Researchers Use Lasers to Study Ancient Peruvian Mummies
2025-01-20
LRC
TXT
大字
小字
滚动
全页
1For more than 5,000 years, humans have covered themselves with permanent artistic designs known as tattoos.
2In a recent study, researchers used lasers to uncover highly complex designs of ancient tattoos on mummies from Peru.
3The skin of the mummies and the black liquid, or ink, used to make the tattoos permitted researchers to observe fine details.
4These marks are not visible to the human eye, said study co-writer Michael Pittman of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
5The researchers examined around 100 mummies dating to around 775 years ago.
6The mummies were from coastal Peru's Chancay culture, which grew and developed before the Inca empire and the arrival of Europeans.
7All the individuals had some form of tattoos on the back of their hands, knuckles, arms or other body parts.
8The study paid careful attention to four individuals with "exceptional tattoos" - designs of shapes such as triangles and diamonds, said Pittman.
9It was not clear how the tattoos were created.
10But they are "of a quality that stands up against the really good electric tattooing of today," said Aaron Deter-Wolf of the Tennessee Division of Archaeology.
11Deter-Wolf was not involved in the research.
12The study results appeared recently in the publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
13Using lasers that make skin glow, "we basically turn skin into a light bulb," said study co-writer Tom Kaye of the nonprofit Foundation for Scientific Advancement based in Sierra Vista, Arizona.
14The findings were "helpful to learn about new non-destructive technologies that can help us study and document sensitive archaeological materials," such as mummies, said Deter-Wolf.
15The oldest known tattoos ever discovered are on the remains of a Neolithic man who lived in the Italian Alps around five thousand years ago.
16Many mummies from ancient Egypt also have tattoos, as do remains from cultures around the world.
17People have used tattooing for many reasons throughout history.
18The marks can show cultural or individual identity, social standing, and more.
19Tattoos also have been used for protection against disease or to deepen relationships with spirits or gods, suggested Lars Krutak.
20Krutak, who works at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was not involved in the research.
21Designs on ancient textile and stone products are more commonly found in good condition for study than are ancient tattoos.
22But ancient tattoos when studied can provide information about art forms that would not otherwise be available, suggested Martin Smith of Bournemouth University.
23Smith was not involved in the recent study.
24I'm John Russell.