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Evidence for tattooing in the ancient Nile Valley is growing. Although testimonies are still patchy for some of the earlier periods, a continuous tradition stretching from the Predynastic Period into the New Kingdom can be traced in Egypt, while in Nubia tattooing continued into the Christian Period and beyond.
Above & below: A flute player with tattoos of Bes, depicted on a wall painting from a Nineteenth Dynasty house at Deir el-Medina. Image: Renée Friedman (RF) after a watercolour by J M T Vandier d’Abbadie (1938)
Tattooing in the New Kingdom
In the New Kingdom, we can draw on multiple lines of evidence for tattooing. These include actual human remains, depictions of marked females on house and tomb walls, cosmetic equipment, drinking bowls, ostraca, and figurines. All of these combine to create a compelling picture of the use of tattoos and the people who bore them, at least within the village of the royal tomb-builders at Deir el-Medina in Thebes. It is also here that tattooing is most explicitly associated with performance. The most prominent indicators are several drawings of nude or semi-clad women and girls engaged in making music and dancing, who have tattooed images presumably of the dwarf god Bes placed on their outer thighs.
Three-dimensional depictions of women with the same tattoos (in the form of figurines and handles for mirrors and cosmetic spoons) show a geometric band along the base of the lower back, too. This corresponds with remarkable precision in placement and content to actual tattoos only recently found on the remains of two women from this village.
Although only partially preserved, the remains of both are tattooed with a similar composition: a relatively broad band filled with geometric patterns probably evoking water, flanked by figural motifs. On one of the women, these motifs took the distinctive form of the dwarf god Bes, together with a bowl of scented fats. On the other, there is a floral bouquet and an ibex to each side of the band, while above it, flanked by the Eyes of Horus, was probably another image of Bes. Preservation was insufficient to determine if Bes was also tattooed on their legs, but the connection is clear.
Bes, the god of music, was closely associated with childbirth, too, and the other figural motifs relate to this: the bowl of scented fats is well attested in scenes of post-partum rituals, as are floral bouquets evoking the fertility of the Nile. A clay figurine from the same site, depicting a pregnant woman incised with Bes on her legs and a band on her back, lends further support for this association. It also suggests that the women tattooed in this way can be identified as the midwives, ritualists, and performers who assisted with birth, and the subsequent celebration marking the acceptance of the woman and child into society – a significant event in village life. The care taken by the artists to reproduce these tattoos, often on a minuscule scale, attests to the importance of this role, and the group identity or cult affiliation that these markings implied.
Top, above & below: Two women, whose remains were found at Deir el-Medina, bore tattoos on the lower back, shown here as preserved and as reconstructed. Images: Anne Austin
An even more important role may be signified by the tattoos on the better-preserved remains of a third woman at Deir el-Medina. Only the torso survives, but it bore more than 30 tattooed motifs placed on her neck, shoulder, back, and upper arms. Most can be identified as symbols associated with the goddess Hathor, and suggest a continuing connection between tattoos and this deity, as seen earlier in the Middle Kingdom.
It is not easy to interpret the various motifs on this woman’s body. Some are also known from amulets, such as the numerous Horus eyes, and may have had a protective function; others may indicate participation in cultic rituals. A number of them, such as the eight different snakes on her right arm, could indicate that she had the ability to enchant these reptiles or ward off poisonous creatures. However, perhaps the most informative are those applied at her throat. Here, a combination of hieroglyphs writes out the phrase: ‘to do good’, or ‘to work well’. It has been suggested that this exhortation and the accompanying symbols served to make her spoken words effective by charging them with divine power. The existence of ‘wise women’, called ‘the ones who know’, is documented at Deir el-Medina, and it is possible that this highly ornamented woman was one of them – a role that could be attributed to the heavily tattooed women of the C Group, too, and even earlier periods, whose markings both proclaimed their abilities and enabled them.
The use of tattoos to denote other female identities is indicated by an ostracon, as well, showing women and girls with triangular marks on their thighs: one engaged in an acrobatic dance, while others are apparently preparing for a party. In addition, there are several figurines depicting women with a series of crosses around the waist. Their meaning has not yet been deciphered, but together this evidence suggests that tattooing on females was a fairly common practice at this time, and there were perhaps a variety of motivations.
To date, there is no evidence that Egyptian men were tattooed during the New Kingdom. Libyans, on the other hand, were depicted with numerous geometric tattoos on their arms and legs, which apparently served to emphasise the foreignness of this hostile people. At the same time, Nubian prisoners were shown with facial lines that may represent scarification (intentionally created marks). Body modifications may therefore have carried cultural or ethnic connotations that caused Egyptian men to avoid them. Of course, new discoveries may prove this to be incorrect at any time.
Above & below: A figurine of a woman with tattoos of crosses at her waist, now in the Archaeological Museum, Florence. Image: RF
Tattooing in the later periods
With the end of the New Kingdom, evidence for tattooing in Egypt dries up until the Graeco-Roman Period, when textual evidence may indicate that Egyptian men were at least occasionally tattooed: marks, though unspecified, are listed among other identifying characteristics in various census documents. Where on the body, and why, the men were marked is rarely stated, but in some cases it could have been to signify cultic affiliation. For example, Ptolemy IV Philopater (221-205 BC) had himself tattooed with ivy leaves to mark his initiation into the cult of Dionysus. This was reported with disdain by the Classical authors, for whom tattoos, particularly on the face, were marks of punishment or servitude. The Egyptians, however, may have had a different opinion, as designs on the chin and cheeks of some mummy masks seem to represent tattoos, although this is unconfirmed by physical remains.
In Nubia, by contrast, numerous examples attest to the wearing of tattoos by men, women, and adolescents. In the cemetery at Aksha, dating to the Meroitic Period (350 BC-AD 350), tattoos were preserved on ten individuals. Using the dot-and-dash technique known in the region since prehistory, extensive geometric and vaguely figural patterns were applied to the abdomen, legs, arms, hand, and neck of women, while both men and women had small designs placed at the outer corners of the eyes, and on the forehead. A mixture of techniques is now evident, with the top of the hands sometimes decorated with a solid line cruciform design or geometric pattern.
Another solid-line tattoo in an interlocking curvilinear design is seen on the leg of a man from the late X Group (AD 350-550), but the tradition of dots did not die out. This is shown by the body of a woman from the Christian Period (c.AD 750), who bears a series of tattooed dots on her outer thigh, while on the inner thigh is the monograph of St Michael, a saint popular in Nubia. While the purpose of the dotted tattoo is unknown, the monogram is a clear profession of faith, and probably had protective properties.
Tattoos as status symbols?
For a long time, tattooing was seen as a purely female practice, and as an embellishment simply meant to enhance sexual attraction, and/or promote fertility. Today, most scholars consider tattoos as indicators of important roles within society, held by women who were adept in the performance of ritual activities, or who had special knowledge or abilities related to birth and rebirth on the human and cosmic scale. The often elaborate and extensive tattoos such women wore identified them, and enabled them to be effective in this role. It also prompted their representation in figurines that have been found in domestic and funerary contexts in both Egypt and Nubia, from the Predynastic Period to at least the New Kingdom.
However, the archaeological record indicates that tattoos were not limited to these special women, but were also applied in lesser numbers to both men and women, at least in certain periods. Motivations appear to have been more private and personal, ranging from amuletic and protective, to badges of bravery, and from professions of faith to beauty enhancements. Still more could be understood to indicate group membership, cult initiation, or tribal and cultural affiliation, to name just a few.
Today, most scholars consider tattoos as indicators of important roles within society.
Despite certain continuities over time, the meaning, uses, and users of tattoos no doubt changed over the 4,000 years covered here. Recent discoveries make it clear we are still a long way from a complete understanding; however, at the same time they show the potential of new technologies to uncover more information from both old and new excavations, which will continue to enhance our knowledge and challenge our perceptions of the multifaceted practice of tattooing in the ancient Nile Valley.
Dr Renée Friedman is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and has been Director of the Hierakonpolis Expedition since 2002. Formerly the Heagy Research Curator in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum, she is the author of many scholarly and popular articles, particularly about Hierakonpolis.
Further reading:
• A Austin and C Gobeil (2016) ‘Embodying the divine: a tattooed female mummy from Deir el-Medina’, Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale 116: 23-46.
• A Austin and M-L Arnette (2022) ‘Of ink and clay: tattooed mummified human remains and female figurines from Deir el-Medina’, JEA 108 (1-2): 63-80.
• E Ingram (2017) ‘Tattooing and scarification in ancient Nubia: teenage rebellion or cultural norm?’, Beiträge zur Sudanforschung 12: 119-147.
• J Taylor and D Antoine (2014) Ancient Lives, New Discoveries: eight mummies, eight stories (British Museum Press).
