Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – An international team of archaeologists has employed high-resolution digital imaging techniques to study tattoos on a 2,000-year-old ice mummy from the Pazyryk culture in Siberia. This research enables us to see and distinguish the individual work of artists and to gain a better understanding of the society’s prehistoric practices.
Both artists and images seem to be closer.
This research gives us new insights into the individual craftsmanship involved in prehistoric Siberian tattooing, marking the first time such a detailed analysis has been conducted.
Tattooing is believed to have been widely practiced during prehistoric times, and within this region; however, conducting research in this area today is challenging due to the lack of surviving ancient tattoos. An exception to this limitation is found in the “ice mummies” of the Altai Mountains. On the remains of their bodies, buried in deep burial chambers and preserved by permafrost for over two thousand years, researchers discovered tattoos.
According to Dr. Gino Caspari, a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Bern, the tattoos of the Pazyryk society—Iron Age pastoralists from the Altai Mountains—have consistently captivated archaeologists.
Photogrammetrically created 3D model of the female mummy from Pazyryk tomb 5, showing: A) texture derived from visible-spectrum photographs; and B) texture derived from near-infrared photography (figure by M. Vavulin).
This ancient culture possessed highly skilled craftsmen who crafted intricate figural designs, elaborate artefacts in the Scytho-Siberian animal style, which finds its reflection in the preserved body decorations.
Unfortunately, this archaeological material offering significant insights into this ancient society is rare, because high-resolution images were not previously available. Therefore, most studies have been based on early schematic drawings of the tattoos.
Moreover, the earlier research often lacked detailed insights into the techniques and tools used by artists creating tattooing. It mainly concentrated on the stylistic and symbolic aspects of the tattoos, based on hand-drawn reconstructions.
Right forearm tattoo (left side oriented toward the wrist): A) current state; B) deskewed, evening out skin folds and compensating for the desiccation process; C) idealised artistic rendering (illustrations by D. Riday).
To provide a more accurate means to explore ancient and highly sophisticated Pazyryk tattooing practices, archaeologists produced a 3-dimensional scan of one tattooed Pazyryk mummy using newly available sub-millimetre resolution, digital near-infrared photography.
By working with modern tattoo artists, they examined the tattoos in greater detail than ever before, identifying the individual tools and techniques used to create them.
Researchers discovered that the tattoos on the right forearm exhibited more intricate and technical designs compared to those on the left. This observation implies that eithe
Left forearm tattoo: A) current state; B) deskewed, evening out skin folds and compensating for the desiccation process, and with the ungulate head recreated based on Pazyryk animal fighting scenes; C) idealised artistic rendering (illustrations by D. Riday).
r different tattoo artists or a single artist at various stages of their skill development contributed to these artworks. Notably, this finding suggests that within the Pazyryk culture, tattooing was not merely decorative but was regarded as a skilled craft that necessitated formal training and technical expertise.
By identifying the individual hands behind ancient tattoos for the first time, the researchers show that prehistoric tattooers in Siberia were not unlike modern professionals today.
The high-quality new techniques, which were employed in this research allow us to see and distinguish the individual work of artists., and better understand the society’s prehistoric practice.
As Dr Caspari said: “This made me feel like we were much closer to seeing the people behind the art, how they worked and learned and made mistakes”. “The images came alive.”
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Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer
