New discoveries continue to show that the Nile valley was home to a long tradition of body modification extending back into prehistory.

This presentation— coming to us from the UK—will review recently uncovered evidence for tattooing from the predynastic period to the end of the Middle Kingdom, gleaned from examination of human remains from both the Egyptian and Nubian populations—some long held in museums, others fresh from excavations at Hierakonpolis, where Dr. Friedman works.

Such body modifications were previously assumed only on the basis of artistic representations such as this predynastic ceramic figurine (right). Now infrared photography is revealing actual tattoos on individuals from a range of times and cultures.

Detection of tattoos depends, of course, on the preservation of, and accessibility to, human skin, and thus the examples are rather limited. Nevertheless, it is still possible to explore what we know (and in some cases, surprisingly, what we don’t) about these tattooed individuals. Together with the artistic record, we can begin to tell the tale of what tattoos may have meant to people both personally and culturally.

Attendees must register for this event.

Email us at arce.dc.news at gmail dot com for a link to do so.

Dr. Renée Friedman is a research fellow of the Griffiths Institute at Oxford University. She is also director of the archaeological expedition to Hierakonpolis, which has been exploring various aspects of this vast site annually since 1996. Among the many discoveries, the tattoos found in the site’s Nubian C-Group cemetery were the initial stimulus for the current research on body decoration, which continues to grow.