The 2,500 -year -old Siberian “maman” mother had complex tattoos

High resolution imagery of tattoos found on a 2,500 -year -old Siberian “ice mother” revealed decorations that a modern tattoo artist would find it difficult to produce, according to researchers.

The complex tattoos of leopards, a deer, a rooster and a mythical half-lion and a half-treble creature on the woman’s body have lit an ancient warrior culture.

Archaeologists worked with a tattoo artist, who reproduces old skin decorations on his own body, to understand how they were made.

The tattooed woman, aged about 50, came from the nomadic Pazyryk people who lived on the vast steppe between China and Europe.

The scans revealed a complex “crisp and uniform” tattoo that could not be seen in the naked eye.

“Ideas really lead to the house to know how sophisticated these people were, the main author of Dr. Gino Caspari and the University of Bern told BBC News.

It is difficult to discover detailed information on old social and cultural practices because most evidence is destroyed over time. It is even more difficult to get closer to the details of a person’s life.

Pazyryk’s “ice mummies” were found inside the ice tombs in the Altai mountains in Siberia in the 19th century, but it was difficult to see the tattoos.

Now using a digital photograph close to infrared at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, experts in Russia have created high resolution scans for the decorations for the first time.

“It made me feel that we were much closer to seeing the people behind art, how they worked and learned. The images came to life,” said Dr Caspari.

On her right forearm, the Pazyryk woman had an image of leopards around the head of a deer.

On the left arm, the mythical creature griffin with the body of a lion and the head and the wings of an eagle seems to fight with a deer.

“The twisted posterior bodies and the truly intense battle scenes of wild animals are typical of culture,” said Dr Caspari.

But the woman also had a rooster on her thumb, showing “an intriguing style with a certain unique character,” explains Dr. Caspari.

The team worked with researcher Daniel Riday who reproduces the old tattoo drawings on his body using historical methods.

His ideas on the analyzes led them to conclude that the quality of the work differs between the two arms, suggesting that a different person made the tattoos or that errors were made.

“If I guess, it was probably four and a half hours for the lower half of the right arm and five overtime for the upper part,” he said.

“It is a solid commitment of the person. Imagine sitting on the ground in the steppe where there is wind that blows all this time,” he suggests.

“It should be carried out by a person who knows health and safety, who knows the risks of what is happening when the skin is perceived,” he adds.

By analyzing the marks in the woman’s skin, the team believes that tattoos were probably stencil on the skin before being tattooed.

They think that a needle -shaped tool with small multiple points probably made from a horn of animals or bone has been used, as well as a needle at a point. The pigment was probably made from burnt vegetable material or soot.

Dr. Caspari, who does not have tattoos himself, says that work highlights an ancient practice which is very important for many people in the world today.

“And at the time, it was already a truly professional practice where people put a lot of time and effort and practice to create these images and they are extremely sophisticated,” he adds.

Some tattoos seem to have been cut or damaged when the body was prepared for the burial.

“It suggests that tattoos was really something for the living with a meaning during life, but that they did not really play a lot in the afterlife,” explains Dr. Caspari.

The results are published in the journal Antiquity.

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