Flint dagger
Ötzi owned a functional dagger. The dagger has a flint blade and an ash wood handle. Ötzi’s dagger is the only fully preserved dagger from the Copper Age.
Ötzi’s 13 cm dagger has a flint blade and an ash wood handle. The blade was forced into the wooden handle and bound with animal sinew. A string was attached to the end of the handle. The 12 cm sheath is made from lime tree bast. On the side of the sheath is a leather eyelet, presumably used to attach the dagger to the belt.
The sheath is considerably larger than the dagger blade which is very small, hardly bigger than an arrowhead, perhaps because it was often resharpened. To sharpen his flint tools, Ötzi used a retoucheur to remove tiny fragments. Tests have shown that the flint came from the Lessini Mountains, an area east of Lake Garda.