Tattooing has been an important cultural practice for at least 5,300 years, but until recently the material culture of those traditions was not generally recognized by archaeologists. This presentation will describe new advances in understanding tattooing’s deep past, including the discovery of the oldest tattooing tools in North America and efforts documenting hundreds of newly-identified tattoos preserved on mummified remains from the ancient Andes. The presentation will also describe a recent collaboration between archaeologists and professional tattoo artists that has revealed new information on tools and techniques used to tattoo “Ötzi” and mummies from around the globe.

Date: Wednesday, Feb. 28
Time: 2 - 3:15 p.m.
Location: Zoom, passcode: AnthDay24

Academic bio: Aaron Deter-Wolf is an archaeologist from Nashville, Tennessee, and a leading researcher developing the archaeological study of tattooing. Aaron has published widely on ancient tattooing tools and traditions, including studies identifying tattooing artifacts from North America, experiments working with professional tattoo artists to recreate and test ancient and historic implements, and efforts using digital imaging technologies to record tattoos on mummified human remains. He recently led a reexamination of the tattoos on the ice mummy “Ötzi” to better understand how they were created. That study will be published in the European Journal of Archaeology in early 2024. Aaron maintains the open access Tattooed Human Mummies database, and shares information about the history of tattooing and body modification on Instagram @archaeologyink. He lives and works in Tennessee, on lands that were home to indigenous Native American communities for thousands of years prior to European arrival.