Umlaut, there's a word you don't see every day. I agree, let's tighten up the OP spelling.
I've been on an Otzi binge lately, reading a lot and also watching some videos including some made by a very skilled guy, Shawn Woods, who recreated Otzi's dagger, arrows, and copper axe etc using only the original technology. It is wild to see the tools he created and their effectiveness. But they are delicate compared to our tools.
I think a lot of us tree guys and ranchers really love and appreciate our tools. I know I really do, I like to keep them in tip top shape and make them last for ages. Otzi probably had the same gear gene we have as he seemed pretty well equipped for his trek at 11,000' in the mountains (that is damn high, there is a lot of unknown as to why the heck he was so high up in the mountains- one can do a lot of mountain traveling and traversing without reaching that elevation).
So, at work yesterday I was thinking about him, thinking about how our modern materials, machines and tools relative to his, are like from another planet. I watched the crane lift with seemingly no effort, 2000lbs pieces of wood from down a steep hillside up into the level roadway where we can work easily on them with our chainsaws which cut like butter, while wearing our warm, well fitting clothes and boots etc, etc. For Otzi and his ilk to be out there equipped with only natural materials comprising his clothes and tools (except for the copper blade axe, which experts claim was a very recent and epic advancement of the time), well it is just mindblowingly hard core, and not even in a wow cool, fun way. More in kind of a grim way- survival boiled down to the strength, endurance and resilience in one's own body, and the intelligence, intuition, and spirit in one's heart and mind. A serious culture of survival of the fittest.
When we work or play outside, we have tools and gear with extremely well tuned fit and function. Five f'g thousand years ago, all they had was just a few steps above Naked and Afraid. But like FFZ says, its all relative, they probably thought in many ways they had it made.
Its fascinating to think how it was then and how insanely far we have progressed since then.
