News in Brief Anthropology

Museum mummies sport world’s oldest tattoo drawings

Infrared photography reveals animals and symbolic designs from 5,000 years ago

TATT MAN  Infrared imaging revealed that smudges on the upper-right arm of a naturally mummified Egyptian man are actually tattoos of a wild bull and a Barbary sheep. These oldest known picture tattoos date from at least 5,000 years ago.

© the Trustees of the British Museum

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Two human mummies housed at the British Museum in London for more than a century boast the world’s oldest known — and longest hidden — tattoos of figures and designs, a new investigation finds.