2024-04-08 12:07:58
Ötzi died in the European Alps around 5,300 years ago and his body was mummified for thousands of years – until 1991. tourists found it in a mountain pass near the Italian-Austrian border. Since then, research has revealed many aspects of his life, including the tools and weapons he carried, his clothing and his last meal.
61 of Ötzi’s tattoos were also examined. But while it’s often said that they were made by incising the skin and rubbing soot into the cut, that doesn’t appear to have been the case, says lead study author and ancient tattoo expert Aaron Deter-Wolf of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
“There is reasonable doubt that they are hand punched and not incised or made in some other style,” says Deter-Wolf.
March in a study published in the European Journal of Archaeology it is said that manual punctures involve piercing the skin with a syringe or needle and have some similarities to modern tattoo machines.
Experimental tattooing
In the new study, researchers compared Ötzi’s tattoos with modern tattoos made on human skin. Ötzi’s tattoos were detailed in 2022. a study that investigated prehistoric tattooing techniques.
These included tattooing by hand, incising, tapping points with a hammer (traditionally used throughout the Pacific region), and subcutaneous tattooing, which can be done by “stitching” the skin with pigmented thread and was commonly practiced by Inuit peoples.
The modern tattoos were done on Danny Riday, a professional tattoo artist in New Zealand and 2022. study and the co-author of the latest study – legs.
The comparison showed that none of Ötzi’s tattoos were formed by incisions that form narrow lines at the ends when the healing skin pulls the incision, Deter-Wolf says. However, Ötzi’s tattoos corresponded to “hand-punched” tattoos, where the pigment—in Ötzi’s case black soot—is left in tiny punctures in the skin.
Deter-Wolf says the shape of the lines in hand-punched tattoos depends on the shape of the tip used – and Ötzi’s tattoos appear to have been made with an awl, a tool for piercing the skin, usually slightly larger than a needle.
It’s possible that other archaeological sites have misclassified tattoo needles as common tools, he said.
Medical tattooing
Ötzi’s tattoos – unlike some ancient Peruvian and Scythian tattoos – do not have any obvious symbolism, and previous research has suggested that many of Ötzi’s tattoos may have been therapeutic, that is, intended for healing.
However, many of Ötzi’s tattoos feature stacked parallel lines and cross-like markings, so Deter-Wolf suggests that any of these tattoos – or none of them – could have had unknown symbolism. He notes that most of Ötzi’s tattoos would have been covered by his clothes – but a bracelet-like tattoo on his left wrist would have been visible.
Restorer Marco Samadelli, who studies Ötzi’s remains at Italy’s Mummy Research Institute in Bolcano (near the site where the Ice Age man was found), says the new research is of “high scientific standard”.
He states that “the authors do not claim with absolute certainty that the tattooing technique was performed with a single-pointed instrument, but they provide detailed and plausible explanations.”
Mr. Samadelli was not involved in the latest study, but he led a thorough investigation of Ötzi’s tattoos. He supports the idea that many or most of Ötzi’s tattoos were done for healing purposes.
“The fact that not all tattoos are done [žaizdų ar ligos] places, doesn’t necessarily mean they have a symbolic meaning – but their connection is probably yet to be established,” he said.
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2024-04-08 12:07:58