Rare facial tattoos found in a strange Andean mummy with 800 years

Archaeologists have discovered tattoos never before seen on the face and arms of an 800 -year -old Andean Mummy, which can help better understand old cultural customs in South America.

Throughout history, human beings have adopted methods to modify the body in order to adapt to prevailing beauty standards, influenced by the status, group affiliation, and even ritual reasons.

Among these body modifications, tattooing still exists as a cultural practice practiced around the world. However, the existence of surviving examples of tattooed skin in archaeological records is scarcedue to nature tender of human skin.

An analysis of existing skin records preserved with traces of tattoos suggests that coastal deserts in South America They have the best preserved tattooed human remains in the world.

Thus, scientists had the opportunity to closely examine a female mummy in very good state of preservation, which was at the University of Turin’s Anthropology and Ethnography Museum and was discovered in the 1930s in the Andes.

According to, the analysis by radiocarbon revealed that the mummy has Over 800 years and lived somewhere between 1215 and 1382.

Researchers used two new analysis techniques with the help of infrared To look for tattoos not visible to the naked eye, and were surprised to find tattoos on the cheeks of the mummy’s face.

It was possible to see Three straight lines that went from ear to mouth and also a tattoo on the S -shaped wrist.

Chemical analysis techniques determined that tattoos were made with pigments developed from two minerals: magnetite e pyroxénium. We see a surprising absence of charcoal, the most commonly used tattoo material in history.

The results of the study, presented in a recently published in the Journal of Cultural Heritageshow rare anatomical forms and locations – lines on the cheeks and mark in the shape of the wrist – and a paint composition unusual”The investigators said.

Due to your simplicityIt is difficult to reveal whether simple tattoos have an interpretation or identification with any specific culture. The South American tattoos studied, they are drawings more complexlocated in the hands, wrists, forearms and feet.

Given the location of the tattoos, in part of the commonly visible body, investigators suspect that they may have had a “decorative objective or communicative. ”However, they add that“ at the moment, it is not possible to assign them a kind of medical or therapeutic purpose or a cultural provenance ”.

Thus, research actively contributes to the study of the practice of old tattoos in particular in South America and enhances the role of museum collections in the analysis of old cultures, conclude the authors of the study.