Body Modification
Modern Primitives:  How Primitive, How Modern?

However, there is no more incontrovertible evidence for ancient tattooing than actual tattoos. The mummified body of a Copper Age man, who was approximately 35 years old at the time of his death 5,300 years ago, was discovered in a melting glacier high in the Italian Alps in 1991. The man in the ice possessed 59 separate tattoos, many of which appear as short, blue-black parallel lines along the lumbar area of the spine, near the ankles, and the back of one calf, with a small plus sign appearing on the side of one knee and also one ankle. Interpretation of the meaning of his tattoos has ranged from ethnic identifiers (although given his clothing most of his tattoos would not have been visible) to medical therapy. In that he was an adult, we could also speculate that his tattoos may represent a rite of passage. Since the majority of his tattoos coincide with areas of osteoarthritis, wear and tear on the joints, and typical placements for acupuncture treatment, the therapeutic nature of his tattoos seems likely. There is, however, no reason to assume that his tattoos were all performed for the same purpose. Suffice it to say that one of the oldest mummies ever discovered is tattooed. The presence of intentional cranial deformation along with the first evidence of burial rites, the occurrence of body decoration tools in an era known for its explosion of art, the presence of tattoos on the most ancient human skin ever discovered, are likely not coincidence. Instead they speak to the prevalence of body modification and its great antiquity.

One of the most popular of all body modifications throughout time, right up to the present, leaves little direct evidence in the archaeological record. Indirect evidence of piercing, however, abounds. A figurine from Neolithic Romania, 4,500 BC, shows a woman holding a vase atop her head. Not only does each ear have multiple piercings, her neck shows the decorative incisions that were characteristic of the culture. Similarly, female figurines from Iran, 3,500 to 2,900 BC, show a very similar pattern of multiple ear piercings, from the lobe at the bottom, progressing up around the outer ear, right up to the top, or helix. Pierced ears also make appearances in the Stela of Bai, in Thebes, ca. 1,200 BC, and in an alabaster relief from Nimrud, ca. 879 BC, showing the Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II wearing, among other jewelry, an earring. Of all the piercing locations, the ear is undoubtedly the most prevalently used. However, it is not the only location to appear in figurines.