Tattoos are a millennial fashion. This is once again confirmed by a study recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and cited by the agency Associated Press this Monday January 13, 2025.
Researchers studied about 100 mummies from the Chancay culture, a coastal Peruvian civilization that flourished before the Inca Empire and the arrival of Europeans. These discoveries revealed tattoos on the backs of the hands, the joints of the fingers, the forearms and other parts of the body of all the individuals, indicate our colleagues.
“Exceptional tattoos”
The study focused on four individuals with “exceptional tattoos,” “geometric designs such as triangles and diamonds,” says Michael Pittman, study co-author and archaeologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The drawings date from around 1,250 AD. “These tattoos are of a quality that rivals the best designs today,” says Aaron Deter-Wolf, an expert on pre-Columbian tattoos at the Tennessee Division of Archeology.
Lasers capable of making skin glow
This remarkable discovery was made possible thanks to the use of a laser, capable of making the skin slightly glow. “We turn the skin into a light bulb,” explains Tom Kaye, a specialist who participated in the study.
These tattoos “give an exciting insight into forms of figurative and abstract Art that we cannot otherwise access,” enthuses archaeologist Martin Smith of Bournemouth University to the news agency.
A marker of time
Throughout history, tattoos have had multiple meanings. They were often used to mark cultural identity, membership in a social group, commemorate personal events, but also to “ward off illness or improve relationships with spirits and deities,” says Lars Krutak, archaeologist at the Museum. International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe.
As a reminder, the oldest known tattoos were found on the remains of a Neolithic man who lived in the Italian Alps around 3,000 BC. AD
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