Interesting study of the man who was found in a peat bog. He was about 8,000 years old and had a yew bow. They would like to see someone duplicate his bow and string and see if their findings are correct. If I was a bowyer, I'd be severely tempted! Has this been done?

http://www.primitiveways.com/Otzi\\'s_bow.html

Move to Trad History/Collecting

Actually, he wasn't found in a peat bog, he was found by hikers in a high pass in the alps.  He had been frozen in a glacier, but as it melted, his body was revealed.  

It is questionable as to whether his bow was finished or not - the dimensions indcate it might have required more work to be at a reasonable draw weight.

Otzi has fascinated me since they found him - his whole kit was pretty cool. The fact that they found a point in his back says his enemy's bows worked pretty well...

As I recall the Holmgaard bow was found in a peat bog in Denmark.......ir has been replicated from published dimentions many times.
Dirtguy is correct that the consensus is Otzi did have an unfinished bow-this is supported by the dimensions of his bow.
Whoever shot him did not recover the body judging by the items that were still in his possession which included a copper axe-a priceless object of the day.

There was speculation that his bow was 50#.  Is that true? Holmgaard bow? What about his arrows?

Pretty sure one of my primitive archery issues has a replica of the bow done by someone who knew how,if nobody else answers I'll try to dig it out.

I've often wondered if he wasn't shot by some woman's jealous husband or maybe it was a drug deal gone bad?

He did have some pretty cool stuff on him. If his killer had found him I bet all we would have found would have been a naked body.
IMHO
God bless, Mudd

Jay StCharles built a pretty good reproduction of the bow several years ago or at least his and a few friends consept of what they believed to be Otiz's bow.Some folks said it was not a bow at all but maybe a walking stick.Guess will never really know bd

Otzi had several shafts that he was working on (viburnum and dogwood) and a couple of broken arrows.  His bow showed signs of being worked, but some estimates say that it would have drawn about #150, much more than he could have handeled. So the specualtion is that he had been in a fight/battle already and had broken his previous bow and started a new one.  He also had recent cut wounds on his hands.  

Check Wikipedia for some good reading

http://www.iceman.it/en/oetzi-the-iceman

Please do not speculate as much, but read the facts in the above link...
It is even in english...

And that linked article in the first post is lousy. A lot of maybe , could be etc.

There are full time archelogists working on the finds and a lot of them are excellent wood bowyers as well.