Uncovered Medieval Tattoos Flesh Out a Misunderstood Practice

Archaeologists discovered the second known example of Medieval Nubian tattoos in Sudan, bringing us closer to unraveling the art form’s longer history.

Sarah E. Bond
January 13, 2025



Unrecorded artist’s female figurine with hair in the “Hathor Style” and markings that appear to be tattoos from Egypt’s Middle Kingdom (c. 1850–1750 BCE), faience and paint, 5 inches (12.7 cm) (image public domain via the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

In northeast Sudan lies the Bayuda Desert, home to the Medieval Christian monastery of Ghazali. Although it was abandoned in the 13th century, recent excavations have uncovered several archaeological finds from this monastic community, which thrived in what was once the kingdom of Makuria. Following the excavation of the early-Medieval cemetery near the monastery, archaeologists discovered only the second known example of a tattoo from Medieval Nubia, a region along the Nile extending from southern Egypt to northern Sudan. The findings flesh out part of the history of tattooing as an art form symbolic of identity, a practice dating back over 5,000 years.

Published in the journal Antiquity in November, the findings reveal clues about religious tattooing in the Middle Ages. It also corrodes assumptions that such tattoos might have been taboo in the premodern Mediterranean. It was authored by a multidisciplinary team led by anthropologist Kari A. Guilbault of Purdue University with Robert Stark and Artur Obłuski of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw. As the researchers note, the discovery confirms the long history of tattooing within the Nile Valley, which existed from at least 3100 BCE onward into the Middle Ages. It also indicates continuities and parallels with tattoo cultures in North Africa, particularly Morocco, as well as in Ethiopia.

During the 7th century, the Nubian kingdom of Makuria built the Ghazali monastery and its adjacent complexes, which were in use from 680 to 1275 CE. These included outlying churches, a refectory, living facilities, an iron-smelting workshop, and numerous cemeteries that held thousands of human remains, largely excavated from 2012 to 2017. In 2023, the team of archaeologists led by Guilbault began to examine individual human remains more closely, finding one likely middle-aged male tattooed with what is known as a Christogram — consisting of the Greek letters chi (X) and rho (P) superimposed and flanked by an alpha (A) and omega . Archaeologists estimate that the man lived around 667 to 774 CE, during the early Middle Ages. However, tattooing practices have a longer history in the region.

The word “tattoo” is derived from the Sāmoan word tatau, which entered into English parlance around 1769. The oldest known tattooed male is Ötzi the Iceman, a 45-year-old mummified man found in the glacial ice on the border between Austria and Italy, who likely lived around 3400 to 3100 BCE. In 2015, scientists published a complete map of Ötzi’s 61 tattoos, all of which are rough lines. However, the oldest known figural tattoos come from Ancient Egypt on what are known as the “Gebelein” mummies, dating to between 3351 and 3017 BCE during the period of Predynastic Egypt. Although the mummies were excavated in the late 19th century and acquired by the British Museum around 1900, it was not until 2018 that archaeologists and scientists published new analysis of their previously unknown tattoos, discovered on two of the remains through infrared imaging scans. A tattooed bull and a Barbary sheep appear on a man’s arm, while four “S”-shaped motifs appear vertically on a woman’s right shoulder and in a curved line on her arm. Scientists know of around 45 tattooed mummies from Nubia and Egypt dating to between 3100 BCE and 74 CE.

More:
https://hyperallergic.com/982831/uncovered-medieval-nubian-tattoos-flesh-out-a-misunderstood-practice/