Artistic illustration of the tattoo found on the left forearm of the mummy.
Daniel slept
An international research team, led by Archaeologist Gino Caspari from the University of Bern, analyzed tattoos on a mummy. The results suggest that tattooing was an already very sophisticated job in Siberian prehistoric society.
A new study by the University of Bern on a mummy of ice over 2000 years old has shown that tattooing was already an art technically sophisticated at the time, almost comparable to current methods.
“We have created very high resolution documentation for these magnificent patterns,” explains Gino Caspari, archaeologist, at the microphone of SRF. “This made it possible to discover precisely how these tattoos were created.”
“On some mummies, tattoos are no longer visible to the naked eye,” says Gino Caspari. “Thanks to infrared imaging, we can make them visible again, with a level of detail that allows us to trace the creation process.”
>> SRF’s video on the subject (in German):
Siberian animal style
The tattoos studied belong to the Pazyryk culture and represent the Siberian animal style. Gino Caspari describes: “These are often combat scenes. On this mummy, for example, we have identified a scene on the right forearm where two tigers and a leopard cut two deer. ”
The scene where two tigers and a leopard shoot two deer. Illustration of the tattoo on the right forearm of the mummy (idealized artistic representation).
Daniel slept
Although the exact meaning of these representations remains unclear due to the lack of written sources, Gino Caspari underlines their cultural importance: “What is clear is that these images were very strongly rooted in a ritual and cultural context and, in this sense, had a rich meaning.”
The Pazyryk culture, to which the mummy examines, is described as a people of riders. “We can consider them as the predecessors of Mongols,” explains the archaeologist. The exceptional preservation of mummies and their tattoos is due to the permafrost of the Altai mountains.
A keen interest in the world of tattooing
The results of this research aroused great interest, not only in the scientific community, but also in the world of contemporary tattooing.
“My Instagram account has literally exploded,” says Gino Caspari. “Since the publication of the press release, we have received enormous interest from the tattoo artist community. It delighted me a lot, because archaeological research should also have relevance for people outside the ivory tower. ”
3D model of the female mummy from a Pazyryk grave
Mikhail Vavulin
What particularly fascinated the archaeologist is the possibility of studying with so much precision the individual traces of life dating from the Iron Age. “It is obviously fascinating to be able to retrace in detail where the person who tattooed posed his tool, where he took over ink, and what methods were used.”
A surprising result of the study is the similarity of the techniques used at the time with current methods. “These detailed infrared images show that these are in fact tattoos very similar to what we call today Handpoke [tatouage réalisé avec une aiguille tenue à la main]», Raconte Gino Caspari.
Research until now had assumed that the tattoos of that time was essentially sewn, which means that the pigments were applied on a wire. This discovery therefore establishes a bridge between tattooing techniques through the millennia.
