Researchers
have discovered the oldest figurative tattoos in the world on the upper arms of
two ancient Egyptian mummies, the British Museum said on Thursday.
A
male mummy was found to have tattoos depicting a wild bull and a Barbary sheep
on its upper arm, while a female has linear and S-shaped motifs on its upper
arm and shoulder. The
artworks appeared as dark smudges in natural light but researchers at the
British Museum and Oxford University's Faculty of Oriental Studies found the
tattoos in 2017 with infrared photography. "It's
actually providing completely new insights into the use of tattooing,"
Daniel Antoine, curator of physical anthropology at the British Museum, told
Reuters.
"The
location of these tattoos suggests they were designed to be highly visible on
the upper arm and the shoulder," he said, adding that the discoveries push
back by 1,000 years evidence for tattooing in Africa.
The
mummies were unearthed 100 years ago in the Egyptian town of Gebelein, around
40 km (24 miles) south of modern-day Luxor. They date to 3351 to 3017 BC, which
is the Predynatic period before Egypt was unified by the first Pharaoh. Researchers
said the female tattoos may have denoted status, bravery or magical knowledge,
while the male's were likely symbols of virility and strength.
Prior
to the discovery, archaeologists believed tattooing in Egypt was only performed
on women, as tattoos were only depicted on female figurines of the period. The
oldest surviving tattoos are geometric designs on a mummified corpse known as
Otzi, who lived around 5,300 years ago and was discovered preserved in the
Italian Alps in 1991. The research, lead by Antoine and Oxford
University's Renee Friedman, was published in the Journal of Archaeological
Science on March 1.
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