World's earliest figurative tattoos found on Egyptian mummies

Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-02 11:05:55|Editor: Zhou Xin
Video PlayerClose

LONDON, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Researchers have discovered the world's oldest known figurative tattoos on two 5,000-year-old mummies from Egypt, according to a latest study.

The illustrations were a wild bull and a Barbary sheep on the upper-arm of a male mummy, and an S-shaped motif on the upper arm and shoulder of a female.

The findings pushed back evidence for the practice in Africa by 1,000years, and overturned the previous belief that only females wore tatoos in the ancient past for fertility or even erotic reasons.

The two mummies were found in Gebelein in the southern part of Upper Egypt about 100 years ago. Earlier researches indicate that they lived between 3,351 and 3,017 BC.

Preserved and exhibited in the British Museum, the tatoos on the male mummy were thought to be unimportant smudges until infrared scans revealed that they were tattoos of two slightly overlapping horned animals. They may have been worn as symbols of power and strength.

According to previous researches, the male mummy had probably died of murder with an apparent stab wound in his back.

Before the latest discovery, the oldest surviving examples were the tattoos on the Alpine mummy known as Otzi, who is thought to have lived between 3,370 and 3,100 BC. But his tattoos are vertical or horizontal lines, rather than figurative ones.

The discovery has been published in the Britain-based Journal of Archaeological Science.

TOP STORIES
EDITOR’S CHOICE
MOST VIEWED
EXPLORE XINHUANET
010020070750000000000000011100001370106771
国产无码在线观看免费在线,37pao国产成视频,日韩一区二区视频在线,国产国产人免费人成免费视频麻豆
在线观看日本a视频 | 日本精品在线不卡中文字幕 | 亚洲麻豆精品国偷自产在线91 | 亚洲资源网久久 | 一级a爱做片观看免费久久 精品综合久久久久久99 | 亚洲精品第一国产综合国服瑶 |