800 -year -old mother revealed unusual facial tattoos made of rare minerals

Humans have adopted the methods of amendment of body in history for prevailing beauty standards, social status and group affiliation and even ritual reasons. In such body modifications, tattoos still exist as a widely practiced cultural practice. A complicated discovery has recently poured new lights on the ancient South American body art. The remains of an 800-year-old female mummy from the Italian Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography have exposed the unusual tattoo on her face which differs differently from those already documented in the Andean region. An international team of anthropologist has published these findings in the May-June issue of The Journal of Cultural Heritage.

Unique and minimum tattoo

As StudyThe tattoo stands out due to their simplicity and unusual placement. Unlike more elaborate and comprehensive tattoos, which are usually found on the hands, wrists, cells and legs of ancient South American mummies, a minimal design on the woman’s face with three different lines on her right cheek.

In addition, looking at the mummy closely using infrared reflective, a technique is often used to “view” through paint layers of artwork to find old brush strokes, the research team also found a line on the left cheek and an S-shaped on the right wrist. Typically, black ink is made of charcoal in archaeological tattoos, a material that is widely used historically for skin decorations.

Researchers used a suit of non-destructive techniques to identify ink composition. Although he was expected to find evidence of charcoal in ink, he instead discovered that abnormal ink was made with magnetite, an iron oxide mineral, which had mineral marks. In South America, the autumn and magnetite can be found simultaneously in southern Peru, which suggests a potential motherland for a mummified woman.