This represents good bowyery in the early part of the twentieth century. The main difference between the two is the greater thickness of tzi's. The proportions are different also. The Stemmler bow shrinks abruptly in thickness above and below the handle section whereas there is very little taper in tzi's. Consequently the Stemmler bow has a rigid, unbending handle section whereas tzi's bends in the handle and is much, much more powerful.
1.25 X 1.5 (32 X 38) 1375 X 1.5 (35 X 38) 1.375 X 1.375 (35 X 35) 1.25 X 15 (32X38)
elliptical elliptical, 11 inches 1.5 X 1.5 (38 X 38) from center 1.25 X 1.5
Bob Kooi, a scientist from the Netherlands who has done extensive modeling of bows ancient and modern, supplied detailed information on a particular Mary Rose bow. The data was in the form of cross-sectional moment of inertia instead of width, thickness and cross-sectional shape. That's completely sufficient because in order to compute the draw weight you must convert the crosssectional data into moment of inertia. Kooi's data is summarized in the following table assuming that the cross-section is elliptical and the thickness is 80 % of the width:
The Mary Rose bows have dimensions very similar to tzi's. Does that mean that he, like the military archers of Henry VIII's England, shot a very powerful bow quite often or was tzi's alleged weapon really an unfinished stave?
neatly coiled, was found in the bottom of tzi's quiver. According to Spindler's book it tapered uniformly from 3.5 mm (.138 in) at one end to 7 mm (.276 in) at the other end and was approximately 1.9 to 2.1 meters (74.8 to 82.7 in) long. The thicker end was knotted If this truly were tzi's bowstring, how powerful a bow could be used with it? The obvious way to find out would be to make a cord of the same material with the same dimensions and test its breaking strength. The simplest rule of thumb for bowstring strength is to make the breaking strength of the string equal to four times the full draw weight of the bow. I measured the diameter of a bowstring made from excellent quality linen by Tim Baker for a 50 pound longbow at 3.5 mm. A string made for a 50 pound bow out of poorer material would have to be even thicker. Spindler's book states that the nocks on tzi's finished arrows were 4 mm wide. That sounds reasonable for a 50 pound bow but not much more. Someone needs to duplicate his bowstring in lime tree or basswood fiber and determine its breaking strength and consequently the draw weight of the bow for which it was intended. Arrow length is not always an acceptable metric for draw length. Native archers of the western United States frequently used short wide bows with short draw length and arrows that were several inches longer than their draw length. Tim Baker pointed out that extra long arrows do a better job of shooting where you point them when using a bow with an excessively wide handle section. We can, however, learn a little bit about the strength of tzi's bow from his arrows. Powerful bows require thick bowstrings and thick bowstrings require wide nocks on the arrows. The nock of one of the finished arrows was 12 mm deep and 4 mm wide. We can estimate from the width of the nock the maximum bowstring diameter and from the bowstring diameter plus an assumed tensile strength of the material we can infer the maximum allowable draw weight of the bow.
Was he a fugitive and could he have used the bow in its existing state?
One possible scenario is that tzi was "on the lam", had hastily grabbed a roughed out bow stave, some partially completed arrows, a bowstring, some other supplies and fled. As a temporary expedient, he could tie the bowstring loosely to the ends of the bow, shoot it as needed and do the finish tillering later at his leisure. This is probably a moot point because detailed X-ray examination of tzi showed that he had a stone arrow point lodged in his back that would have prohibited any attempt at shooting his bow.
instead of the well seasoned wood beloved by the traditional bowyers of the last few centuries.. The reason is obvious to anyone who has tried to do woodworking with stone tools. Green wood is a lot softer than dry seasoned wood. If tzi's roughed out bow had been green wood, the draw weight would be somewhat less.
inches (66.0 cm) Draw weight at 28 166.9 lb inches (71.1 cm) Compressive strain at 1.5% 28 inches
148.5 lb 1.3 %
51.1 lb 1.3 %
With the stated dimensions of tzi's bow it would undoubtedly break if some Herculean bowman attempted to pull a 28 inch arrow because the strain in the wood would be excessive. This is the most compelling reason to claim that tzi's bow was a work in progress.
Conclusions
Evidence for and against the hypothesis that tzi's bow was an unfinished weapon has been presented. If it were a finished weapon it would mean that tzi had a very powerful physique and probably shot his bow on an almost daily basis. Otherwise he would not have the strength to shoot it accurately. It would also mean that X-ray examination of tzi's arm and shoulder bones would show that his skeleton had the characteristics of someone who had a very asymmetric upper body muscular development, characteristic of someone who shoots a very powerful bow. In its original state, the bow was extremely powerful and would have broken on the first shot because the compressive strain in the limbs (1.5%) was so great. The bast fiber bowstring was probably much too thin to support a bow of this weight. The simplest way to transform this stave into a weapon pulling 50 pounds at 26 inches would be to reduce the thickness along the limbs to 69 % of its present value (the cube root of 50/150.9), leaving the width unmodified. This would reduce the maximum strain to 0.97 %, a very safe conservative value for a yew bow. Further research needs to be done on the capabilities (tensile strength and durability) of bowstrings made from Tilia sp. bark fiber. Someone also needs to make and test a yew bow with similar dimensions to tzi's.
References
Spindler, Konrad; 1994, The Man In The Ice, ISBN 0-517-79969-3 Hardy, Robert; Longbow, ISBN 0-9511747-3 Hickman, C.N.; Archery-the technical side, available from PrimitiveWays.com Stemmler, L.E.; 1942, Archery Essentials, available as a download from http://www.stavacademy.co.uk/mimir/archeryessentials.htm Kooi, private communication
(The artwork in the following "Figures" can be seen in the "Bulletin of Primitive Technology" periodical.)
Figure 1. One limb of the bow. Some idiot broke off the other limb. Figure 2. A close-up of the texture of the bow limbs. Figure 3. A cross-section 28 cm from the tip
This article was first published in The Bulletin of Primitive Technology (Spring 2006, #31) E-mail your comments to "Richard A. Baugh" at richardbaugh@comcast.net