5,300 year-old blood offers clue in world's coldest case

Oetzi is the name given to the shriveled, 5,300-year-old raisin of a prehistoric body that was found in the Italian Alps in 1991, accompanied with goatskin leggings, a copper-head axe and a quiver of arrows. He's been a boon to researchers, shedding light on the eating habits and getting-shot-in-the-back-with-arrows habits of early man. Now, researchers have found frozen blood cells around his wounds using "atomic force microscopy," giving them an unprecedented opportunity to examine the oldest blood on the planet. Studying the clotting elements present in the preserved blood cells has shown the arrow to his back killed Oetzi quite quickly, another clue in the mystery of the murdered iceman: the coldest case in the world.