Archeologists scan 2,000-year-old ice mummy sporting tattoos

Close-up high-resolution photograph of the tattoos on one forearm. A cut made when preparing the individual for burial runs through the tattoos, indicating tattoos did not play a specific role in funerary rituals (credit: G. Caspari & M. Vavulin)

A team of archeologists from Switzerland used high-resolution digital imaging technology to examine tattoos invisible to the naked eye on a 2000-year-old ice mummy from Siberia.

Tattooing is believed to have been a common practice during the prehistoric period, but according to research published in the Antiquity Journal, it was difficult to investigate due to the lack of evidence.

But according to researchers, the tattoos on these ice mummies from the Pazyryk culture of the Altai mountains survived because the mummies were buried in deep chambers encased in permafrost, which helped preserve the skin of those buried.

Archeologists have been long intrigued by the tattoos of the Pazyryk culture, due to their “elaborate figural designs,” Gino Caspari, senior author of the research from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Bern, stated in the research paper.

The female mummy was originally excavated from a Pazyryk tomb during the Soviet era in the 1940s, Caspari told CTVNews.ca.

The Pazyryk culture existed during the Early Iron Age in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, he explained. It’s part of the broader “Scythian World” – a term referring to Eurasian steppe cultures from the ninth century to the second century B.C.

They were known for their weaponry, horse gear and artwork in the Scytho-Siberian animal style, among other things.

“Archaeologists have long been fascinated by the extremely vivid depictions of fighting animals,” Caspari said. “The tattoos also offer glimpses into identity, ritual, craft specialization and living traditions.”

According to their findings, most of the earlier research was conducted based on early schematic, black and white drawings of the visible tattoos, since high-resolution images were not possible.

“These representations lacked technical precision and omitted subtle, but critical details,” Caspari said. “For decades, tattoos were largely interpreted visually and symbolically, without insight into their method of creation.”

Archeologists produced a three-dimensional scan of the tattooed Pazyryk mummy using digital near-infrared photography, which they examined with the help of modern tattoo artists.

“This collaboration was essential to bridging gaps between ancient practice and modern understanding, (and) reinforcing the interpretation of multi-session, hand-poked tattooing with varied tools,” Caspari said.

Researchers found that the tattoos of the right forearm had more detail and technique than the ones on the left arm, suggesting multiple tattooers or a single tattooer through different stages of development.

“This indicates tattooing was not simply a form of decoration to the Pazyryk culture, but rather a skilled craft that required formal training and technical ability,” the research paper noted.

Caspari believes this study “helps to put the prehistoric individual back into focus, rather than treating tattoos solely as generalized cultural markers.”

“It illuminates personal choice, learning processes, artistry, and technological skill over two millennia ago,” he said.

Prehistoric tattoo artists were similar to modern professionals from the tattoo industry, the study showed.

“This made me feel like we were much closer to seeing the people behind the art, how they worked and learned and made mistakes,” Caspari concluded in the paper.

“The images came alive.”