Infrared images reveal hidden tattoos on Egyptian mummies
SAN DIEGO — Modern technology is illuminating tattoos on mummified, ancient Egyptians that until now had gone unnoticed. Infrared photography has helped to identify tattoos on seven mummified individuals dating to at least 3,000 years ago at a site called Deir el-Medina, archaeologist Anne Austin of the University of Missouri–St. Louis reported November 22 at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Although the identities of these tattooed folks are unknown, artisans and craft workers at Deir el-Medina built and decorated royal tombs in the nearby Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Until the Deir el-Medina discoveries, tattoos had been found on a total of only six mummified individuals over more than a century of research at ancient Egyptian sites. But infrared photos, which display wavelengths of light invisible to the naked eye, are transforming what’s known about tattooing in ancient Egypt, Austin said. “It’s quite magical to be working in an ancient tomb and suddenly see tattoos on a mummified...