Intricate Tattoos Discovered on a 2,500-Year-Old Mummy from Siberia

British archaeologists from the University of Cambridge have used modern scanning methods to study the mummified remains of a woman of the Pazyryk culture, held in the Hermitage.

The study, published in the journal Antiquity, revealed tattoos on the mummy's arms that had previously gone unnoticed. The right forearm bears images of leopards and deer, the left a scene with a deer and a mythical griffin. All the designs are executed with great precision and artistic expressiveness. The scholars suppose that a multi-point needle instrument and natural pigments were used to apply them.

Differences in the quality of execution between the tattoos on the two arms may point to the involvement of several craftsmen. Some of the images were damaged even before burial.

The noblewoman, who died at the age of about 50, belonged to a nomadic people of the Altai, known in the literature as the Pazyryks.