Inked: Oldest Known Tattooing Instruments Discovered

Figure 1: Turkey bones established as tattooing instruments (Source: Deter-Wolf et al. 2021)

 

Tattooing has existed for several millennia and found cross culturally around the globe.  The motivations for tattooing vary by culture, as do the images immortalized on individual’s bodies.  There has been a great deal of study of both past and present tattooing traditions, but there remain gaps in our knowledge, particularly pertaining to ancient tattooing practices.  Fortunately, a recent study has provided some filling of some of those gaps by identifying the oldest tattooing devices thus far discovered.

 

In 1985 excavations at the multicomponent site of Fernvale in central Tennessee yielded what was initially considered a rather unremarkable discovery.  Found nearby the burial of an adult male (25-55 years of age) was a tool kit containing six turkey bones (Figure 1) and several shells covered in red and black pigment.  This took kit was wrapped in a Canidae skin and intentionally buried with the deceased male.  No further analyses were done on the artifacts, and they were recorded in the initial inventory as being a ”tool kit”, associated with the age of the site of somewhere between 5,520 and 3,620 years ago.

 

Reanalysis of these artifacts, however, yielded a rather remarkable discovery.  The reanalysis took the form of three separate analyses: microscopy, involving the microscopic analysis of the wear patterns on the turkey bones; elemental analysis, meaning a chemical examination of the residues on the bones; and contextual assessment, a review of the original placement of the artifacts when initially discovered.  This three pronged approach demonstrated a three fold support for the researchers’ final conclusions: they had discovered an ancient tattooing tool kit, complete with tattooing instruments. 

 

The microscopy analysis relied on an experimental archaeological study wherein deer bones were modified and used to tattoo pig skin (a practice novice tattoo artists use when learning and honing their craft).  The wear patterns on the deer bones matched those found on the turkey bones, providing the first line of evidentiary support.  The elemental analysis confirmed the presence of red and black pigments on the turkey bones, along with their presence on accompanying stained shells.  This provided the second line of evidence.  The location of the tool kit, being both in a burial and placed in a significant position in relation to the deceased’s body, further supported the conclusion that this was a tattooing tool kit and that these were tattoo instruments. 

 

This alone was a monumental discovery since so few tattooing instruments have been found in antiquity.  Because most (if not all) of these ancient tools would have been constructed from organic materials their likelihood of preserving in the ancient archaeological record is greatly reduced.  Furthermore, it is difficult to appropriately identify tools as tattooing instruments if one does not have a model to go off of.  But what makes this find even more remarkable is that the date for when tattooing began was pushed back a thousand years, making this the world’s oldest tattooing instruments!

 

Bibliography

Bower, B. (2021, May 25). The oldest known tattoo tools were found at an ancient Tennessee site. Retrieved from Science News: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/oldest-tattoo-tools-tennessee-native-american

Deter-Wolf, A., Peres, T. M., & Karacic, S. (2021). Ancient Native American bone tattooing tools and pigments: Evidence from central Tennessee. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 1-10.

No Author. (2021, May 26). Tennessee’s Tattooing Tools Dated to More Than 5,500 Years Ago. Retrieved from Archaeology Magazine: https://www.archaeology.org/news/9717-210526-native-american-tattoo