Copper Age Europe · About 3300 BC

Ötzi: a Copper Age traveler in the Alps

In 1991 two hikers found a man in the ice of the Alps. He had lain there for about 5,300 years. Students turn detective: what do Ötzi's body, clothes and tools tell us about life, and death, in Copper Age Europe?

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
10–13
On the map
3 steps, 3300 BC to 3000 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In 1991 two hikers found a man in the ice of the Alps. He had lain there for about 5,300 years. Students turn detective: what do Ötzi's body, clothes and tools tell us about life, and death, in Copper Age Europe?

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate the find site of Ötzi and explain why the ice preserved him.
  • Use Ötzi's equipment to describe life in Copper Age Europe.
  • Explain how scientists worked out how he died.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

3300 BC

High in the Alps

Open the map in 3300 BC and zoom in on the Ötztal Alps on the border of Austria and Italy. Ötzi died near a mountain pass here, more than 3,200 m high. Why would someone cross the Alps on foot?

Open this view on the map
b

3300 BC

Valleys to the south

Follow the valleys south toward Bolzano and the Adige river. Tests on his teeth and bones suggest Ötzi grew up and lived in the valleys south of the pass. What could valleys offer that mountains could not?

Open this view on the map
c

3000 BC

Copper Age Europe

Zoom out to see Europe in 3000 BC. Ötzi lived in the Copper Age, when people had only recently learned to work metal. Where do you think his copper, flint and food could have come from?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Ice preserved Ötzi's body for more than 5,000 years. What can a body tell scientists that tools cannot?
  2. He carried a copper axe, a flint dagger and an unfinished bow. What do his tools say about his life?
  3. An arrowhead was found in his shoulder in 2001. What questions does that raise about his death?
  4. When he was found, both Austria and Italy wanted him. Who should own the body of an ancient person?
  5. Ötzi has more than 60 tattoos, many of them over his joints. What might they have been for?
4

Game round

9 min

No Rule History ruler lived in Ötzi's time. Play one round as Hatshepsut, who ruled about 1,800 years after him, and discuss: Ötzi lived in a small farming community without kings. How would his life have been different under a pharaoh?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.