by Tattoos on the arms of a Siberian “icemumie” who lived 2,500 years ago were revealed in detail for the first time.
Experts believe that tattoos would probably have been everyday in the entire history worldwide, but physical evidence of old body art is rare, since the skin is not often preserved after death.
But a woman from the Pacyk culture of Siberia, who lived in the Altai mountains more than two millennia ago, is an exception after he was colored in a deep burial chamber within the permafrost. These graves were first discovered in 1895 and were examined for decades.
For the first time, a new technology of high -quality digital imagination has uncovered details of works of art in the skin of one of these buried people.
“The tattoos of the Pacyk Culture – Pastoralists of the Iron Age of the Altai -Berge – have long fascinated the archaeologists due to their elaborate figurative designs,” said the study author Dr. Gino Caspari from the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology and the University of Bern.
A 3D scan of the mummy was produced and expert tattoo artists were recruited to examine the tattoos in both arms.
Skin after Post -Mortem -the pictures show that the tattoos did not play a specific role in the funeral ritual and may have lost their importance than the individual died -G. Caspari & M. Vavulin
The analysis showed that the tattoos on the right forearm were more detailed and technical than the links and probably from different people.
The woman had a tattoo of a rooster on the left thumb and an moose that was attacked by a cat -like animal on her left forearm, which is relatively simple.
However, there was a bigger piece on her right forearm that would probably have needed two sessions. This piece was more complicated and required a high level of qualification and several custom tools.
The work of art comprised two mieos-like creatures, in which large antlers of cat line predators were attacked, which look like leopards and tiger. The work is of such a high quality that even for contemporary tattoos that use modern devices “would be a challenge, the scientists wrote in their study.
This is what Dr. believes Caspari, shows that tattooing was not only decorative, but an experienced craft that was estimated by society.
“Tattoo is not only created as a symbolic decoration, but as a specialized craft – one that required technical skills, aesthetic sensitivity and formal training or training,” he said.
In the Pacyk culture, animals, riding horses and warfare were guarded, and the tattoos reflect these priorities.
Idealized artistic renderings of the tattoos – G. Caspalt and M. Vavulin
Earlier studies have shown that the tattoos often take on both the form of animal fighting scenes and “fantastic compound animals”.
The tattoos that can be seen on four Pazyryk people who are all 40 or older at the time of death include a horse and tiger fights, birds and hunger with beaks.
The analysis of the tattoos shows that they were carried out using several multi-point tools. A finer instrument was used to make the tips of the antlers, for example, while the body lines were thicker.
“As a result, I had the feeling that we were much closer to seeing the people behind art, how they worked and learned and made mistakes,” said Dr. Caspari. “The pictures came to life.”
The study will be published in Antique magazine.
