March
03
/ 2018
A bull and sheep, strange ‘S’ motifs, and a curved line mark the skin of two Predynastic Egyptian mummies in the British Museum’s collection. The man and woman lived over 5,000 years ago, making their inked skin the oldest known examples of figural tattoos in the world. The technology used to reveal the designs will likely spur more research and similar studies, so that may soon change. National Geographic reports the mummies were two of six found in Gebelein in 1900. The two identified tattooed individuals lived sometime between 3351 to 3017 BC. Their skin ink was applied at the thicker dermis layer of the skin with some carbon-based pigmentation. A British Museum press release relates the man was inked
