2/04/2025

PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY PRECURSOR : GLOBAL ESSAY

 


' Skin Deep.' Laser focus casts ancient tattoos in a new light : A culture flourished along the Peruvian coast from about A.D. 900 to 1500.

Called the Chancay, they left behind a wealth of cultural remains, including intricate tattoos that are preserved to this day on the skin of mummified individuals.

Details of these tattoos that had been hidden to the naked eye, including finely traced lines, have been described in a new study. After illuminating the mummies with laser stimulated fluorescence, or L.S.F. , a tool that until now never been applied to tattoos, scientists discovered lines 0.1 to 0.2 millimeters wide, narrower than work produced by most modern tattoo needles.

'' We were shocked by just how fine the tattoo lines were in our L.S.F. images,'' said Michael Pittman, an assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and an author of the new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in an email.

Mummies featured in the study had been buried at the Cerro Colorado cemetery. Their tattoos are about 1,000 years old and display geometric designs, as well as a representation of an amorphous animal with a curled tail.

The Chancay are known for the high levels of craftsmanship across the material culture, and they left elaborate markings in many places, not just their tattoos, said Aaron Deter-Wolf, a  prehistoric archaeologist at the Tennessee Division of Archaeology who was not involved in the study.

Dr. Pittman, a dinosaur paleontologist, has spent more than a decade studying fossils with laser-stimulated fluorescence.

This noninvasive tool exposes specimen and to high-powered lasers, producing a fluorescent glow that sometimes reveals subtle features, like soft tissues. In recent years, Dr. Pittman's team has started exploring the archaeological applications of the technique.

'' We expect L.S.F. to work on other ancient tattoos from different cultures around the world, '' Dr. Pittman said.

Mr. Deter-Wolf was not convinced that the study showed clear advantages of L.S.F. over other techniques for scrutinizing ancient tattoos, such as multispectral imaging.

He also had concerns about some of the study's conclusions. Dr. Pittman's team suggested in the study that the tattoos patterns were made from punctures by a fine instrument like a cactus needle or sharpened animal bone.

Mr. Deter-Wolf believes that most of the tattoos examined were made with incisions, not punctures.

A painter uses different paintbrushes to achieve different results,'' Ms. Deter- Wolf said. He said tattoosists had done the same thing, '' so depending on the tool that they're using, you will get a different physical signature as a result.''

Dr. Pittman stood by his team's conclusion. ''The unique thinness of our tattoo line among published Chancay tattoos suggests a needle-based production [ puncture tattooing ] is more reasonable,'' he said in an email.

The World Students Society thanks Becky Ferreira.

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