Tattoos: The Human Body as a Work of Art
the female mummies of the same period. It seems that ancient Egyptians
connected tattooing with the art of music and dance. One can detect such
a connection in a faience plate from the New Kingdom Period (1550-1070
BC). The plate depicts a painted female figure with a tattoo of the Egyptian
on her thigh strumming a string instrument.
Archeological evidence suggests that human body ornamentation
dates back to the birth of mankind. The bones of
by side with animal bones, tools, shells, and ochre lumps - probably used
to decorate the body or the graves, were found in the Skhul Cave in Mt.
Carmel and in the Kafza Cave in the Galilee.
These bones date back to the
Middle Paleolithic Period (100,000 BP).
Shells and bone vessels with traces of pigment prepared from red ochre,
discovered in the Blombos Cave (South Africa), date back to the Middle
African Stone Age (100,000-75,0000 BP).
Archeologists believe that the
cave was used as as an art workshop. It is possible that the ochre was used
to paint the body, while the shells were used as tools for tattooing the
The most ancient tattooing tool kit ever found is attributed to the
Magdalenian culture (17,000-9,000 BP) and was found in the prehistoric
site of Mas D’Azil in France.
Tools and anthropomorphic figurines decorated with paint and
engravings may be also interpreted as depicting tattoos.
It has been
suggested that the complex incised decoration of clay figurines of the
Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in Romania (4,800–3,000 BC) represent
tattoos (or some other form of symbolic patterns drawn directly upon the
human body). Members of such early cultures would indeed paint their
body to express ideas and present their social affiliation and personal
Similarly, engraved or ochre painted body ornaments on clay
figurines from ancient Mesopotamia can be interpreted as some form of
The present exhibition showcases three ancient clay female figurines
from Eretz Israel which offer us a fascinating glimpse of the cultures
that inhabited the region. The first one which bears engraved marks was
found in Sha’ar Hagolan and belongs to the Yarmukian culture (Pottery