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Your article has a picture of a “deer stone.” On it are engraved designs of reindeer that bear an astonishing resemblance to a tattoo borne by the 2,400-year old mummy discovered in 1993 in central Asia. Was this noticed by the researchers?

Michelle Blanchard
Olympia, Wash.

Absolutely. William Fitzhugh, an expedition leader, says he was struck by the similarity to tattoo motifs in central Asia, as well as the art of the polar regions of North America. He contends that one of the big reasons to study this part of Mongolia is to explore these as possible cultural links .–S. Milius