by MARILYN SCALLAN
This graphic shows the general location of each of the 61 tattoos on the Iceman’s body PHOTO/© South Tyrol Museum of Archeology/EURAC/Samadelli/Staschitz
The debate about the world’s oldest tattoos is over—they belong to Ötzi, the European Tyrolean Iceman who died and was buried beneath an Alpine glacier along the Austrian–Italian border around 3250 B.C. Ötzi had 61 tattoos across his body, including his left wrist, lower legs, lower back and torso.
Previously, tattoo scholars were divided: Many believed that a mummy from the Chinchorro culture of South America had the oldest tattoo—a pencil-thin mustache. Recovered from El Morro, Chile, the mummy was believed to be about 35–40 years old at the time of his death around 4000 B.C.
In their paper published last month in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, four researchers, including Lars Krutak, research associate in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, concluded that the Chinchorro mummy is not as old as previously thought.
“I was surprised by the findings because in previous publications I brought attention to the tattooed Chinchorro mummy and its early date,” Krutak says. “To me this mummy was like an underdog versus the all-too-popular Iceman that everyone was writing and talking about. But after reviewing the facts, we were compelled to publish the article as soon as possible to set the record straight and stem the tide of future work compounding the error.”
Determining the Age of Tattoos
The art of tattooing is ancient, but when it began is unknown. Written records date the art of tattooing back to fifth-century B.C. in Greece—and maybe centuries earlier in China. Beyond that, evidence of tattooing is found in art, from tattoo tools and on preserved human skin; the latter is the best evidence and only direct archaeological proof.
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