Leaving a Mark: Elaborate Tattoos Found on 3,000-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy

Ancient Origins

A bioarchaeologist studying mummies found in Deir el-Medina, Egypt has discovered a special kind of ancient tattoo. While most Egyptian mummies with tattoos only have patterns of dots and dashes, those present on the remains of a woman from 3,000 years ago are said to be the first example of a mummy from dynastic Egypt to depict actual objects. 

The study comes from Anne Austin of Stanford University who presented her findings last month at a meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. By using infrared lighting and an infrared sensor, Austin found that the mummy has over 30 tattoos – although many of them are not visible to the naked eye.

As the mummy's skin is distorted and covered in resin, it is difficult to see many of the tattoos, such as these Hathor cows, with the naked eye. (Anne Austin)

And speaking of eyes, one of the symbols found on the woman are wadjet eyes, which an article in the journal Nature says are “possible symbols of protection against evil that adorn the mummy’s neck, shoulders and back.” As Austin told Nature, “Any angle that you look at this woman, you see a pair of divine eyes looking back at you.”

A blue faience Wadjet amulet with the sacred eye outlined in black. (Harrogate Museums and Arts service/ CC BY SA 4.0)

Along with the wadjet eyes, Austin also found baboons on the mummy’s neck, cows on her arm, and lotus blossoms on her hips. Austin explained that the size and location of the designs (many not within her own reach), show that they held a special significance. She also said that the tattooing “would’ve been very time consuming, and in some areas of the body, extremely painful.” She added that the fact that the woman received such a quantity also demonstrates “not only her belief in their importance, but others around her as well”.

• The Tattooed Priestesses of Hathor
• Ancient Ink: How Tattoos Can Reveal Hidden Stories of Past Cultures
• Scientists discover new tattoos on 5,300-year-old Otzi the Iceman mummy

Specifically, the tattoos are thought to have a strong religious meaning. For example, the cows are associated with the goddess Hathor. According to Nature, “The symbols on the throat and arms may have been intended to give the woman a jolt of magical power as she sang or played music during rituals for Hathor.”

Hathor as a cow suckling a pharaoh. (CC BY NC SA 2.0)

In the late 19th century several other tattooed female mummies related to Hathor were discovered in Deir el-Bahari, the site of royal and high status burials. The women have been called ‘The Tattooed Priestesses of Hathor’ and the most famous is Amunet, Priestess of the Goddess Hathor. The women have tattoos comprised of dots and dashes and it has been suggested that the markings were likely therapeutic in nature.
In comparison, Emily teeter, an Egyptologist at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute in Illinois, told Nature that she believes the tattoos on the mummy from Deir el-Medina could be a sign of the woman’s religious nature. As some of the marks are more faded than others, Austin agreed that that the woman’s religious status may have grown with age.
Teeter also revealed that the discovery left her and some other Egyptologists “dumbfounded”. She said, “We didn’t know about this sort of expression before.” While rare, the tattooed woman is not one of a kind, however, and Nature reports that Austin “has already found three more tattooed mummies at Deir el-Medina, and hopes that modern techniques will uncover more elsewhere.”

Anthropologist Ghada Darwish Al-Khafif uses infrared imaging to examine tattoos on the mummy's back. (Anne Austin)

Featured Image: The mummy's tattoos include two seated baboons depicted between a wadjet eye (top row), a symbol of protection. Source: Anne Austin
By Alicia McDermott

New Tattoos Found on Oetzi the Iceman

by Rossella Lorenzi
Discovery News

New scans have revealed a total of 61 tattoos on the 5,300-year-old mummified body of Ötzi the Iceman, reigniting the debate on whether the inkings were a form of acupuncture that predates the first recorded use of the practice in China by 2,000 years.
A number of tattoos were noticed on the Iceman ever since his discovery in 1991 in a melting glacier in the Ötztal Alps (hence the name). However, the markings, produced by fine incisions into which charcoal was rubbed, were not easily identifiable because of the dark color of the mummy’s skin.
To accurately determine the exact number and location of the tattoos on the Iceman's body, Marco Samadelli and colleagues from the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy used innovative non-invasive multispectral photographic imaging techniques able to capture a range of wavelengths, from IR to UV.
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The researchers slightly thawed the body in order to eliminate the ice layer wrapping the surface of the Iceman and photographed the body systematically from all directions.
"By covering a range including non-visible and visible light, all possible tattoos could be detected," Samadelli and colleagues wrote in the Journal of Cultural Heritage.
It emerged the mummified body was marked with 61 tattoos divided into 19 groups across various body parts.
"It is an extraordinary result. Finally, we have been able to clarify many doubts on the existence of these tattoos," Samadelli told Discovery News.
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The majority consisted of linear markings running parallel to each other, between 2 mm (0.07 inches) and 8 mm (0.3 inches) apart. The marks were between 1 mm (0.03 inches) and 3 mm (0.1 inches) thick and between 7 mm (0.2 inches) and 40 mm (1.5 inches) long.
In two locations, on the knee of the right leg and on the ankle of the left foot, the lines formed a perpendicular cross.
The highest concentration of drawings was found in the lower section of the legs, while the longest tattoos were detected around the wrist of the left hand. Visible tattoos, which have been documented before, lay on the back of the lumbar region.
The new imaging technique also allowed the researchers to detect a previously unrecognized group of tattoos.
"It is located in the right lower thoracic region, showing four parallel lines of length varying from 20 mm (0.7 inches) to 25 mm (0.9 inches)," Samadelli and colleagues explained.
"This is of particular interest, as this represents the first tattoo that was detected on the Iceman’s frontal part of the torso," they added.
It was previously believed the tattoos were made as a sort of treatment or diagnosis of health problems, in particular lower back pain and degenerative joint disease of his knees, ankle and wrist. Other studies associated the marking to a primitive form of acupuncture as they were mainly found along acupuncture meridians used to treat back pain.
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"The newly identified tattoo at the chest of the Iceman seems to contradict the theory, that they were related to lower back pain and degenerative joint diseases, as this mark is not located close to a joint," said the researchers.
However, they noted the Iceman also suffered from conditions that could have also caused pain in the chest area, such as gallbladder stones, worms in his colon, and atherosclerosis.
"Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the Iceman's tattoos were indeed applied as a therapeutic treatment," they concluded.
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Samadelli and colleagues now want to use the complete mapping of the Iceman's tattoos in new research into the possible reasons for their application, including their relation to acupuncture points.
"Future comparative studies based on the known health problems of the Iceman as evidenced by radiological investigations and molecular studies, could help to find out whether the tattoos had a therapeutic, diagnostic or more symbolic background," they wrote.