Tuesday, February 3, 2015

New tattoos found on Ötzi the Iceman

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New technology has revealed previously unknown tattoos on Ötzi the Iceman, a 5,300-year-old mummy found Frozen in the Alps in 1991.


Samadelli and colleagues were able to detect a previously unrecorded group of tattoos on Ötzi’s lower right rib cage. Those marks consist of four parallel lines between 20 and 25 mm long and are invisible to the naked eye. According to the authors, these make up “the first tattoo … detected on the Iceman’s frontal part of the torso.”


The researchers also created a complete catalog of Ötzi’s tattoos. These include 19 groups of tattooed lines, for a total of 61 marks ranging from 1 to 3 mm in thickness and 7 to 40 mm in length. With the exception of perpendicular crosses on the right knee and left ankle, and parallel lines around the left wrist, the tattooed lines all run parallel to one another and to the longitudinal axis of the body. The greatest concentration of markings is found on his legs, which together bear 12 groups of lines.


[Full story]


Story: Aaron Deter-Wolf, RedOrbit | Photo: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology/Eurac/Samadelli/Staschitz



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