Peo le Illustrated In antiquity tattoos could beautify, shock, or humiliate. by Adrienne Mayor | will tattoo you with pictures of the terrible punishments suffered by the most notorious sinners it Hades! wil tattoo you with the white-tusked boar! } IOLENT IMAGERY PROMISING GRUESOME HARM TO RVALS ot faithless lovers is common in Hellenistic curses, but the above poem stands out because it threatens revenge by tattoo. The author of | | | | | this curse, on Egyptian papyrus fragments dis- covered in 1962 and 1991, is unknown, but a strong candidate is the poetess Moiro of Byzantium, who lived ea. 300 8.c. A like punishment turns up about the same we by the Greek playwright Herodas. In The Jealous Woman, the scomed Bitinna summons Kosis, a professional tattooer of slaves, criminals, and prisoners of war, to bring his needles to punish her unfaithful slave-lover, While today tattoos are primarily decorative, in antiquity they also had punitive, magical, and medical funetions. In Greece, the use of penal tattoos was probably introduced from Persia in the sixth century a.c. According to the histo- rian Herodotus, the Persian king Xerxes, on his way to invade Greece (480 1.c.), was so infuriated when the sea swept away his bridge at the Hellespont that he ordered his soldiers to enslave the disobedient body of water by tossing | ion fetter nto the sea, Then he had men flog it with 300 | lashes. “I even heard,” writes an amused Herodotus, “that Xerxes commanded his royal tattooers to tattoo the water! Another Herodotean tale tells us that about 500 0.c., | the lonian tyrant Histiaeus of Miletus was imprisoned by | the Persian king Darius. In an effort to inspire his son-in-law Aristogoras to revolt, Histiaeus secretly shaved the head of his most trusted slave and pricked his scalp with pin and ink. "Histiaeus to Aristagoras,” the message read, “incite Tonia to revolt!” In a few weeks the slaves hair | grew over the tattoo, and Histiacus dispatched his living letter. On reaching his destination, the slave shaved. Aris- togoras read the instructions written on the man’s scalp and launched an ill-conceived revolt that ended in the Per- sian invasion of Greece ‘Tattooing captives was common in wartime. After defeat- the wealthy Aegean island of Samos in the fifth eentury 3.c., the Athenians tattooed the foreheads of prisoners of war with an owl, Athens’ emblem. When Samos in tum de- feated the Athenians, the Samians tattooed their prisoners with the image of a Samian warship. The historian Plutarch was appalled by the “unthinkable indignity” inflicted on. 7,000 Athenians and their allies captured at Syracuse in 413 1.c., their foreheads tattooed with a horse (the Syracusan in- signia) before they were sold as slaves to work the quarries. ‘A legal inscription from Ephesus indicates that during the early Roman Empire all slaves exported to Asia were tattooed with the words “tax paid.” Acronyms, words, sen- tences, and even doggerel were gouged on foreheads, | necks, arms, and legs of slaves and convicts, either as rou- tine identification marks of as punishment. “Stop me, I'm a | was a standard motto etched on the brows of Roman slaves. The practice dehumanized social inferiors by tuming their bodies into texts that forever recorded their vty, servitude, or guilt. The Greek philosopher Bion of Borysthenes (ca. 300 38.c,) described the brutally tattooed face of his father, a for mer slave, as “a narrative of his master’s harshness.” That, some cruel slave owners tattooed their chattels without cause is suggested by a fragmentary Greek legal code of the third century n.c. that allowed masters to tattoo “bad” slaves but forbade the tattooing of “good” ones. In Rome, Caligula (0. 38-41) “defaced many people of the better sort” with tattoos and condemned them to slavery, according to his, biographer Suetonius. Gladiators were tattooed as public | property, and in the later empire soldiers were tattooed to | Giscourage desertion. Roman authorities also punished early | Christians with forchead tattoos that condemned them to | the mines, according, to new research by Calvin College his- torian Mark Gustafson. In a.o. 330, the first Christian emperor, Constantine, banned the practice of tattooing the faces of conviets, gladiators, and soldiers. Because th human face reflected “the image of divine beauty” he sai, it should not be defiled.” i Punitive tattoos were not carefully or artistically applied. 2 Ink was poured into crude letters carved into a captives flesh with iron needles; three needles bound together made a thicker line, Copious bleeding was common and the pro- cedure was sometimes fatal. “Without hygiene, tattooing 3 Ancuscovosy, Marcus Arar 1999 |must always have been...dangerous [which] contributed to its value as a form of punishment,” writes Harvard’s Christo pher Jones. Marco Polo's vivid description of the ordeal of willing vietims in thirteenth-century Central Asia gives a sense of traditional methods. To tattoo elaborate dragons, lions, and birds on the skin, an individual was “tied hand and foot and held down by others, while the master crafts ‘man pricked out the images with five needles.” Th suffered what might well pass forthe pains of Purgatory ‘oman pocroRs beveLoPED techniques for removing tattoos, but the methods were painful and risky. | A typical procedure from the medical writer Aetius reads, “Clean the tattoo with nite, smear with resin of terebinth, and bandage for five days.” On day six “prick out the tattoo with a sharp pin, sponge away the blood, and caver with salt. After strenuous running to work up a sweat, apply a caustie poultice; the tattoo should disappear in 20 days. Caustic preparations worked by uleerat- ing the skin, thereby obliterating the tat- too. A safer expedient, mentioned by other writers, was to hide shameful tat- 1005 under long bangs or a bandana. The demeaning use of tattoos in their own cultures made it difficult for Greeks and Romans to understand why the Thracians, Scythians, Dacians, Gauls, Picts, Celts, and Britons willin ly tattooed themselves. In Thrace, ac- cording to Herodotus, plain skin sig. naled a lack of identity, and men and women with tattoos were much ad- oi mired, One third-century account of the Scythian defeat of the Thracians notes that the victors incised symbols of defeat upon the losers, but that the Thracian women hit on the idea of embellishing the rest of their bodies with tattoos | as a way of turning “the stamp of violence and shame into | beautiful ornaments.” Similarly, early Christians tattooed themselves with religious symbols to counteract those in- scribed on them by their Roman persecutors. Among the Mossynoikoi of the Black Sea in the fifth century 8.<., the historian Xenophon observed that “the chubby children of the best families were entirely tattooed back and front with flowers in many colors.” For many ancient people, tattoos signaled bravery, ensured magical protection, and im- pressed enemies: | The Romans were amazed by warrior cultures that | seemed to gather psychological strength from tatoos, The | historian Herodian records the first encounters with the wildly illustrated natives of the British Isles about a.p. 200, 56 DCM ean Ty Ce ca Ferocious fighters [who] tattoo their bodies with myriad pat tems and all sorts of animals.” The historian Claudian (ca. ‘Ap. 400) described a skirmish with the natives of Scotland. ‘The Roman soldiers, themselves tattooed against their will by the state, lingered after the battle to stare at “the strange devices on the faces of the dying Picts Despite their misgivings about the practice, the Greeks were fascinated by the idea of tattoos as exotic beauty marks, In the fifth and fourth centuries n.c., a series of pop- tlor vase paintings ilustrated the murder of the musician Orpheus by tattooed Thracian maenads wielding spears, daggers, and axes. Hanns Ebensten, a sociologist who stud- ‘es tattoos, has found that “bold, auda- cious" designs are often used to ac- centuate musculature and motion. On these vases, the geometric and animal tattoos on the women’s bodies draw at- tention to athletic strength and flexing muscles. On a red-figure column krater, to maenads running barefoot display fully tattooed arms and legs. One of the ‘women has designs from ankle to knee: parallel lines, zigzags, a sunburst, and a deer. Other vases show women with chevrons, circles, vines, ladders, spirals, and animals ‘The most technically and artistically brilliant tattoos from antiquity are pre- served on three bodies discovered near Pazyryk, southern Siberia (see ARCHAE- ‘LOGY, September/October 1994, p. 27, and January/February 1996, p. 33). The region was home to the nomadic horse people known to the Greeks as the Scythians. There, in 1948, Soviet ar- 7 chacologist Sergei Rudenko discovered a fifth-century 8.c. tattooed warrior pre- 4 served in permafrost. Imaginary and real $ creatures swirled across the man's body, the sophisticated compositions conforming to his anatomy. How were the Scythian tattoos made? Rudenko specu- lated that a sure-handed artist had “stitched” the skin with a very fine needle and thread using soot as the coloring agent. Scythian grave goods included exceptionally fine bone needles and thin sinews for thread, but modem tat- too artists doubt that such intricate and deep tattoos could be achieved by this method. Nonetheless, freeze-dried Inuit mummies found at Qilekitsog, Greenland, and exam- ined by the Danish National Museum in 1978 provide evi- dence that the Scythian tattoos may have been stitched. Tattoos decorated six women who had died in the late 1400s. Scientists determined that the designs had been made by drawing a thread through the skin with a bone needle. Chemical analysis revealed ink made from soot, ash, and plant juices. Amcuacovocy, Mancu/Arate 1999se ee UoewKa was INTRIGUED by 14 dots along the Scythian warrior’s spine and six on his ankle. He knew that present-day Siberians believe such tattoos alleviate pain, Therapeutic tattoo ing is still practiced among Tibetans and peo- ples of the Arctic and Middle East. Like cauterization or acupuncture, such tattoos are thought to stimulate nerves oF release toxins. This folk reme the Eleventh Dynasty mummy of Lady Ament (ca, 2400 1.c), for example, have been interpreted by French archae logists as a therapy for chronic kidney disease. A second tattooed body was found at Pazyryk in 1993 by Natalya Polosmak of the Russian Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. The woman was wrapped in fur and buried with six horses, all perfectly preserved in solid ice. She was about 25 at the time of her death some 2,400 years ago. On her wrist and shoulder were exquisite tattoos of deer with fantastic antlers, recalling the deer tattoos of the Thracian maenads on aneient Greek vases. third tattooed mummy was found in 1995. This young horseman wore his hair in braids andl was buried with his horse around 500 w.c. A large tattoo of an elk in the distinctive Scythian style spans his chest, shoulder, and back. The animals on these three nomads may have had! magical meanings, of they may have recorded important personal experiences such as hunt- ing successes, vision quests, and perilous adventures. ‘Otzi the Iceman, who died in an Alpine blizzard some 5,000 years ago, has several tattoos: parallel lines on the right Foot and ankle, bars along the lower spine, lines on the left calf, and crosses inside the right knee and left ankle. Noticing that they were concentrated at joints, and recall ing Rudenko's medical interpretation of the dots on the Pacyryk warrior, Konrad Spindler of the University of Inns- bruck ordered X rays of Otzi. Sure enough, they revealed chronic degeneration of bone and cartilage in the spine and arthritic wear and tear of the knees and ankles. The “pre- cise draftsmanship” indicates that an experienced tattooist scored the marks with a sharp point; the bone awl found i the Iceman's pouch “would have been ideal for the task, wrote Spindler in The Mart in the Ice. History shows that humans have had themselves tattooed for myriad reasons—for magical protection, to relieve pain, for vengeance, or to declare victory over an enemy. Tattoos could beautify, shock, or humiliate. They proclaimed valor, religious belief, group solidarity, or personal independence. Their messages could be hidden or in plain sight, Tattoos have always been complex and mutable. What other life- style decision could dravv into the same circle such diverse people across the millennia as Otzi, Eurasian nomads, ncient slaves and prisoners of war, Roman gladiators, yptian priestesses, murderous Thracian maenads, and tat- too enthusiasts of our own is ancient: blue marks on ADRIENNE Mavon, « classical folklorist, is writing a book about discoveries of prehistoric foil in classical antiquity. EITURKEY. Trojan horse, Underground cities, Whiting dervishes. Rock churches. Pergamon, Metropolis. Sardis. Tour Gatal Hyik and | Ephecue with chia! archaeologists, Total solar | tise August, 199, Outstanding Turkish et evvoutovguide. Lrury hoes. AnaTours/tythic Travel 4A 180 Tucker Road, Scots Valley, CA 95066; Te: (831) 438-3031; wee ‘wonvanetours.com; eat: nfo@anateurscom TURKEY. 21-day Western Turkey & Cappadocia, S-day Gulet tours an Maditercenean with archaeologist guides. Scheduled and Custom- mado tours. Asia Minor Travel & Tours; (200) 532-2936; E-MAIL: aquinox@gte.net; Wee: wrasiaminorours com | | | | 1 | | | ‘TUSCANY. Comfortable accommodations for individuals and groups in vila/farmhouses of ‘Spannocchia, «farm estte near Sien, aly. Ideal for independent toursts/winter sabbat- (3) 882-2652 PLAN A TRIP To ISRAEL Const Axcasoi06y's 1990/1959 Goetonve Sea or Rowe ones || ‘This beautiful planner provides detailed information about oxcavations and historical sites you can visit, MOVING? TAKE LOGY WITH You! Ifyou are planning to mave 2000, lke send your mageaine abel and mare ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine PO, Box 469025 Escondido, CA 92046-9025 Explore new sites. visit ARCHAEOLOGY’s web page at wonw.archaeology.org 98 Insight, pages 12-18. Two importa recent studies of the Cathars are M Costen, The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade (Manchester: Manchester Uni- versity Press, 1997) and M. Lamber The Cathars (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1998). A’highly readable account is Z, Oldenbourg, Masstere at Montségur, translated from the French by P. Green (New York: Pantheon Books, 1961). The great narrative poem about the Albigensian Crusade, written in the thirteenth century in Provengal by William of Tudela and an anonymous successor, has been translated by J. Shirley: The Song of the Cathar Wars (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996). There are superb photographs in a useful guide for tourists: M. Aué, Discover Cathar Country (Vie-en-Bigorre: MSM, 1992), translated by. Pleasance. Diving on a Sunken City, pages 36-46, See JY. Empereur, Alennadria Rediscovered (New York: George Bra ailler, Ine., 1998); P.M. Fraser, Ptole aie Alexandria (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972); C, Haas, Alexandria in Laie Antiguity (Baltimore: Johns Hop- kins University Press, 1997}; W. La Riche, Alexandria: The Sunken City (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 1996); F. Goddio, Alexandria: The Suh- merged Royal Quarters (London: Peri- plus, 1998); and Strabo, Geography Books 15-16 (Loeb Classical Library, 241) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer: sity Press, 1983), Castle of the Faerie Queene, pages 48-52, See P. Henley, Spenser in Ire land (Cork: Cork University Press, 1928); A. Judson, The Life of Edmund Spenser (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni- versity Press, 1943); A.C. Hamilton, ed, The Spenser Encyclopedia (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990); H. Leask, Irish Castles and Castellated Houses (194; reprint, Dundalk: Dun- dalgan Press, 1986}; M. Ryan, ed., The Mbustrated Archaeology of Ireland (ublin: Country House, 1991); and E. Spenser, The Faerie Queene, canto 20. (oe a Mlustrated, pages 54 jee M. Gustafson, “Inseripta in Fronte renal Tattooing in Late Antiquity,” | [Classical Antiguity 16:1 (Spring 1997), pp. 79-105; W.D. Hambly. The History | | of Tattooing and Its Significance (Lon- | don: Witherby, 1925; reprint, Gale Research, 1974}; C.P. Jones, “Stigma Tattooing and Branding in Graeco- Roman Antiquity,” Journal of Roman Studies 77 (1987), pp. 139-55; A. Rubin, ed., Marks of Civilization: Ani tic Transformations of the Hunan Body (Los Angeles: UCLA Museum of Cul tural History, 1988); and V. Vale and Juno, Modern Primitives: An Investig tion of Contemporary Adornment and Ritual (San Francisco: RE/Search Publ cations, 1989), Images of Dynasty, pages 58-69. See K.C. Chang, The Archaeology of | Ancient China, 4th ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986); L. von Falkenhausen, “The Regionalist Para- | digm in Chinese Archaeology,” in P Kohl and C. Faweett, eds., Nationalism, Politics, and the Practice of Archaeology (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 198-217; G. Ku- wayama, ed. Quest for Eternity: Chinese Ceramic Sculptures from the People's Republic of China (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987), | J. Rawson, Mysteries of Ancient China | (London: British Museum Press, 1996); S. Lee, ed, China: 5,000 Years: Inncwa- | tion and Transformation in the Arts (New York: Guggenheim Museum 1998); G. Barnes, China, Korea and | Japan: The Rise of Civilization in East ‘Asia (London: Thames and Hudson, | 1993); J. Rawson, ed., The British Museum Book of Chinese Art (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1992); A. | Paludan, Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial China (London: Thames and Hudson, 1998); M. Tregear, Chinese Art (London: Thames | | and Hudson, 1997); and W. Watson, The Arts of China to A.D. 900 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995). AncuncoLocr, Mancu/ApRiL 1999 |