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Four sparse , black-market lines , stack on top of each other , bring the total bit of tattoos on Ötzi , a 5,300 - twelvemonth - honest-to-god mummified iceman , to 61 , according to an exhaustive new study .
observe the unexampled body artistic production , site on the lower side of Ötzi ’s correct ribcage , " was a big surprisal because we did n’t expect to see a new tattoo , " say Albert Zink , the field of study ’s elderly researcher and head of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman at the European Research Academy in Italy .
The 61 lines that make up the tattoos on Ötzi, a 5,300-year-old iceman found in the Italian Alps in 1991.
Ötzi ’s tattoos are no secret : Even the tramper who discovered him in the Italian Alps in 1991 noticed he had marking on his skin . But researcher have disagreed about the number of tattoo onÖtzi ’s bodyfor years , and " we decided it would be important to have a clear number of the tattoo " move forward , Zink told Live Science . [ Mummy Melodrama : Top 9 secret About Otzi the Iceman ]
To investigate , the researchers usedtechnologies developed for the prowess world : a camera with specialized lens that can see whether an artist painted over another picture on the same canvass . The various lenses can capture different wavelengths of light , ranging from ultraviolet light at 300 nm ( billionths of a meter ) to infrared light at 1,000 nm . ( Visible sparkle extend from about 400 nm to about 700 nm . )
All 61 of the tattoo are made of black furrow , measuring 0.3 inch to 1.6 inches ( 0.7 to 4 centimeters ) in duration and arrange in groups of two , three or four parallel line , the research worker said . Two of the tattoo groups , one on the correct knee and another on the left Achilles tendon , attend like plus signaling .
A diagram of Ötzi showing the locations of his tattoos. The researchers are the first to identify tattoo 15, on the mummy’s right ribcage.
Prehistoric tattoos
The newly discovered tattoo is unmanageable to see because themummy ’s peel has darken over time , and the tattoos themselves are black .
" We know that they were real tattoos , " Zink said . The tattoos ' creators " made the incisions into the skin , and then they put in charcoal mixed with some herbs . "
The other tattoos are mostly on Ötzi ’s lower back and on his legs , between the knee and the foot . But it ’s ill-defined why Ötzi had these tattoos , and whether they had curative , symbolic or spiritual implication , the researchers say .
" Many people think that it was a kind of treatment because most of thetattoosare very close to area where he probably suffered from pain in the ass , " Zink say .
It ’s potential that the tattoos serve as a medicative form of acupuncture to treat injury or chronic pain , studies cover , including a 2013 survey in thejournal Inflammopharmacology .
For instance , many of the tattoo are located on the mummy ’s low back and near articulatio , places where Ötzi may have experienced pain , Zink tell . The iceman likely also had problems with his knees and articulatio talocruralis , both of which are covered with tattoo , because he walked so much in the Alps .
The novel ribcage tattoo is n’t locate on the hatchet man ’s back or on a articulation , but " on the other hand , he could have suffered from thorax painful sensation , " Zink said . The mummy may have also suffered from other conditions , such as bilestone , whipworms in his Costa Rican colon oratherosclerosis , a status in which memorial tablet builds up in the arteries , Zink added .
The ribcage tattoo could also be a blot where Ötzi sense " advert " bother , or pain at a web site that is removed from the actual painfulness , order Dr. Walter Kean , a clinical professor of rheumatology at McMaster University in Canada who has studied Ötzi , but was not require with the new study .
The determination were published Jan. 20 in theJournal of Cultural Heritage .
