At last, the belt. Ötzi has been in the back of my mind for years, and that is mostly due to the crafty allure of his fanny pack.

The remains might not look like much, but the reconstructed piece is a full-on utility belt that would put Batman to shame.

I tried to take the measurements from The Man in the Ice book, which is technically detailed but the language is hard to follow and there are few pictures to support the descriptions. So I took a look at a reconstruction video or two.

I don't yet have access to the amount of leather for the full belt, and I also wouldn't want to dive right in without understanding the shape. So I took some spare cloth and made a prototype. The Man in the Ice and this wickedly helpful diagram show that the belt was about 73 inches long with a pouch about 8 inches long, with an opening a little more than 3 inches long. On one side of the pouch is a set of loops for holding dongles - more on that later. The belt itself is simply a long strip tapered on both ends.

You can see there are lots of little fringey strings along the stitching - that's because I used this opportunity to experiment with different sewing stitches. The final leather belt will, of course, have none of this foolery, which means that any criticisms of sloppiness are officially outside the scope of this project and will be ignored.

The belt is slim and fits nicely - though I did have to add a bit of length so I could tie the ends easily.

You'll recognize these dangley bits from our previous experimentation with t-shirt yarn.

The pocket is easy to access and wide enough to rummage around in. It is simply a rectangular piece of fabric sewn onto the main belt. Unlike a deep pants pocket, this one is wide and shallow. I think it fits better on the body than the bulgy, bulky depths of man-pockets. Women-pockets don't count - they are shallow illusions and a cruelty to all femme-pants-wearing peoples.

The documentation on Ötzi's pocket is sort of vague - the book mentions "decorative stitching" which may have been used to close the opening. Reconstructors seem to favor a small flap for security. I left this one open, just to see what happened.

What happened was my stuff kept falling out. However, I think with a little editing this might be my new favorite carryall solution. I mean, just look at how good this looks:

The dongle-holder bit is quite fun. On Ötzi's belt it is made up of two leather laces that run in parallel, very much like the MOLLE system used by gunslingers nowadays. Is MOLLE just an excuse for self-identified manly-men to accessorize without feeling girly? Yes. Anyways, on my prototype I only included one line of dongle-holders. I can already tell it's a slick way to carry anything - keyrings clip on nicely and COVID masks loop in and out easily.

The leather belt was dead simple. Using the prototype as a model, I cut the same size pieces and stitched it on with some artificial sinew. You can see here I used a whip stitch around the pocket, which added some strength but also textured the opening so it was easy to find with my hand without fumbling awkwardly around under my shirt.

Like Ötzi's design, I added two strips for various dongles. I believe if Ötzi had caribeaners in his time, he would have made liberal use of them here on his belt.

Yes, I wear this often. It is fantastically comfortable and holds an immense amount of weight without feeling awkward.

I've learned from The Man in the Ice that people in Ötzi's region still make and wear these today. They call them bananas.