Zurich Studies in Archaeology

Vol. 9_2013

Tattoos and Body Modications in Antiquity

Proceedings of the sessions at the EAA annual meetings in The Hague and Oslo, 2010/11
edited by Philippe Della Casa Constanze Witt

Portrait of George Tihoti Tihoti the tattooist came to Huahine from the Marquesas Islands and his personal tattoos as well as his tattoo designs in his practice are traditional designs from the Marquesan archipelago. This portrait shows him in his normal daily dress at that time, and with a pareo wrapped around his waist. Photo by Phillip Hofstetter, California State University, East Bay.

Impressum Herausgeber Universitt Zrich Abt. Ur- und Frhgeschichte Karl-Schmid-Str. 4, CH 8006 Zrich www.prehist.uzh.ch Produktion Chronos Verlag Design & Layout Elisabeth Hefti, Juliet Manning Druck Freiburger Graphische Betriebe fgb Texte: Autor/innen Bilder: Autor/innen ISBN x-xxxx-xxxx-x

Table of Contents
5 Aspects of Embodiment Tattoos and Body Modications in Antiquity Philippe Della Casa & Constanze Witt Matters of Identity: Body, Dress and Markers in Social Context Philippe Della Casa The Material Culture and Middle Stone Age Origins of Ancient Tattooing Aaron Deter-Wolf The Power to Cure: A Brief History of Therapeutic Tattooing Lars Krutak Flint, Bone, and Thorns: Using Ethnohistorical Data, Experimental Archaeology, and Microscopy to Examine Ancient Tattooing in Eastern North America Aaron Deter-Wolf & Tanya M. Peres Body Modication at Paracas Necropolis, South Coast of Peru, ca. 2000 BP Elsa Tomasto Cagigao, Ann Peters, Mellisa Lund & Alberto Ayarza Interpreting the tattoos on a 700-year-old mummy from South America Heather Gill-Frerking, Anna-Maria Begerock & Wilfried Rosendahl Bronze Age Tattoos: Sympathetic Magic or Decoration? Natalia. I. Shishlina, E. V. Belkevich & A. N. Usachuk One More Culture with Ancient Tattoo Tradition in Southern Siberia: Tattoos on a Mummy from the Oglakhty Burial Ground, 3rd-4th century AD SvetlanaV. Pankova Tattoos from Mummies of the Pazyryk Culture Karina Iwe The Tattoo System in the Ancient Iranian World Sergey A. Yatsenko

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103 Intentional Cranial Deformation: Bioarchaeological Recognition of Social Identity in Iron Age Sargat Culture Svetlana Sharapova 115 Roman Cosmetics Revisited: Facial Modication and Identity Rhiannon Y Orizaga

Philippe Della Casa & Constanze Witt (eds) Tattoos and Body Modications in Antiquity. Proceedings of the sessions at the EAA annual meetings in The Hague and Oslo, 2010/11. Zurich Studies in Archaeology vol. 9, 2013, 97-101.

The Tattoo System in the Ancient Iranian World

Sergey A. Yatsenko
Russian State University for the Humanities, Faculty of the, History of Art, Miusskaya pl. 6, GSP-3, Moscow 125993, Russia, sergey_yatsenko@mail.ru

A series of tattoos was discovered in remains from the Pazyryk culture. Their subjects are usually animals depicted in dynamic poses. There are visible differences in tattoo practices between social groups; for common people, the tattoo was normally on the hands or shoulder. Gender preferences are also visible in the types of torment scenes and tormented animals depicted. The most popular gures depicted in the tattoos were monsters a wild goat with an eagles beak and a panthers tail, and also a realistic wild ram. Another gure, a panther with a very long spiral tail, was known in China as a monster of nomadic origin. There are also images of Chinese zoomorphic gods. On the images of nomadic Iranian groups we see a probable tattoo on the cheeks only with two to three horizontal lines.
Keywords: Tattoo, Pazyryk Culture, Social Groups, Animal Images, Ritual Cosmetics, Tattooing Instruments

1. Introduction About 2500 years ago Iranian-speaking people probably founded the biggest Eurasian population group, settling a vast territory from West China and South Siberia to Ukraine and West Iran. However, their tattoos have not yet been studied closely. Documented evidence for tattoos in written sources and depictions has been infrequent. The fear of exposing complete or partial nakedness publicly might be one of reasons. In authentic Iranian art there are practically no depictions of nude gures. According to Greek authors it was impossible for many Asian barbarians to bathe naked outside of their homes (Herodot. I, 10). Evidently, the fact that noble Persian ladies tried to cover their whole body to protect it from sunrays (Diodor. XVII, 35, 45) was initially connected not only with prestige of having white skin. In the Middle Ages, compound zoomorphic images in Iranian peoples tattoos disappeared under the inuence of Islam (for example, the tattoos on Kurdish women were limited to sun symbols or single dots; they were placed on face or hand, beginning from pubescence or wedding: Vasilieva & Haidari 1983, 31; Ismailov 2011, 136, 138). 2. Pazyryk culture tattoo studies 2.1 Topics The series of six tattooed mummies belonging to the late stage of Pazyryk culture (4th-3rd cent. BC) is highly interesting (Figs. 1; 2). To contradict V. I. Molodins opinion (Molodin, Parzinger & Tsevendorj 2009, 16), I am not sure that the practice of tattooing was generally being used by all members of this society. Unfortunately, not all of the skin surface of the mummies has been preserved to an equal degree, and some part of the depictions has remained unknown to us. The tattoos of the three well-known mummies from barrows 2 and 5 in the Pazyryk necropolis were discovered only recently in October 2004, after photographs were taken in the

Figure 1. Pazyryk Culture tattoos discovered before 2004. 1 Pazyryk, barrow 2, man; 2 Ak-Alakha 3, woman; 3 Verkh-Kaldjin 2, man (after Polosmak 2001).

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Figure 2. Pazyryk necropolis tattoos discovered in October 2004. 1 Barrow 2, woman (a shoulders; b left wrist); 2 Barrow 2, man (right hand); 3 Barrow 5, woman (a hands; b arms); 4 Barrow 5, man (a left shoulder; b right hand; c hands; d right arm; e legs) (after Barkova & Pankova 2005).

Hermitage Museum using reected infrared light (Barkova & Pankova 2005; Pankova, this volume) (Fig. 2). Although my colleagues from St. Petersburg Sergei Rudenko (Rudenko 1949), Felix Balonov (Balonov 1987), Marc Podolsky (Podolsky 2010) and Novosibirsk Natalia Polosmak (Polosmak 2001, 228-237), Dmitry Cheremisin (Cheremisin 2008) and myself (Yatsenko 1996; 2006, 99-100) have long been trying to analyze the depicted subjects placed on different dead bodies and the symbolism of animal images, many things have yet to be cleared up. The subjects of tattoos are generally animals, with only a few exceptions (a line of dots along the spine on the mans body from Pazyryk, barrow 2, two-petal and three-petal owers, crosses on some ngers in Ak-Alakha and in Pazyryk barrow 5. In tattoos of the mountain tribes of Daghestan in the NE Caucasus ancient neighbours of the Iranians such lines of dots meant the star road or bridge to the Other World (Ismailov 2011, 107-108, 114). The animals are usually depicted in dynamic poses (while running, stalking to the victim, looking back, or in an S-shaped pose, which is sometimes considered either to be the pose of agony [Cheremisin 2008, 7] or a purely compositional device). Hoofed animals are generally depicted in an unnatural pose, whereas predators are normally depicted in more naturual-looking poses.

ages, tattoos are found on both hands or on the shoulder (which was not covered by clothes in summer; Polosmak 1997, 25-26). On aristocrats bodies the tattoos additionally cover areas which were not usually exposed (though they are always absent from the surface of the thighs). Marc Podolsky explains this phenomenon as participation in ritual dancing (Podolsky 2010, 146); I consider the depictions to be more probably devoted to some gods. Among common people, tattoos only depict a single gure an imaginary hoofed animal. In Podolskys recent book on the Scytho-Siberian animal style, the dominance of a single image of a wild animal in a dynamic pose is thought to result from the military group mentality being formed at that time. The military was partly independent from clan morality and probably connected ideal warrior behavior with animal erceness and physical prowess (Podolsky 2010, 166-168). In the tattoos of nobles, we see intricate and probably interconnected compositions; but scenes of torment in depictions for high rank aristocracy never present realistic devouring of a victims body. Aristocrats, like the common people, sported a depiction of the monster in the upper part of their right shoulder, but the upper part of their left shoulder was additionally decorated with a gure of a tiger or a wild ram. A cock ready for the battle was depicted on the forenger (Figs. 2.2, 4.3). The lone cock tattoo was a charac-

2.2 Social and gender specicity Differences in tattoo practices can be noted among the three main social groups the high aristocracy (Pazyryk), nobles of lower ranks (Ak-Alakha 3), and the common people (Verkh-Kaldjin 2). On the bodies of less important person98

Figure 3. The most popular images in tattoos of the Pazyryk Culture. 1 Wild goat with an eagle beak and with a tail of panther. 2 A realistic wild ram (after Rudenko 1960; Polosmak 2001).

Figure 4. Images of Pazyryk Culture tattoos, connected with China. 1 Panther with a very long spiral tail (Zhu buffalo); 2 Winged tiger (Juntsi god); 3 Tiger with deer horns, the master of mountain forests (after Rudenko 1960; Polosmak 2001).

Figure 5. Tattoo on cheeks (1-4) and probable ritual cosmetics (5-6). 1 Deer stones in Mongolia, 10th-9th cent. BC (after Turbat et al. 2011) 2 Detail of the gala sword from Philippovka, barrow 4, South Ural region, the 4th cent. BC (courtesy I. V. Rukavishnikova). 3 Sarmatian horse harness form Balakleya, 2nd-1st cent. BC (after Yatsenko 2000). 4 Temple pendant with Scythian goddess image from Tolstaya/ Tovsta Mogila barrow, the 4th cent. BC (after Mozolevsky 1979). 5 Philippovka, barrow 1, South Ural region, gold plate of a wooden bowl, 4th cent. BC (Pshenichnyuk 1989), 6 Sogdian terracotta of the 2nd-3rd cent. AD from Samarkand/ Afrasiab (after Meshkeris 1989).

teristic of the mountain tribes of Daghestan (Ismailov 2011, 49-50). A group of three to four wild goats or rams marching upwards along the lower part of the leg was a characteristic tattoo subject for men-aristocrats in Pazyryk. Gender preferences can be seen in the types of torment scenes and species of tormented animals depicted in tattoos. In female tattoos, predators torment an animal native to the forested Altai Mountains such as a deer, an elk or a wild ram whereas in mens tattoos victims are usually animals originating from the Steppe zone such as a saiga antelope or a horse. This might be connected to the different origins of male and female segments of the Pazyryk society. According to anthropological data, the men were connected with the Saka-Tigrahauda groups of the Lower Syrdarya Basin, SW Kazakhstan near the Aral Sea in the desert-steppe zone; most of the women, however, were similar to the Scythoid groups of Western Mongolia in the mountain steppe-forest zone (Chekisheva 2012, 139, 169). There may have existed common elements in tattoo depictions of married couples buried in a shared grave; this would explain the image of a wild ram tattooed on both the male and female buried together in barrow 2 of Pazyryk, as well as the dual depictions of a tiger, a gryphon and a rooster on the couple from barrow 5. Depictions on legs and heraldic compositions are absent from female bodies, according to moral norms.

2.3 Commonly depicted gures and their origins The most popular tattooed gure was a monster a wild goat with an eagles beak, a panthers tail and a row of griffin heads along the edges of the horns (Fig. 3.1). It is always depicted in the upper line, on the right shoulder; even being included in compositions it always looks isolated, forming a kind of medallion. In the most intricate composition on the mans body from barrow 2 in Pazyryk, this monster is depicted twice on each shoulder. Unfortunately, there is nothing we know with certainty about this clearly important mythological character. Another popular image was a realistic-looking wild ram (Fig. 3.2). Its lone gure is placed counter to the above-mentioned monster in depictions on the bodies of the married couple from barrow 2; in

Ak-Alakha it is being tormented. The wild goat tattoo on the shoulder is typical of the mountain tribes of Daghestan, as is the tattoo of a large sh on the right shin (Fig. 1) (Ismailov 2011, 45, 53). One of the creatures depicted in tattoos, the so-called Zhu buffalo (Fig. 4.1), is a spiral-tailed panther. It was known to the Chinese of the northern barbarians lands (Shan Hai Jing, Classic of mountains and seas, 3.4a) and probably had a nomadic origin (Yatsenko 1996, 155-156). On Pazyryk territory it is also seen in petroglyphs (Kubarev 1998, pl. III, 2). In Pazyryk barrows 2 and 5, the Zhu buffalo was found only on males. It is depicted to be either walking slowly or tormenting a horse or wild ram. This gure is found in all groups of images on the males body from barrow 2. We also see a clear inuence of the images of early Chinese zoomorphic gods, notably the winged tiger Juntsi, one of the 12 gods who drive out demons (Shan Hai Jing, 12.2) (Fig. 4.2). In Pazyryk tattoos he is shown, as in Chinese texts, attacking a hoofed animal from the sky. Another Chinese image in Ak-Alakha tattoos a tiger with antlers, the master of mountain forests (Fig. 4.3) was popular in Zhou dynasty art. The appearance of this god is evidently explained by the ancient Chinese idea that when the tiger 99

Figure 6. Instruments for colored tattooing and cosmetics from Philippovka I, South Ural Region. 1-2 Barrow 15, grave 4; 3 Barrow 29, grave 4 (after Yablonsky 2011).

or Jetysu (Akishev 1983, 103); and the latest on a Sarmatian horse harness form Balakleya, 2nd-1st cent. BC (Yatsenko 2000, gs. 1, 5) (Fig. 5.3).

lives more than 100 years, antlers grow on its head (Taiping guangji, Extensive Records of the Taiping guangji, 426). One more Chinese god is presented not in a tattoo but in a felt carpet depiction from Pazyryk (Polosmak & Barkova 2005, g. 4.7). In every detail this character corresponds to the description of the god Luu, the keeper of sacred Mount Kunlun; it is feeding with nephrite powder one of the red phoenixes with whom it keeps watch over the treasures of the Sky Lord Huang Ti, (Shan Hai Jing, 2.3) (Yatsenko 1996, 154-155). Both Chinese gods are shown attacking hoofed animals.

3. Tattoos on cheeks In Scythia tattoos were made by women using pins on different body parts. According to the Greek philosopher Clearchus of Soli (Bioi IV, Fr. 8), the bodies of women from neighboring Thracian tribes under Scythian tribute were also tattooed. People of Pazyryk culture used cauldron cinder in the process of tattooing. Since bodies in depictions are covered with clothes, we can see only facial tattoos. One variant of facial pictures can be interpreted as a tattoo, as it has denitely been popular in many regions of the world even until recently. The most ancient tattoos consisting of 2 or 3 lines on cheeks are known on so called deer stones in Mongolia in the Late Bronze Age (Turbat et al. 2011, gs. 2-3) (Fig. 5, 1). Scythian gods have a composition of 3 parallel vertical lines on each cheek. So, for peoples (epic heroes, noble dead) we see not 3 but 2 lines. Goddesses had them only on the left cheek (i.e. on the female side of the body). We see the latter on the left temple pendant of the Scythian goddess Argimpasa (Herod. IV, 59) from the Tolstaya/Tovsta Mogila barrow (Mozolevsky 1979, g. 117) (Fig. 5.4). The analogous tattoo is known for men of Achaemenid-Scythian time, in the 5th-4th cent. BC (Yatsenko 2006, 79) and appears on many artifacts: the golden gurine of a horseman from Peter the Greats Siberian Collection, South-West Siberia, which probably served as a ritual vessel handle (Schiltz 1984, g. 181); a gala sword from Philippovka, barrow 4 (Fig. 5.2); the Sun god on the ring in Issyk barrow from Semirechye
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4. Tattoos or ritual cosmetics? In the majority of cases facial depictions of the personages in the art of ancient Iranian-speaking nomads, unfortunately, cannot be referred to as tattoos nowadays. The fact is that they are trustworthily identied as evident traces of ritual cosmetics on mummies and skeleton bones. For instance, in Sogdian terracotta of the 2nd-3rd cent. AD from Samarkand/Afrasiab we see a V-shaped dcor on each cheek (Yatsenko 2006, gs. l53, 10) (Fig. 5.6). However, in another barrow belonging to the Pazyryk culture a hundred years earlier (Bystrovka 2, barrow 2), the analogous drawing was made with mineral paint of crimson color (Polosmak 1998, g. 23). A spiral curve on each cheek presents another example. In Philippovka, barrow 1 from the South Ural region (4th cent. BC), we see the same dcor in the depiction of a mounted hunter aiming at a saiga antelope (Piotrovsky & Kuzeev 2002, 84, No. 30a) (Fig. 5). Still we see a depiction made with a yellow paint (a female mummy from grave 2 in Zagunluq, year 1985, Eastern Xinjiang, 9th-8th cent. BC) (Li Xiaobin 1995, g. 71). The analogous sign (turned in the opposite direction) was painted with blue color 1300 years later (the goddess called Bactrian Athena) in the wall painting from Dilberjin, in early medieval Tokharistan (Yatsenko 2006, gs. 7, 190). It is important to note that geometrical facial depictions of this kind are always seen on dead bodies of common Iranians and absent from the noble class. It is possible that nobles used tattoos in such situations, not just coloring. The situation of the group of European nomads known as Sarmatians is also of interest. In depictions of their male gods and epic heroes of the early period (4th-1st cent. BC) we see common Iranian pictorial motifs (three parallel lines, a spiral curve); the writings of Sextus Empiricus (Outlines of Pyrrhonism, 3.202) about babies being tattooed probably referred to boys. Facial coloring in women is known to date back to the period beginning from the second half of the 2nd cent. BC. However, women did not paint gures, but spots on their cheeks and forehead; different shades of red were usually applied and chalk was used in one case (Yatsenko 2006, 161). According to Pliny the Elders Natural History (XXII. 2), Sarmatian women namely decorated each others faces in this manner during the most important rituals; men did it less regularly and, probably, colored a large part of their bodies. 5. Instruments for female tattooing Some complete sets of female colour tattooing instruments and accessories for cosmetics were found in nomadic barrows of the South Ural Steppe Region, on the border of

Russia and Kazakhstan (5th-4th cent. BC). There are well known graves near Sara village and Tri Mara (barrow 2, grave 2) (Smirnov 1964). But the most interesting set was discovered in Philippovka I (barrow 15, grave 4) (Yablonsky 2011, 388-389) (Figs. 6.1-2). It included an iron knife of unusual bent form, a bone needle, a stone palette for dyes, a bone spoon for their mixing, a pestle (a fragment of ancient Beleminite shell), and a mirror. The specialists on tattooing in this society were women only.

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Acknowledgements This research was supported by the Program of Development Strategy, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow.

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