The multi-material fur coat, the sophisticated shoes, the full toolkit including the retoucheur for flintworking — these were not the minimum necessary for survival but a comprehensive and high-quality set of equipment.

His apparent age at death — mid-40s, which represented a substantial lifespan for the period — might also be taken as evidence of elevated status, since individuals with access to better food, better shelter, and protection from some of the routine risks of the period might have better survival odds.

None of this is definitive.

The genetic evidence does not directly speak to social status, and the archaeological evidence is suggestive but not conclusive. Ötzi might have been a community leader, a herder of high-status livestock, a trader, a craftsman with specialized knowledge, or simply a person who had accumulated equipment over a long and active life without any specific elevated social position.

The murder itself has been interpreted in various ways relative to status.