Scientists Found Miraculously-Preserved Tattoos on the Hands of 1,000-Year-Old Mummies
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A team of international scientists recently revealed the stunning tattoo work of the Chancay culture—a pre-Columbian people group from the coast of Peru that thrived from 900 to 1500 A.D.—using a technique known as laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF).
Analyzing intricate tattoos found on 1,000-year-old mummies, the team discovered puncture lines between 0.1 to 0.2 millimeters wide in patterns reminiscent of details found on Chancay pottery and textiles.
The hope is that by understanding these tattoos, scholars will be able to piece together the social hierarchy of the Chancay culture.
Living along the coast of Peru from around 900 to 1500 A.D., the Chancay people was well known for their impressive artwork, including wood carvings, ceramics, and textiles. However, one of the greatest masterpieces may be their immensely detailed tattoo-work, which is now found on mummies that are roughly 1,000 years old.
Usually, the intricate details of these designs would be lost to history. But not this time, as an international team of researchers used a method known as laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF)—a popular technique in the world of paleontology—to analyze the tattoos in greater detail. This is the first time that LSF has been used in this way, and it allowed the team to see the ancient artwork with staggering clarity. Some tattoo lines were only between 0.1 to 0.2 millimeters thick, which implies a level of precision that rivals even modern tattooing techniques. The results of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
“Tattoos are known to fade and bleed over time and this is compounded in mummies by the decay of the body, inhibiting the ability to examine the original art,” the authors wrote. “Laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF) produces images based on fluorescence emitted from within the target […]. We find that the preserved skin fluoresced strongly underneath the black tattoo ink yielding a high-contrast image that virtually eliminates the ink bleed, revealing the exceptionally fine details of the original artwork.”
LSF works by making the skin fluoresce, which makes the carbon-based tattoo lines stand out more clearly. All three of the highly-detailed tattoos in the study—according to Michael Pittman, a paleobiologist at the The Chinese University of Hong Kong and co-author of the study—contain “predominantly geometric patterns featuring triangles, which are also found on other Chancay artistic media like pottery and textiles,” he said to LiveScience. Other, less-intricate tattoos showcased images of animals and vines.
Although the art of the Chancay culture—especially their textiles and ceramics—is well represented, little is known about the social structure of this ancient people group. However, as the researchers explained to LiveScience, tattoos can often indicate status within a culture. As a result, understanding these markings should help archaeologists understand the social makeup of the Chancay.
“We expect L.S.F. to work on other ancient tattoos from different cultures around the world and have plans to continue this imaging work to uncover similarly exciting discoveries,” Pittman told The New York Times. “Hopefully we can push back the complexity of ancient tattoos even further back in time.”
While LSF appears promising for future research on tattoos and other intricate details found on anthropological objects around the world, not every expert is convinced of its utility. Aaron Deter-Wolf, an ancient-tattoo expert at the Tennessee Division of Archaeology, tells The Times that LSF is a “cool additional tool in our kit, but not groundbreaking,” and suspects that the intricate Chancay tattoos were actually created through incision, not punctures (probably by a cactus needle). The researchers disagree, saying that the tattoos were puncture-based.
Tattoos permeate ancient society as far back as Ötzi the Iceman—Europe’s oldest-known human mummy. Whether revolutionizing the field or just adding a tool the toolkit, LSF could help illuminate (or fluoresce) the impressive needlework of the ancient past.
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