Learn About Iron Age Mummy Tattoos!
An artist's rendering of the right-forearm mummy tattoo!
Post Author- Ellis Nolan
Tattoos have been a popular form of individual and societal expression for centuries around the world, making them a focal point of study for anthropologists and archaeologists. Unfortunately, the oldest examples are rarely preserved well enough for deep study, since skin usually decomposes before fossilization. In one recent case, however, new technology allowed researchers to draw new conclusions about the tattoos of one fascinating specimen: a well-preserved mummy.
The mummy in question was a member of the Pazyryk culture, a nomadic people that roamed the Eurasian Steppe during the Iron Age, approximately 3,000 to 2,500 years ago. Buried in a tomb in the heights of the Altai mountains in modern day Russia, the mummy, a 50 year old female, was preserved by permafrost, keeping much of its skin as well as surrounding organic materials such as leather and wood, intact thousands of years later. This allowed the researchers to use custom infrared cameras to analyze the mummy’s unique tattoos in never-before-seen detail.
While the Pazyryk individual has multiple tattoos in multiple locations, the researchers note that the right-forearm tattoo is the most impressive, even by modern standards. It features an intricate design of a leopard and a tiger attacking an ungulate (a deer, elk, moose, etc.) that masterfully utilizes the curvature of the wrist to lend the ungulate further depth. The artist also uses perspective to make the tiger face the viewer, making this tattoo unique even among those of Pazyryk style.
The authors conclude that the Pazyryk artist who crafted the subject’s right-forearm tattoo was likely extremely skilled, as modern tattoo artists consulted for this study noted this kind of design would be difficult even for modern artists with modern equipment. This conclusion is also in comparison to the subject’s other tattoos, which are more basic and representative of Pazyryk style. Would you get this mummy’s tattoo?
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