K R U TA K & D E T ER-WO L F LY N —C. W. ELDRIDGE, Tattoo Archive, Winston-Salem, North Carolina The contributors are Orlando V. Abinion, Gemma Angel, Ronald G. Beckett, Tara Clark, Colin Dale, Renée Friedman, Louise Furey, Svetlana Pankova, Dario Piombino-Mascali, Luc Renaut, Benoît Robitaille, Analyn Salvador-Amores, Dong Hoon Shin, Isaac Walters, Leonid T. Yablonsky, and Petar N. Zidarov. Jacket design: Katrina Noble Front jacket illustration: Egyptian faience figurine with tattoos on truncated legs (ca. 1980−1800 BCE); not to scale. Photograph by Renée Friedman. British Museum, London (EA52863) FO R R ES EA R —MATTHEW LODDER, tattoo art historian, University of Essex —TANYA M. PERES, associate professor of anthropology, Florida State University SE PO PU C H “A careful, measured, detailed, well-researched, and interesting volume. It updates a huge range of scholarship on tattoo practices from across the globe.” “Krutak and Deter-Wolf have brought together an impressive group of scholars to write about the antiquity and persistence of a near-universal human activity.” Ancient Ink Courtesy of Aaron Deter-Wolf —MARGOT MIFFLIN, author of Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo T H E A R C H A E O LO GY O F TAT TO O I N G —HENK SCHIFFMACHER, tattoo artist and author, the Netherlands S O “As tattooing has become massively popular, the world has commodified our trade for cash, television shows, magazines, and flash books. Thankfully, every now and then a significant publication comes along that is created by people who know its history and are themselves tattooed. Ancient Ink is an important book and a must for every library.” “With contributions by leading lights in the growing field of tattoo studies, Ancient Ink is essential reading for tattoo scholars, artists, and enthusiasts—anyone who cares about the history and diversity of this ancient global practice and its modern iterations.” A A R O N D E T E R-WO L F is a prehistoric archaeologist for the Tennessee Division of Archaeology and senior editor of Drawing with Great Needles: Ancient Tattoo Traditions of North America. T R Photograph by Ilan Spira L A R S K R U TA K is a research associate in the department of anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. He is the author of Tattoo Traditions of Native North America: Ancient and Contemporary Expressions of Identity and Spiritual Skin: Magical Tattoos and Scarification. “Tattooing is as popular today as at any time in human history, and Ancient Ink will help the layman, as well as the scholar, better understand how we got here.” Ancient Ink T H E A R C H A E O LO GY O F TAT TO O I N G A MCLELLAN BOOK University of Washington Press Seattle | www.washington.edu/uwpress ED ITED BY ISBN 978-0-295-74282-3 90000 9 780295 742823 L A R S K R U TA K & A A R O N D E TER-WO LF he desire to alter and adorn the human body is universal. While specific forms of body decoration and the motivations for them vary according to region, culture, and era, all human societies have engaged in practices designed to enhance people’s natural appearance. One of the most widespread types of body art, tattooing, appears on human mummies by 3200 BCE and was practiced by ancient cultures throughout the world. Ancient Ink, the first book dedicated to the archaeological study of tattooing, presents new research examining tattooed human remains, tattoo tools, and art. Examples include Predynastic Egyptian tattoo traditions, Iron Age animal motifs of Siberia, Ottoman-era religious imagery of Croatian Catholics, historical and contemporary burik designs of the Philippines, and the modern revival of birthing tattoos in Alaska. This volume contributes to our understanding of the antiquity, durability, and significance of tattooing and human body decoration and illuminates how different societies have used their skin to construct identities, transmit knowledge, and display societal values. Ancient Ink connects ancient body art traditions to modern culture with essays on Indigenous tattoo revitalization and the work of contemporary tattoo artists who employ historical techniques and imagery, demonstrating the pervasiveness of tattooing and its status as a shared human practice. LY O N S SE Ancient Ink R PO T H E A R C H AE O LO GY O F TATTO O ING PU Edited by LARS KRUTAK C H and FO R R ES EA R AARON DETER-WOLF A McLellan Book University of Washington Press Seattle & London LY To the memory of O N Paul R. Krutak (1934−2016), Daniel R. Deter (1948−2015), S and FO R R ES EA R C H PU R PO SE Leonid T. Yablonsky (1950−2016) LY I suppose . . . that the value of these artifacts lies in how one looks at them. FO R R ES EA R C H PU R PO SE S O N —Susie Silook, St. Lawrence Island Yupik artist (2009) LY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FO R R ES EA R C H PU R PO SE S O N This volume is intended as a modest contribution to the study of ancient tattooing practices and technology. The collection of essays is the outcome of many conversations over the years, including those held at international conferences: European Association of Archaeologists Annual Meetings (2010/2011, The Hague and Oslo); “Into the Skin: Identity, Symbols and History of Permanent Body Marks” conference (2011, Vatican City); 7th World Congress on Mummy Studies (2011, San Diego); and Musée du Quai Branly conference “Tattooed Images” (2015, Paris). As a collaborative project, this book would not have been possible without the support of numerous individuals who provided guidance, contacts, imagery, stories, and tattoo knowledge, as well as humor when we needed it most. In this regard, we extend our appreciation to the St. Lawrence Island (Alaska) elders; Kalinga master tattooist Whang-Od; Elle Festin; Tina Astudillo-Ash; Mark of the Four Waves; Marjorie Tahbone; Qaiyaan and Jana Harcharek; Dave Mazierski; Alexander Yablonsky; Orlando Abinion; Art Tibaldo; Colin Dale of Skin & Bone Tattoo; Peter van der Helm; Tsvetan Chetashki; Ivan Vajsov; Svend Hansen; Cristina Georgescu; Zele of Zagreb Tattoo; Sasha Aleksandar of Orca Sun Tattoo; Carol Diaz-Granados; Jim Duncan; Johann Sawyer; Heidi Altman; Tanya Kanceljak; Tea Turalija Mihaljevic; Wal Ambrose; Julia Mage’au Gray, Nata Richards, and Ranu James (www.teptok.com); Ade Baroa; Vali Kolou; Taitá Koroka; Dion Kaszas of Vertigo Tattoo; Carla Wells-Listener; Alan White; Michael Galban; Kiano Zamani; Anna Felicity Friedman; Ethan Freeman; Matt Lodder; Sébastien Galliot; Francesco d’Errico; Gerhard Bosinski; Magda Lazarovici; Camilla Norman; Claire Alix; Owen Mason; Dave Hunt; Chris Dudar, and the two anonymous reviewers who offered critiques of the draft manuscript. Documenting the antiquity, significance, and meaning of ancient tattooing would have been quite difficult without the assistance of the collectors, photographers, galleries, archives, museums, publishers, and institutional staff who provided permission to reproduce written documents, publications, objects of material culture, and photography. Our gratitude goes out to the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London; the British Museum; Sudan National Museum; the Oriental Institute; Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford University; The State Hermitage Museum; Regional Historical Museum Veliko Turnovo; the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences; Auckland Museum; Orenburg Governor’s Museum of Local Lore and History; Editions Ophrys; Cotsen xi FO R R ES EA R C H PU R PO SE S O N LY Institute of Archaeology Press, UCLA; Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology, Free University Berlin; The American School of Classical Studies at Athens; Association Hellas et Roma; Donald Ellis Gallery; Angela Linn and Scott Shirar, of the University of Alaska Museum of the North; Dave Rosenthal and National Museum of Natural History; Sean Mooney, of the Rock Foundation Collection; National Museum of the American Indian; Daisy Njoku and the National Anthropological Archives; American Museum of Natural History Special Collections and Department of Anthropology; Bryan Just and Princeton University Art Museum; Bill and Carol Wolf Collection; Perry and Basha Lewis Collection; Anna Cannizzo and the Oshkosh Public Museum; Steve Davis and the Research Laboratories of Archaeology, University of North Carolina; Neal Oshima and En Barong, Inc.; Joe Ash Photography; Kalynna Ashley Photography; Cora DeVos / Little Inuk Photography; and Charles Hamm and the National Association for the Preservation of Skin Art. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of a generous subvention grant and research grant from Flavia Robinson and the Daniele Agostino Derossi Foundation (Torino, Italy) for the senior editor’s travel to Papua New Guinea. We would also like to give special recognition to Lorri Hagman and her staff at the University of Washington Press for supporting the publication of this book, and to Ellen Wheat for copyediting the manuscript. Numerous others also assisted us during the course of writing and editing this book, and we thank you all for your invaluable support. xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LY N O SE S Introduction PO Aaron Deter-Wolf and Lars Krutak he desire to alter, decorate, and adorn the human body is a cultural universal. While specific forms of body decoration and the underlying motivations vary according to region, culture, and era, human societies from the past and present have engaged in practices designed to enhance their natural appearance. Tattooing—the process of inserting pigment into the skin to create permanent designs and patterns—as a form of body decoration has been practiced by cultures around the globe and throughout human history. Preserved tattoos on mummified human remains demonstrate that the practice extends back to at least the fourth millennium BCE (Deter-Wolf et al. 2016). However, the exact antiquity and archaeological footprint of tattooing remain poorly understood, and it was not until recently that the various pieces of archaeological evidence for tattooing have been seriously or systematically evaluated by qualified scholars. Over the past two decades there has been a surge in interest among both academics and the general public in learning more about ancient and historic tattooing. Researchers studying past societies have begun to recognize the importance of tattooing in both social and ritual contexts. Professional tattoo artists are increasingly interested in learning more about the history of their profession, about authentic ancient and historical motifs, and about the techniques involved in applying tattoos in the preelectric era. The ever-growing population of tattooed individuals (as well as those aspiring to become tattooed) are similarly intrigued by traditional tattoo methods, and by the designs and meanings of ancient and historic body art. Members of Indigenous cultures worldwide are actively seeking out information regarding the tattoo tools, FO R R ES EA R C H PU R T 3 ES EA R C H PU R PO SE S O N LY symbols, and significance associated with their unique cultural traditions, which were historically suppressed by colonial, missionary, and other acculturative agents. Despite this growing interest, there are few solidly researched volumes examining ancient tattoo traditions. Those works are generally region specific (e.g., Deter-Wolf and Diaz-Granados 2013; Krutak 2014a), contain dated or suspect scholarship (e.g., Hambly 1925; van Dinter 2005), are generalist texts that do not contain in-depth or specific archaeological information, or are overly academic and unapproachable for the general public. In the absence of definitive source material, scholars, tattoo artists, and the interested public rely instead on questionable sources, including the fountain of readily accessible but often inaccurate information on the internet, to learn about the history and archaeology of tattooing. As a result, myths and misunderstandings are being perpetuated regarding the historical scope of tattooing, the historic and Indigenous tools, methods, and meanings, and the available archaeological evidence. Ancient Ink is the first book dedicated to the archaeological study of tattooing. In the volume, we present essays by international researchers working to understand our shared human past through examination of the principal lines of archaeological evidence used to examine ancient and historic tattooing: preserved human skin, tattoo tools, and the artistic record. These studies contribute to our understanding of the antiquity, durability, and significance of tattooing and human body decoration by illuminating how different societies of the past have employed their skin in the construction of their identities. Moreover, they illustrate how ancient body art traditions connect to our modern culture through Indigenous tattoo revitalization efforts and the recontextualization of tattoo meanings and praxis through the work of contemporary artists. To this end, chapters alternate analyses of the archaeological record with descriptions of contemporary work by tattoo artists who employ historic and traditional techniques and/or imagery, thereby demonstrating the persistence of traditions discussed in the preceding chapter. When possible, the chapter authors draw parallels between modern and historic or Indigenous traditions. Part 1: Skin FO R R The first part of this volume addresses topics related to naturally and deliberately preserved tattooed human remains, which constitute the most spectacular and direct form of archaeological evidence of tattooing in ancient and historic societies. Hundreds of human mummies with tattooed skin have been recovered from archaeological settings around the globe, including in Europe, South America, Central America, North Africa, Western Asia, Siberia, the Philippines, and the Arctic (Deter-Wolf et al. 2016: table 1). Most of these finds were historically regarded as curiosities for collection and exhibition, but prior to the past decade—with the notable exception of the Tyrolean mummy known as Ötzi—only a few have undergone substantive documentation or analysis. In some cases, natural darkening of preserved skin as a result of age and weathering 4 AARON DETER-WOLF AND LARS KRUTAK FO R R ES EA R C H PU R PO SE S O N LY obscured tattoos, and only with the application of new imaging technologies have these marks been discovered (e.g., Samadelli et al. 2015). Today, recognition of the cultural importance of tattooing combined with advances in imaging and detection technology facilitate new examinations and identifications of preserved tattooed remains both in the archaeological record and in museum collections. The authors in the first part describe new finds of preserved, tattooed skin, as well as new discoveries and analysis of previously recorded examples. In chapter 1, Renée Freidman discusses recent identifications of preserved tattoos on Egyptian and Nubian C-Group mummies from the sites of Gebelein and Hierakonpolis. Freidman also marshals comparative evidence to identify a possible tattoo toolkit from Hierakonpolis Cemetery HK43, and reassesses the tattooed mummies discovered at Deir el Bahari in 1891. Altogether, these various lines of evidence engage tattoo traditions spanning the Predynastic period (ca. 3900−3100 BCE) through the New Kingdom (1550−1069 BCE), demonstrate the presence of separate and distinctive tattoo traditions in Egypt and Nubia, and entirely reframe our understanding of tattooing in the region. In addition, radiocarbon analysis reveals that the Gebelein mummies are the oldest tattooed remains yet discovered in Africa. On the island of Luzon, Philippines, the burik (tattoo) tradition of the Indigenous Ibaloy people increasingly constitutes a significant aspect of historical and contemporary identity. In chapter 2, Analyn Salvador-Amores describes these burik practices as they appear in historical records, on the bodies of the Kabayan mummies, and as they are manifested in contemporary culture. In chapter 3, Lars Krutak describes the revival of Ibaloy and Filipino tattoo traditions through the work of the Kalinga tattooist Whang-Od and the Mark of the Four Waves Tribe. Finally, Dario Piombino-Mascali, Ronald G. Beckett, Orlando V. Albinion, and Dong Hoon Shin provide a formal histiological analysis of a Kabayan mummy in chapter 4. This study results in new insights concerning the substances and techniques used in local Filipino mummification practices. The elaborate animal tattoos on the mummies of the Iron Age Pazyryk culture of Siberia regularly make their way through the news cycle and various social media feeds. However, reliable information on these finds has not—until now—been widely available to English-speaking audiences. In chapter 5, Svetlana Pankova describes preserved tattoos from both the Pazyryk and Tashtyk cultures of the Altai-Sayan region, spanning the period between approximately 300 BCE and 400 CE. Following this discussion, Colin Dale and Krutak explore the resurrection of Pazyryk tattoo motifs by Danish archaeologist Søren Nancke-Krogh, Canadian tattooist Steve Gilbert, and Canadian artist Dave Mazierksi. In chapter 7, Gemma Angel turns our focus away from ancient mummies to examine early twentieth century specimens of tattooed human skin from the Wellcome Collection in London. This collection was originally purchased in 1929 for inclusion in a medical museum, and contains little contextual information regarding the individuals from whom the specimens were obtained. Angel provides a wealth of information INTRODUCTION 5 O N LY about historic European tattooing, including data on the methods and tools used, the iconography, and where tattooing and tattooed bodies fit into the early twentieth century European cultural milieu. The preservation of tattooed human flesh has historically occurred mainly as a byproduct of either unintentional or deliberate mummification, or as a result of anatomical and medical studies. Today, tattooed individuals have the agency to intentionally preserve their own tattoos, with the assistance of several foundations. As described by Deter-Wolf and Krutak in chapter 8, the Foundation for the Art and Science of Tattooing and Save My Ink Forever will work with individuals to posthumously collect and protect their tattoos for posterity. S Part 2: Tools FO R R ES EA R C H PU R PO SE Although tattooing has been practiced for millennia by cultures around the world, there have until recently been relatively few archaeological identifications of tattoo tools outside of Oceania (Deter-Wolf 2013a). This lack of identification is due to various factors, including the rapid historic abandonment of Indigenous tools in favor of European metal needles, the suppression of Indigenous tattoo traditions under colonial rule, and misunderstandings of tattoo techniques and technologies. Contributors to this part of the volume focus on the archaeological identification of tattoo implements, how these tools may be distinguished from other visually similar artifacts, and what they reveal about cultural development, change, and migration within past societies. In their efforts to identify and understand these artifacts, the authors employ a variety of lines of evidence, including human figural art, historic and ethnographic accounts, and both cross-cultural and use-wear analysis. In chapter 9, Petar Zidarov uses art historical, historical, and archaeological evidence to suggest that tattooing in southeastern Europe existed as early as the sixth millennium BCE. Toward this end, he discusses the archaeological identification of bone tools from the Copper Age site of Pietrele, Romania, which may have functioned as tattoo implements. In a subsequent discussion in chapter 10, Krutak describes contemporary efforts to document historic tattoo traditions of the Balkans through the ethnographic work of Bosnian researcher Tea Mihaljevic and Croatian artists Zele and Sasha Aleksandar who incorporate traditional imagery into their modern tattoo work. To the east in Polynesia, Louise Furey examines the distribution of Indigenous tattooing across Oceania in chapter 11. Her presentation of an island-by-island overview of archaeological materials demonstrates that while tattooing practices in the region share a common ancestry, the technology used to mark the body was quite diversified and functions as an important indicator of the settlement history of Oceania. In chapter 12, Krutak writes about the revival of Indigenous tattooing practices in coastal Papua New Guinea through the journey of four women of Papuan and Australian descent who traveled across Polynesia to resurrect them. 6 AARON DETER-WOLF AND LARS KRUTAK R C H PU R PO SE S O N LY Turning to North America, in chapter 13 Aaron Deter-Wolf, Benoît Robitaille, and Isaac Walters examine issues surrounding the archaeological identification of ancient Native American tattoo tools from the Eastern Woodlands. The authors use a combination of archaeological, ethnographic, and historical data, including identification of rare surviving toolkits, to reiterate the ritual and technological differences between Native American tattooing, scarification, and scratching practices, and to address mistaken archaeological identifications of tattoo tools from the region. Just as tattoos were closely linked to identity in ancient North America, today they testify to the resilience of Indigenous cultures and peoples. In chapter 14, Krutak probes the meanings of tattooing for contemporary Native tattoo bearers in Canada and the eastern United States, underscoring the role that tattoo revival efforts have had on the process of decolonization. In chapter 15, Leonid Yablonsky expands our knowledge of the nomadic, early Iron Age Sarmatian people of Eurasia through recent discoveries of their tattooing material culture, the oldest evidence from this region. This long-awaited, but sadly posthumous, study of tattooing tools and related objects has an important role to play in reconstructing the tattoo history of these ancient nomadic people and their neighbors. Deter-Wolf and Tara Nicole Clark address the task of developing use-wear analysis as a tool to identify tattoo tools in archaeological and museum collections in chapter 16. After creating a set of bone tools using prehistoric techniques, they then use those implements to tattoo both pig skin and human skin. Deter-Wolf and Clark then examine the microwear patterns created during the tattooing process in an attempt to both refine our understanding of the use-wear signature of tattooing, and assess the suitability of pig skin as a surrogate for human skin in future experimental studies. EA Part 3: Art FO R R ES Possible representations of human body decoration appear on anthropomorphic figurines and art dating back to at least 35,000 years ago. Although the artists who created these images intended to show alteration of the human skin, it is challenging for modern scholars to establish the specific type and permanence of the body decoration(s) in question. Some examples may represent clothing, while others may indicate tattooing, body paint, scarification, or something else altogether. Identifying the symbolic significance and ideological roles of these ancient objects can also be difficult. To address these problems, the final part of the book examines the artistic, ethnographic, and archaeological record of ancient and historic cultures from Europe and the Arctic in order to assess how members of those societies projected their decorated bodies onto their material culture. In chapter 17, Luc Renaut turns a skeptical eye toward artistic depictions of possible ancient European tattooing. His examination spans the Upper Paleolithic through the Bronze Age, and describes anthropomorphic art recovered from numerous sites across INTRODUCTION 7 FO R R ES EA R C H PU R PO SE S O N LY the continent in an effort to differentiate likely depictions of tattooing from works depicting other forms of body decoration. The final chapters focus on the American Arctic, as Lars Krutak examines the prehistoric and historic use of decorated anthropomorphic dolls from Bering Strait. These religious objects, usually carved of walrus ivory, were employed in various rituals for more than two millennia, but the question of their tattoos has always remained a mystery. This study serves as a companion piece to Krutak’s subsequent brief survey of contemporary Indigenous tattooing in Alaska. Motivated by ancestral traditions, spiritual beliefs, and contemporary cultural values, a new generation of tattoo bearers has reawakened tattooing customs that were once in danger of disappearing forever. The studies presented here are pioneering efforts in the analysis, recognition, and interpretation of tattooing instruments and practices worldwide. Indeed, tattooing is an almost universal human tradition that embodies an astonishing range of cultural meanings articulated through performance and permanent symbols. For millennia, tattooing has been more than mere ornamentation. Instead, the practice has been integral to the social fabric of community and religious life, and has anchored societal values on the skin for most everyone to see. Seen in this light, tattooing was, and continues to be, a system of knowledge transmission, a visual language of the skin whereby culture is inscribed, experienced, and preserved in myriad specific ways. 8 AARON DETER-WOLF AND LARS KRUTAK