Iceman Killed by Asteroid

Another from lifeinitaly.com. I was searching the Web for news articles that showed world opinion of the political goings on in the United States with regard to the primaries and Barack Obama and I came across a couple of articles that piqued my interest.
Here's the second:

(Source: lifeinitaly.com)

(ANSA) - Bergamo, June 4 - The prehistoric mummy known as the Iceman was either killed by an asteroid or during a ritual sacrifice, a lecturer at England's Bristol University believes.

Addressing a conference attended by experts from five Italian universities, Space Technology Professor Mark Hempsell said he believed new evidence of an asteroid landing could be linked to the Iceman's death. Hempsell, who spent five years deciphering and translating an Assyrian tablet discovered in northern Iraq in the 19th century, said it provided evidence of the hit.

''The tablet bears the diary of an astronomer, who described what he saw in the sky that day,'' Hempsell explained.''Given the geographical vicinity and the period of history, it seems feasible that the asteroid's landing on earth and the Iceman's death could be connected''.

According to Hempsell, the tablet suggests the asteroid landed in Austria in around 3,000 BC, about 40 kilometres from the site where the mummy's body was found in 1991. The tablet translated by the academic describes the annihilation of communities living within 100 kilometres of the spot where the asteroid landed.

Hempsell believes the asteroid landing could also explain his second theory: that the Iceman, also known as Oetzi, may have been a powerful man who was the victim of a ritual sacrifice made to appease the mighty forces who sent the asteroid. The body, which dates back to 3000 BC, has spawned a global cottage industry of studies since he was found in a glacier in the Oetz mountain valley.

There have been discoveries about what he ate and what illnesses he suffered from, as well as a keen debate on how he died. A CAT scan revealed an arrow wound in his body, leading most experts to conclude he was shot during a fight with rival hunters.

However, the precise cause of his death continues to attract various theories. One academic has suggested he was assassinated in a tribal power struggle, while another expert claims the shooting was part of a ritual sacrifice.

Another study - fiercely contested by patriotic residents of this formerly Austrian region who see Oetzi as their proud forefather - reckons he was cast out from his community because a low sperm count rendered him childless.

Forensic science has been made great strides since the Iceman was found by a couple of German hikers in 1991.

''We know so much about him, that he had blue eyes and a few diseases, was getting on a bit at 46, and died from an arrow wound,'' said Bolzano Archaeology Museum Director Angelika Fleckinger.

''But we will probably never know what really happened in the last hours and minutes of his life''.

I'm always fascinated by the iceman when I hear about him. I like the theory that he was shot by an arrow. I think the asteroid theory is a little far-fetched. I also don't think he would have been shot in the shoulder by an arrow as part of a ritual sacrifice. Seems to random and unorganized to me. I think he was murdered.

And can I just say that it bugs me that the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata's (National Associated Press Agency) style of placing the period outside of the quotation mark is annoying to me. Definitely not Associated Press Stylebook. Petty, I know, but annoying.