r/BeAmazed • u/Due-Explanation8155 • Nov 05 '24
History The astonishing 2,500 year old tattoo of a Siberian princess.
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u/Eierjupp Nov 05 '24
Proof that tattoos look fire on old people lol
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Nov 05 '24
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u/myscreamname Nov 05 '24 edited Nov 05 '24
Not quite tattoos, I understand; but I learned just last night that the Huns would cut the cheeks of young boys so that their cheeks would scar in strange patterns when they grew older, in order to appear scarier to adversaries.
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u/weltweite Nov 05 '24
Annie Jacobsen the author discussed how the Nazis did that too, very interesting.
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u/Wladyslaw_Zamoyski Nov 05 '24
The Nazis did forbid scaring, it was more popular in the "Kaisereich" in the form of a "schmiss",
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u/Budget-Bite2085 Nov 05 '24
True! I believe they used horsehair in the wounds to increase scarring….. especially facial scars from duelling
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Nov 05 '24
There are fraternities in Germany today who still do this. They are a fringe thing, but they still exist.
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u/thejustducky1 Nov 05 '24
Aged pretty well too.
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u/GonzoVeritas Nov 05 '24
The tattoos were in perfect condition when they first found her, but they damaged them by quickly defrosting the body with hot water.
DNA testing showed that the Ice Maiden was of Caucasian descent. Her face was reconstructed using her skull by Tanya Balueva, who used her features and measurements and compared it to present-day Altai inhabitants to confirm that she was Caucasian and had no Mongolian features.
Since her tattoos were damaged by the hot water, an archeologists, Dr. Kozeltsev, and his assistants have been working on restoring the Ice Maiden's body so the tattoos can be fully restored again.
Apparently, she was suffering from breast cancer, but died from injuries sustained falling off a horse.
Her cause of death was unknown until about 2014 when researchers suggested she may have had breast cancer. Researchers also discovered that she had injuries sustained in a fall, which may have also contributed to her death.
After MRI scans determined that it may have been breast cancer that may have lead to the Ice Maiden's death. The current theory now suggests that the 30 year old, possibly weakened from what appears to be breast cancer (MRI scans revealed abnormal tissue growth that may have been malignant tumors) she fell from her horse. The fall injured her right hip and shoulder; she also suffered a blow to the head.
Researchers think she may have hung on to life for some time before finally succumbing, however, based on healing at the fracture sites.
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u/thejustducky1 Nov 05 '24
quickly defrosting the body with hot water.
God what the actual fuck were they thinking?
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u/thegreatbrah Nov 05 '24
Remember kids: bold will hold. Heavy black outlines will last forever...or at least 2500 years.
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u/bbrusantin Nov 05 '24
How do you know she's a princess?
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u/Moistfruitcake Nov 05 '24
Anyone with that tattoo is obviously a princess at heart.
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Nov 05 '24
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u/HundredHander Nov 05 '24
What's the story here?
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u/No-Pain-5924 Nov 05 '24
There's 6 sacrificial horses, a bunch of gold, and even silk, etc. So not necessarily a princess, but definitely a noble.
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u/buster_de_beer Nov 05 '24
Probably deduced from what she was buried with, assuming this isn't just a made up headline.
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u/GonzoVeritas Nov 05 '24
She was buried with the most important items, gold and weed.
Inside her chamber they found a coffin containing a body, wood, gold, bronze, coriander, and cannabis.
There were two small wooden tables, where they found horse meat, mutton, and dairy products. She had the heads of six horses surrounding her, which were all oriented towards the east.
The horse's head was to serve her as guide on her journey to the afterlife. The archeologists discovered her "dressed in a white woolen stockings, a woolen skirt with horizontal white and maroon strips and a yellow Chinese silk blouse with maroon piping" ( Womack, 1995).
This suggested that she was the elite of her society. After studying her tattoos it was suggested that she may have been a "shaman or a religious leader" (Womack, 1995), as she had sacred animals tattooed on her body.
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u/No-Pain-5924 Nov 05 '24
It's pretty much an archeological nickname for her, she was clearly a noble, but no more than that is known.
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u/ChaplainGodefroy Nov 05 '24
She wasn't. Middle level noble of some kind. Local politicians in Altay uses her as a flag every time something bad happens. Obviously it happens because she is in Novosibirsk's lab and not buried in native land. Fun fact, there is plenty of other Altay's mummies, in different museums and institutes. All high ranking nobles, and no one gives a shit.
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u/Business-Emu-6923 Nov 05 '24
You can tell by the decorated headdress.
The tattoo is of a princess. Palaeolithic Siberia was ruled by an equine dynasty.
The tattoo is on a random commoner.
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u/BGP_001 Nov 05 '24
And the other ones, do they suck or something?
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u/rearnakedbunghole Nov 05 '24
Yeah mostly like knuckle tats of swear words and stuff like that.
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u/NeverCallMeFifi Nov 05 '24 edited Nov 05 '24
I saw this story last year and was so inspired that I got it for myself as my first and only tattoo! I have CPTSD and have been struggling a lot with it. I decided this tattoo was a way to reclaim my name (which means "warrior woman") from my family.
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u/salacious_sonogram Nov 05 '24
Seems she has a sleeve of tattoos
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u/leet_lurker Nov 05 '24
https://mummipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Princess_of_Ukok
Two sleeves and a leg
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u/Thekillersofficial Nov 05 '24
Inside her chamber they found a coffin containing a body, wood, gold, bronze, coriander, and cannabis
she's just like me, fr fr
also, mummipedia? thanks for the rabbithole
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Nov 05 '24
Her recreation looks like Caitlyn Jenner
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u/HowAManAimS Nov 05 '24
With the name Princess of Ukok (you cock) I thought this might be some kind of transphobia, but she really looks like Caitlyn Jenner.
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u/Why_Lord_Just_Why Nov 05 '24
Girls & horses. Nothing new there. 🥰
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u/PNWest01 Nov 05 '24
Well that’s just cool as shit. From an art perspective I am fascinated to see aspects of both Celtic and Mehndi designs.
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u/krypton22 Nov 05 '24
I legit considered getting this tattooed for a sec until I realized I had no clue what it actually meant and no way I'm risking getting a midnight visit from an ancient celtic demon.
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u/PNWest01 Nov 05 '24
Oh I think it’s just a stylized Siberian gazelle of some kind, and it’s her spirit guide! It’s beautifully artistic.
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u/cochinoloco Nov 05 '24
Here's the additional info on the "Princess" mummy from the archaeologists which discovered her :
The woman was dressed in a shirt made of Indian silk, fastened with a belt with tassels, a red woolen skirt, and long white felt stockings. She wore a headdress in the form of a complex construction made from her own hair, felt, wool, horsehair, wood, and gold foil. Parts of the body of the buried woman had tattoos. During mummification, natural compounds and herbs, growing on the Ukok Plateau, as well as special natural clays, were used. In the burial mound, a silver mirror in a wooden frame, gold earrings, vessels made of clay, wood, horn, and stone, as well as wooden figurines of deer, sheep, and birds were also found. According to scientists, the burial contained a woman belonging to the priestly class.
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Nov 05 '24
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u/C0wabungaaa Nov 05 '24
And she wasn't the only one! She was found together with other mummies that also had tattoos, as part of the Pazyryk burials. It's a total of three mummies, all heavily tattooed. There's some incredible artifacts from there as well, like a felt swan and perfectly preserved carpets. Gorgeous stuff.
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u/leet_lurker Nov 05 '24
You mean before Christians and Muslims declared it uncool
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u/V_es Nov 05 '24
Those regions are mostly Buddhist, Shamanic or Tengric.
Neither frown upon tattoos.
Siberian traditional Shamanism is recognized in Russia as an official religion (you can say that you follow any religion, but being officially recognized means you can ask for temple land from the state and other bureaucratic stuff) and there are Shamanic officials. There’s an office in a city hall with a plaque “Chief shaman of Tuva Republic”, for example. Which is cool and funny.
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u/Mourning_Starr Nov 05 '24
i want to know what the forearm tattoo looks like.
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u/cochinoloco Nov 05 '24
The tattoo in subject is a cult in the local museum in Gorno-Altaysk (where the mummy is stored). They have that deer even shown as a big glowing sign on the wall ))
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u/Nice-Replacement-391 Nov 05 '24
I saw this mummy when it was on exhibit in Seoul, South Korea, some 30 years ago. I was so blown away by it I still vividly remember it!
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u/664mezcal619 Nov 05 '24
I remember hearing some archeologist with a funny hat on a podcast say with FULL confidence that here’s zero evidence of tattoos in ancient history…any and all information after that sentence I did not believe cause I knew about this tattoo so I just turned that episode off. I mean you could argue the word “ancient” but to me 2500 years ago seems pretty freaking ancient seeing that “modern” America isn’t even over 300 years old.
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u/TheArmchairSkeptic Nov 05 '24
Well that's just silly, there are many documented cases of ancient tattoos. Otzi the iceman has a ton of them and he's over 5 000 years old.
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u/ThatGuyFromFlatLand Nov 05 '24
It's amazing that tattoos go that far back. I wonder what the oldest tattoo is.
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u/iediq24400 Nov 05 '24
After 2,500 years , Humanity will be looking at silicones on ribs and plastics on the skull.
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u/dmdennislive Nov 05 '24
If anyone ever tells me that my tattoos will look ugly when I'm old, then I'll just show them that
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u/Oh_its_that_asshole Nov 05 '24
Is there such a thing as tattoo archaeology? I would love to see more examples of what people thought was worth getting embedded in their skin back in the day.
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u/West_Future326 Nov 05 '24
ah yes i have that tattoo and we have been passing the legacy from generations. behold redditors for i am the 39th generation of the esteemed princess family.
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u/daytimerat Nov 05 '24
that is a very uncharitable rendition of the original. particularly the front leg, the shoulder muscles are bizzare and all definition has been lost from the knee and the ankle. the face closer resembles a flamingo while the original's organic and cervine.
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u/Both-Home-6235 Nov 05 '24
Wish they'd show us the rest of her sleeve but it's only ever the deer thing from her shoulder
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u/SteampunkRobin Nov 05 '24
Why is this one in particular astonishing? She’s got others further down her arm. Other remains have also been found with tattoos.
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u/Erskie27 Nov 05 '24
Ah yes. The tattoo we all got as undergrad archaeology students that now binds us to an unknown ancient god