The Tattooed Mummies of Pre-contact Peru

Human skin rarely persists long after death, although deliberate preservation practices and environmental circumstances have led to the survival of mummies at archaeological sites around the globe. A small number of those ancient individuals have preserved tattoos, some dating back over 5,000 years. Archaeologist Aaron Deter-Wolf and his colleagues recently discovered hundreds of previously unknown tattooed Mallqui, ancestral mummies from the Peruvian coastal deserts. This program will describe the earliest historical accounts of Peru’s tattooed mummies, and share new discoveries including never-before-seen images of 1,000 year old Andean tattoos.

by: Aaron Deter-Wolf
Slot 15 : Sun. 9am-10:30am