Latest news with #MaxPlanckInstituteofGeoanthropology
Euronews
4 days ago
- Science
- Euronews
Infrared imaging reveals hidden tattoos on 2300-year-old mummy
A woman buried more than 2000 years ago in the icy Altai Mountains of Siberia has become the unlikely subject of one of the most exciting archaeological tattoo studies in recent years. Preserved in permafrost and long thought to be faded or invisible body art, her intricate tattoos have been brought to light using high-resolution near-infrared imaging - revealing a remarkable canvas of animals, mythical beasts, and ancient artistry. 'We knew that these mummies had tattoos,' explains Dr. Gino Caspari, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Bern. 'But some had skin so darkened and shriveled that the ink was no longer visible to the naked eye." 'So we've done is essentially record wavelengths outside what humans can see - and that reveals these tattoos quite beautifully." The mummy, belonging to the nomadic Pazyryk culture, was unearthed decades ago in the Altai Mountains, a region spanning southern Siberia, eastern Kazakhstan, and northwestern China. These early Iron Age people were primarily herders (from 6th to 2nd centuries B.C.E.), travelling through the highlands with sheep and horses during summer - and burying their dead in the same frozen earth that would preserve their bodies for millennia. What tattoos were found on the mummy? Thanks to the advanced imaging techniques and a collaboration with a tattooist, the team uncovered vivid tattoos across the woman's body, including hunting scenes of tigers and leopards attacking deer and reindeer-like creatures. One tattoo features a mythical griffin bringing down a herbivore. Perhaps most surprisingly her thumbs are decorated with small rooster-like designs. 'These are fantastic images,' Caspari tells Euronews Culture. 'They're extremely vivid, and they represent a unique art style that doesn't really exist anywhere else.' While the true meaning of these images is lost, as there are no written records from the Pazyryk, the team focused on understanding the techniques behind their creation. 'Some scholars had hypothesised that the tattoos were made through stitching, like in the Arctic, where a thread carries pigment through the skin,' explains Caspari. 'But we were able to show these were actually puncture tattoos - made with needles, much like today's hand-poking techniques, just without electricity.' Their analysis revealed evidence of tattoos made over multiple sessions and even showed the pauses where an ancient tattooist had stopped to fetch more pigment. For Caspari, these details humanise the process: 'It brings you really, really close to the person creating the images. You can see where the line slightly shifts when they pick up again.' The research also challenges earlier assumptions that only elite members of the Pazyryk society were tattooed. 'All of the preserved ice mummies we've found so far are tattooed,' explains Caspari. 'This seems to have been a widespread practice. And these aren't simple designs - they're sophisticated and clearly required a lot of training.' Caspari hopes to build a publicly accessible inventory of tattoos on all known Pazyryk mummies. 'It's not enough to just publish black and white images. These tattoos are amazing, but we need high-resolution reconstructions to really understand how they were made,' he says. 'Given the huge public interest, I think people should be able to see and engage with them.' Check out the video above for more images and extracts of our interview with Dr. Gino Caspari.
Euronews
4 days ago
- Science
- Euronews
Infrared imaging reveals hidden tattoos on 2000-year-old mummy
A woman buried more than 2000 years ago in the icy Altai Mountains of Siberia has become the unlikely subject of one of the most exciting archaeological tattoo studies in recent years. Preserved in permafrost and long thought to be faded or invisible body art, her intricate tattoos have been brought to light using high-resolution near-infrared imaging - revealing a remarkable canvas of animals, mythical beasts, and ancient artistry. 'We knew that these mummies had tattoos,' explains Dr. Gino Caspari, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Bern. 'But some had skin so darkened and shriveled that the ink was no longer visible to the naked eye." 'So we've done is essentially record wavelengths outside what humans can see - and that reveals these tattoos quite beautifully." The mummy, belonging to the nomadic Pazyryk culture, was unearthed decades ago in the Altai Mountains, a region spanning southern Siberia, eastern Kazakhstan, and northwestern China. These early Iron Age people were primarily herders (from 6th to 2nd centuries B.C.E.), travelling through the highlands with sheep and horses during summer - and burying their dead in the same frozen earth that would preserve their bodies for millennia. What tattoos were found on the mummy? Thanks to the advanced imaging techniques and a collaboration with a tattooist, the team uncovered vivid tattoos across the woman's body, includig hunting scenes of tigers and leopards attacking deer and reindeer-like creatures. One tattoo features a mythical griffin bringing down a herbivore. Perhaps most surprisingly her thumbs are decorated with small rooster-like designs. 'These are fantastic images,' Caspari tells Euronews Culture. 'They're extremely vivid, and they represent a unique art style that doesn't really exist anywhere else.' While the true meaning of these images is lost, as there are no written records from the Pazyryk, the team focused on understanding the techniques behind their creation. 'Some scholars had hypothesised that the tattoos were made through stitching, like in the Arctic, where a thread carries pigment through the skin,' explains Caspari. 'But we were able to show these were actually puncture tattoos - made with needles, much like today's hand-poking techniques, just without electricity.' Their analysis revealed evidence of tattoos made over multiple sessions and even showed the pauses where an ancient tattooist had stopped to fetch more pigment. For Caspari, these details humanise the process: 'It brings you really, really close to the person creating the images. You can see where the line slightly shifts when they pick up again.' The research also challenges earlier assumptions that only elite members of the Pazyryk society were tattooed. 'All of the preserved ice mummies we've found so far are tattooed,' explains Caspari. 'This seems to have been a widespread practice. And these aren't simple designs - they're sophisticated and clearly required a lot of training.' Caspari hopes to build a publicly accessible inventory of tattoos on all known Pazyryk mummies. 'It's not enough to just publish black and white images. These tattoos are amazing, but we need high-resolution reconstructions to really understand how they were made,' he says. 'Given the huge public interest, I think people should be able to see and engage with them.' Check out the video above for more images and extracts of our interview with Dr. Gino Caspari.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Stunning Tattoos Discovered on Siberian Mummy From 2,000 Years Ago
A woman who lived and died 2,000 years ago in the Altai Mountains of Siberia is opening a new window into ancient tattoos. A careful analysis of her mummified remains didn't just reveal tattooed figures across both hands and forearms, but the method whereby they were applied. These adornments, says a team of researchers led by Gino Caspari from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Bern in Germany, are some of the most elaborate ever seen from the Pazyryk culture to which she belonged. "The tattoos of the Pazyryk culture – Iron Age pastoralists of the Altai Mountains – have long intrigued archaeologists due to their elaborate figural designs," Caspari says. "Prior scholarship focused primarily on the stylistic and symbolic dimensions of these tattoos, with data derived largely from hand-drawn reconstructions. These interpretations lacked clarity regarding the techniques and tools used, and did not focus much on the individuals but rather the overarching social context." Related: Artist Tattooed Himself to Solve Mystery of Ötzi The Iceman's Tattoos Humanity has a rich and fascinating history of tattooing, from the sacred to the purely decorative to the downright odd. It's also likely that our ancestors practised it heavily, with evidence of the artform emerging across many ancient cultures dating back thousands of years. With a scarcity of preserved tattooing instruments, mummified skin often serves as the only record of the craft. Even then, the designs aren't always easy to see, since mummification hardens and darkens the skin significantly. This has made ancient tattoos somewhat difficult to study. In recent years, however, new imaging techniques have emerged; infrared and near-infrared photography reveals tattoos on mummified skin that may have been obscured in optical wavelengths, and laser-stimulated fluorescence reveals where ink has been deposited in the skin. Caspari and his colleagues turned to cutting-edge infrared photography to image in three dimensions the tattoos on the arms and hands of their unnamed Pazyryk woman, who was about 50 years old when she died. Then, they reconstructed the designs, and investigated how the tattoos were made. To do so, the team included archaeologist Aaron Deter-Wolf of the Tennessee Division of Archaeology, and tattoo artist Danny Riday of Ancestral Arts tattoo boutique in France. In previous research led by Deter-Wolf, Riday tattooed himself using a variety of historical techniques to create a living dictionary of tattoo marks against which to compare mummified remains. Their new findings revealed not only that different types of tools were used, but that different skill levels can be observed between the woman's hands and arms. On her hands, relatively simple images appear. On her right hand is a floral pattern; on her left, a cross, a floral or fish-like pattern, and a bird that looks like a rooster on her thumb. On her left forearm, a moose or elk-like animal is being attacked by a creature that resembles a gryphon. On her right forearm appears the most elaborate tattoo of all: two antlered ungulates, locked in a life-or-death struggle with two tigers and a leopard. The images were all hand-poked; the larger pieces created using a multi-point tool and then finished off with a separate, finer tool, likely with just one point, to achieve the narrower lines. A similar tool was probably used for the smaller motifs on her hands. The forearm tattoos required a greater level of skill than the tattoos on the hand – suggestive, perhaps, of either multiple artists, or a single artist whose techniques improved over time. "It was Danny's expertise that allowed us to evaluate the differences between the forearm tattoos, and describe the likely tools," Deter-Wolf told ScienceAlert. "This study provides the first positive evidence that the Pazyryk tattoos were created by hand poking, and establishes the use of multiple tool types. It also reiterates the ability of Pazyryk tattooers, and establishes them as skilled craftspeople comparable to the Iron Age artisans who created Scythian textiles, wood, leather, and metal work." These results suggest that tattooing was no idle pastime for the Pazyryk people, but an important part of the culture that called for skilled artists that honed their craft over time much like modern tattoo artists do. This is reinforced by one key detail seen in this mummy and the other six tattooed mummies from the same region in the early Iron Age: none of the tattoos overlap, and many of them are perfectly placed for the part of the body on which they were inscribed. It suggests that the placement of tattoos was thought-out and very intentional, and thus an important part of Pazyryk culture. "The study offers a new way to recognize personal agency in prehistoric body modification practices. Tattooing emerges not merely as symbolic decoration but as a specialized craft – one that demanded technical skill, aesthetic sensitivity, and formal training or apprenticeship," Caspari says. "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." The research has been published in Antiquity. 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New York Post
01-08-2025
- Science
- New York Post
Wild tattoos of 2,500-year-old Siberian ‘ice mummy' revealed for first time
The ornate tattoos of a 2,500-year-old Siberian 'ice mummy' have finally been revealed using advanced imaging technology, according to a report. High-resolution images derived using infrared technology show the long-dead 50-year-old woman was inked-up across her body with tribal animal designs, the BBC reported. 5 The mummy was pulled from the permafrost near Russia's Altai Mountains in 1993. M. Vavulin Advertisement The intricate and ornate tats show leopards, a stag, a rooster, and a griffin-like creature. Her arms were tattoo'd with the leopard and stag, the half-lion half-eagle beast was on her leg, and the rooster was tatted on the mummy's thumb, according to researchers. 'The insights really drive home to me the point of how sophisticated these people were,' the study's lead author Dr. Gino Caspari, from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, told BBC. Advertisement 5 Left forearm tatoo. D. Riday 5 Right forearm tattoo. D. Riday 'This made me feel like we were much closer to seeing the people behind the art, how they worked and learned. The images came alive,' Dr. Caspari said. The female mummy is one of three fleshickles plucked from the permafrost on the Okok Plateau in the Altai Mountains in Russia in 1993. She was part of a Pazyryk tribe — horse-riding nomads who dominated the Eurasian plains from the 6th to 3rd centuries BC. Advertisement 5 Hand tattoos, including rooster on the thumb. D. Riday The 'Ice Maiden's' tattoos have proved to be an insight into the mysterious Pazyryk tribe who were apparently dedicated and expert tattoo artists. 'If I was guessing, it was probably four and half hours for the lower half of the right arm, and another five hours for the upper part,' Dr. Caspari said, adding, 'That's a solid commitment from the person.' 'It would need to be performed by a person who knows health and safety, who knows the risks of what happens when the skin is punctured.' Advertisement Much like contemporary tattoos, the process included a stencil of the design on the skin first with the ink being inserted under the skin with a needle-like tool, the researchers claimed. 5 The infrared imaging of the mummy's skin showed the leopard print of one of the tattoos. M Vavulin 'And back in the day it was already a really professional practice where people put a lot of time and effort and practice into creating these images and they're extremely sophisticated,' said Dr. Caspari. 'It suggests that tattoos were really something for the living with meaning during life, but that they didn't really play much of a role in the afterlife.'
Scottish Sun
31-07-2025
- Science
- Scottish Sun
Stunning 2,500-year-old TATTOOS from Siberian ‘ice mummy' depicting ‘mythical creatures' revealed in perfect detail
The scans exposed "intricate, crisp and uniform" tattooing that could not be seen with the naked eye Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE intricate tattoos of a 2,500-year-old Siberian "ice mummy" have finally been revealed through high-tech imaging. The designs reveal leopards, tigers, a stag, a rooster and even some long-lost mythical creatures. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 7 The tattoos belong to a woman, who has about 50-years-old when she died Credit: M Vavulin 7 On her right forearm, the woman had an image of leopards and tigers around the head of two deer Credit: Daniel Riday 7 The woman is thought to have belonged to the nomadic horse-riding Pazyryk culture, which roamed the lands between China and Europe Credit: Getty They are so detailed that even a modern tattooist would struggle to reproduce them, according to the researchers behind the discovery. The tattoos belong to a woman who was about 50-years-old when she died. She is thought to have belonged to the nomadic horse-riding Pazyryk culture, which roamed the lands between China and Europe. The scans exposed "intricate, crisp and uniform" tattooing that could not be seen with the naked eye. Over the two millennia, the ink has become all but invisible on the body as the skin darkens with time. "The insights really drive home to me the point of how sophisticated these people were," lead author Dr Gino Caspari from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Bern, told BBC News. Archaeologists worked with researcher Daniel Riday, a tattooist who reproduces ancient ink on his own body to understand how they were made. Tattooing was likely widespread during prehistory, but few remains from that era are preserved well enough to investigate. 7 Tattooing was likely widespread during prehistory, but few remains from that era are preserved well enough to investigate Credit: Daniel Riday But the so-called "ice mummies" of the Altai mountains in Siberia were often encased in ice tombs which preserved the skin. While the tattoos were not visibly on the skin, they were brought back to life using near-infrared digital photography in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia. Mystery Solved: The Story of 'The Screaming Woman' Mummy (1) The high-resolution scans were able to reveal the decorations for the first time in 2,500 years. "This made me feel like we were much closer to seeing the people behind the art, how they worked and learned. The images came alive," said Dr Caspari. On her right forearm, the woman had an image of leopards and tigers around the head of two deer. On the left arm, a mythical griffin-like creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle appears to be fighting with a stag. "Twisted hind bodies and really intense battle scenes of wild animals are typical of the culture," explained Dr Caspari. 7 The high-resolution scans were able to reveal the decorations for the first time in 2,500 years Credit: Daniel Riday The "ice mummy" also had a rooster on her thumb, showing "an intriguing style with a certain uniqueness," says Dr Caspari. The design was made with uniform thickness, suggesting sophisticated methods and tools for tattooing. Some lines were created using a multipoint tool, while others were made with a finer, single-point tool, according to the study. The researchers could even see where the ancient tattooist stopped working and picked up again in the overlapping of some lines. "Many cultures around the world traditionally used bundles of plant thorns and spines to tattoo," study co-author Aaron Deter-Wolf, an archaeologist at the Tennessee Division of Archaeology and ancient-tattooing expert, told Live Science in an email. "We envision the multi-point tool as being a tightly clustered bundle of tines, probably bound together with thread or sinew." The tools were made of natural, biodegradable materials, meaning the researchers aren't able to examine the implements themselves. 7 The so-called "ice mummies" of the Altai mountains in Siberia were often encased in ice tombs which preserved the skin Credit: M Vavulin
