Going strictly by the cryptsy and mintpal charts, is this a dead coin?
Not at all. Many just have extremely short attention spans.
Trade volume: under $500 per day
Number of coins: "too many" (20 billion, give or take) and growing "too fast" (25% for the first year)
Price follows the above, giving you the 1 satoshi rate we're seeing.
My thoughts? Yes, ZEIT is pretty much dead. There are so many other coins out there that have gathered more interest, and if no one is interested in a coin then it really serves little purpose.