plainoldme wrote:
I heard a news blurb that there was an arrow hole in his back that had previously been missed: hardly surprising, given the leathery state of his skin.
The arrow wound was found in summer 2001 ... and his skin
is nowadays well kept at -6° C and at 98% humidity
In the neolithicum, the Alp region had been more populated - as you said correctly, plainoldme - by celtic tribes.
All the findings and the iceman himself tell us exactly nothing about the language he once articulated.
He spoke almost certainly not Indo-European, since those people arrived later.
So we can only say that he spoke some kind of pre-Indo-European language, perhaps one, which is farest similar to the Basque.
(But you are correct: set will explain all a lot better and especially well-founded!)