| 2,500 year old tattoos |
Question:
I was sick yesterday so I stayed at home and was watching this National Geographic TV program about the archaeological excavation of a 2,500 year old tomb on the Ukok plateau in Siberia. There's frozen mummy of a
woman in the tomb, thought to be a shaman or priestess of some sort. She was
perfectly preserved in ice and when the archaeologists rolled up the
sleeve on her tunic, you could see the most beautiful spiral and tribal
tattoo designs going from her hand to her shoulders. The lines on these
were so clear, it was unbelieveable. I think its brilliant that although
we know that people have been adorning their bodies like this for
millenia, its not very often you get a chance to see it in the
flesh......
Answer:
-It was Really big news for what it revealed about the
culture of the area at the time as well as for the fact that
the Russians had neither the money nor the proper equipment
with which to work (the Soviet Union was either in the process of
breaking up or just had), so it was in NG, for sure.
Some of the designs were figurative, animals, zoomorphs
of a type.
I was astounded by the level of preservation.
-i'm quite excited about this - any idea if
this is is published in NG magazine - its in our library
does the design have any recognisable characteristics - i mean, is there
any similarity to artwork in contemporary cultures?
and was it all abstract - or were there any figurative elements
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