LONG lost tattoos have been discovered on the face of an 800-year-old South American woman whose remains were donated to an Italian museum nearly a century ago.
While humans have been inking ourselves for millennia, according to researchers, the tattoos on this mysterious mummy are unique in several ways.
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A team of anthropologists and archeologists, led by Gianluigi Mangiapane from the University of Turin in Italy, found unique tattoo designs on the mummy, which had been unusually well preserved.
The mummification process has darkened her skin, making the tattoos harder to see.
But with an array of imaging techniques, researchers have been able to get a better picture of the unique designs.
A minimalist but uncommon three-line design has been found on her cheeks – with the design on the right cheek being better preserved than the one on the right.
Cheek tattoos are rarely discovered – or are easily missed – “due to difficulties in finding preserved skin,” according to researchers.
“The three detected lines of tattooing are relatively unique: in general, skin marks on the face are rare among the groups of the ancient Andean region and even rarer on the cheeks,” they wrote in their study, published in Journal of Cultural Heritage.
An S-shaped tattoo has also been found on one of her wrists – a common placement for tattoos among South American cultures the time.
The ink that was used is also pretty unique – consisting of magnetite, a black, metallic, and magnetic iron ore, instead of the usual charcoal.
The mummy may therefore present “possibly [the] first evidence” of magnetite used for tattooing in the past in South America.
The body was found in a sitting position with no accompanying funerary wrappings, ornaments, or grave goods.
But her black hair was well preserved by natural dehydration, while a few pieces of fabric were stuck to the surface of the body.
Researchers believe the textiles could be from long lost animal fibres wrappings or bundles.
It’s unclear where the mummy came from, due to relatively shoddy museum records in the past century.
Her remains were donated to the Italian Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in 1931, with nearly no context besides the donors name.
Filed only under ‘South American artifacts’, the age of the remains, and where they came from, have remained a mystery until now.
Researchers were able to date the remains to from 1215 CE to 1382 CE.
And there are also some hints as to her origins.
The way her body was seated in an upright position suggests a preservation technique known as ‘fardo’.
The body would have been wrapped tightly in this position with many layers of fabric and then tied in a bundle – a common funerary practice in Paracas culture, of the Andean region on the south coast of Peru.
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