Vienna - Tattoos found on a prehistoric Alpine mummy are evidence that Europeans practised acupuncture some 2,000 years before the Chinese, scientists said yesterday.
A 5,200-year-old corpse discovered in a glacier in the Alpine Oetz valley between Austria and Italy in 1991 showed 15 groups of simple tattoos on the back and legs which tallied with those used in modern acupuncture, said Dr Frank Bahr, president of the German Academy for Acupuncture.