Ancient Egyptian Women Got Tattoos To Protect Them During Childbirth
Back in the early 1920s, archaeologists came across an ancient Egyptian town called Deir el-Medina near the Nile River. Previous research has shown that the town was active from 1550 B.C. to 1070 B.C.
Deir el-Medina served as a community to house men and their families who were building tombs for Egyptian royalty. The town was neatly planned with rectangular gridded streets and homes.
At the site, researchers discovered evidence of tattoos on the bodies of Egyptian mummies. The tattoos were likely associated with Bes, the ancient Egyptian god who protected women and children, especially during childbirth.
One of the most important features of the site was the Great Pit, an ancient dump full of letters, receipts, and pay stubs on papyrus that helped archaeologists better understand the lives of the people who once lived there.
However, the Great Pit did not contain any records of the practice of tattooing. So, the discovery of tattooed women at Deir el-Medina was a total surprise.
“It can be rare and difficult to find evidence for tattoos because you need to find preserved and exposed skin,” said Anne Austin, a lead author of the study and a bioarchaeologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
“Since we would never unwrap mummified people, our only chances of finding tattoos are when looters have left skin exposed, and it is still present for us to see millennia after a person died.”
In 2019, researchers were examining two tombs in the village. They found two female mummies—one had been looted, and the mummy was unwrapped. When they studied the mummified skin of the middle-aged woman, they found patterns of dark coloration.
They were able to make out depictions of a bowl, Bes, and a purification ritual that usually occurred during the weeks after childbirth.
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The second mummy was still wrapped and was studied using infrared photography. It was another middle-aged woman with a tattoo.
Her tattoo was of a wedjat, or an Eye of Horus, and Bes wearing a crown made of feathers. There was also a zigzag line beneath the other figures, which may have represented a marsh.
According to ancient medical texts, people would go to the cooling waters of marshes to relieve themselves from the pain of childbirth.
The researchers suggest that the two tattoos appeared to represent a request for protection and healing. They also noted that three clay figurines depicting women’s bodies were found at the site. They showed tattoos of Bes and other imagery on the lower backs and upper thighs of the women.
The study was published in 2022 in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.
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