Expert believes mummy a sacrifice victim

An expert on mummies believes the frozen mummy found in the Alps a decade ago was a victim of ritual sacrifice.

Johann Reinhard's theory is reported in National Geographic magazine.

Researchers in Austria and Italy who have studied the iceman, nicknamed Otzi, originally thought he was a Bronze Age traveller who died after taking shelter during a storm.

But last year x-rays revealed an arrowhead in Otzi's left shoulder - he had been shot in the back.

Reinhard concludes that it was probably sacrifice because a valuable bronze axe and other artefacts were left with the body, items that a killer would probably have taken.