Earliest 'Tattoo Art' Found On Ancient Egyptian Mummies

World’s earliest figurative tattoos have been found on two mummies from Egypt dating back 5,000 years ago. On the upper arm of the male mummy, there were tattoos describing a wild bull and a Barbary sheep, while “S” shaped motifs were found on the shoulder and upper arm of the female.
The discovery pushes back proof for the tattooing in Africa by a millennium, overturning the belief that only women were tattooed in Predynastic Egypt, the era before the country’s unification by the first pharaoh at around 3100 BCE.

Source: British Museum

Daniel Antoine, one of the lead researchers and curator of physical anthropology from British Museum, said, "The symbols being tattooed are quite extraordinary."

A sign of status, magical power or just art?

According to Antoine, the animal tattoos, especially the bull, might have been related to status, power and virility. Both horned creatures are occasionally illustrated in Predynastic Egyptian Art. Likewise, the S-motifs running vertically over the woman’s right shoulder were also used in pottery adornment back then.

Source: British Museum

He also indicates that the mummies were radiocarbon dated to between 3351 and 3017 BC, the era prior to the common use of Egyptian hieroglyphs, causing it more difficult to identify the meanings behind, because all they have to go on is parallels with imagery discovered somewhere else.
Antoine also conjectures that the tattoos might have symbolized a combination of things: "referencing status, maybe bravery in the case of the animals, but also maybe something more complex, like cult or magical knowledge or protection."

Source: British Museum

"They were very sophisticated people 5,000 years ago," he says. "There's no reason why their reasoning for having a tattoo on their body wouldn't be as multifaceted as it is today."

Ancient tattoo artists

The research indicates that the tattooing procedures would bear resemblance to that today: using a needle to insert a carbon-based element -- probably soot -- under the skin. "They were very fine craftsmen, so I'm sure they would have been very good at tattooing," says Antoine.

Source: British Museum

Formerly, tattooing was widely believed by experts to have been applied to women only, for fertility or erotic reasons, but the new find indicates that in was done on both genders.
The mummies, popularly recognized under the identity of "Gebelein Man A" and "Gebelein woman," were named after the town where they were initially found, in the southern part of Upper Egypt, near Luxor. They have been on display in a collection of British Museum for decades.

Source: British Museum

The male mummy has been exhibited since a century ago, renowned as one of the museum’s most famous item. He was between 18 and 21 upon his death, caused by a stab wound to the back, according to postmortem in 2012. Tufts of ginger-colored hair can still be observed on his scalp.
However, it was not until Antoine, in charge of all human remnants, started conservation process on the mummies and intended to inspect their skin with infrared imaging that the dark smudges on the male mummy’s arm were noticed.

Source: British Museum

New technologies advance old research

Antoine expects the outcomes to motivate other museums to begin new study on their existing collections. "It's an opportunity for me to demonstrate that even though some of the collection we have in the museum has been here for a long time, as the science and the technology evolves there's always new opportunities to find out more," he says.
The earliest instance of tattoos are on the Alpine mummy under the name of Ötzi, believed to have existed from 3370 and 3100 BC, almost contemporary with the Gebelein mummy pair. But the iceman tattoos included geometric patterns, instead of figurative images.

Source: British Museum

The locations of Ötzi's tattoos, on acupuncture or healing points, indicate that they were used as a pain relief treatment, whereas the tattoos on the Egyptian mummies were on highly visible areas, designed to be shown off.
Antoine says that this it what makes the find so special -- it suggests tattoos were an art form. "People are mirroring on their bodies what they are also displaying elsewhere," he says.