Tattoo only the best of art
Humans have marked their bodies with tattoos for thousands of years. These permanent designs—sometimes plain, sometimes elaborate, always personal—have served as amulets, status symbols, declarations of love, signs of religious beliefs, adornments and even forms of punishment. Joann Fletcher, research fellow in the department of archaeology at the University of York in Britain, describes the history of tattoos and their cultural significance to people around the world, from the famous " Iceman," a 5,200-year-old frozen mummy, to today’s Maori.
What is the earliest evidence of tattoos?
In terms of tattoos on actual
bodies, the earliest known examples were for a long time Egyptian and were
present on several female mummies dated to c. 2000 B.C. But following the more
recent discovery of the Iceman from the area of the Italian-Austrian border in
1991 and his tattoo patterns, this date has been pushed back a further thousand
years when he was carbon-dated at around 5,200 years old.
Copyright © Smithsonian
0 comments:
Post a Comment