In northeastern Sudan lies the Bayuda Desert, home of the medieval Christian Monastery of Ghazali. Although it was abandoned in the 13th century, recent excavations have uncovered several archaeological finds of this monastic community, which flourished in what was once the kingdom of Makuria. After excavating the early medieval cemetery at the monastery, archaeologists discovered only the second known example of a tattoo from medieval Nubia, an area along the Nile stretching from southern Egypt to northern Sudan. The findings form part of the history of tattooing as an art form that symbolizes identity, a practice that dates back more than 5,000 years.
Published in the magazine Antiquitythe findings reveal clues about religious tattoos in the Middle Ages. It also corrodes assumptions that such tattoos may have been taboo in the pre-modern Mediterranean. It was written by a multidisciplinary team led by anthropologist Kari A. Guilbault of Purdue University, together with Robert Stark and Artur Obłuski of the Polish Center for Mediterranean Archeology at the University of Warsaw. Like the researchers remarkthe discovery confirms the long history of tattooing in the Nile Valley, which existed from at least 3100 BC. until the Middle Ages. It also indicates continuities and parallels with tattoo cultures in North Africa, especially Morocco, and also in Ethiopia.
During the 7th century, the Nubian kingdom of Makuria built the Ghazali Monastery and adjacent complexes, which were in use from 680 to 1275 CE. These include outlying churches, a dining hall, residential facilities, an ironworks and numerous cemeteries containing thousands of human remains, largely excavated from 2012 to 2017. In 2023, the team of archaeologists was led by Guilbault began examining individual human remains more closely and found a likely middle-aged man tattooed with what is known as a Christogram – made up of the Greek letters chi (X) and rho (P) on top and flanked by an alpha (A) and omega (Ω or ω). Archaeologists estimate that the man lived between 667 and 774 CE, during the Early Middle Ages. However, tattooing practices have a longer history in the region.
The word ‘tattoo’ is derived from the Samoan word tatauthat was circulating in the English language 1769. The oldest known tattooed man is Ötzi the icemana 45-year-old mummified man found in the glacial ice on the border between Austria and Italy, probably dating from around 3400 to 3100 BC. lived. In 2015, scientists published a complete map of Ötzi’s 61 tattoos, all rough lines. However, the oldest known figurative tattoos come from ancient Egypt, on what is known as the “Gebelein” mummiesdating from between 3351 and 3017 BCE during the period of predynastic Egypt. Although the mummies were excavated in the late 19th century and acquired by the British Museum around 1900, it was not until 2018 that archaeologists and scientists published new analysis of their previously unknown tattoos, discovered on two of the remains through infrared scanning. A tattooed bull and a Barbary sheep appear on a man’s arm, while four “S” shaped motifs appear vertically on a woman’s right shoulder and in a curved line on her arm. Scientists know more or less about it 45 tattooed mummies from Nubia and Egypt dating between 3100 B.C. and 74 AD.
Current research on the pre-modern history of tattooing in the ancient Mediterranean and ancient Northeast Africa has suggested numerous reasons for these important features, underscoring how the body itself functioned as a medium to indicate social status and express religiosity or spiritualism press. Although tattoos could be imposed on slaves as a visible sign of slavery and as a form of criminal punishment, especially within certain Greco-Roman contexts, ancient Egypt had long practiced religious tattooing. Both the well-known mummy tattoos and the heavily tattooed figurines on Egyptian tombs indicate that such markings were associated with fertility, childbirth and, often, with Hathorgoddess of beauty, music and dance.
As such, the medieval Nubian tattoos found in Sudan must be viewed within a broader cultural context. In comments at HyperallergicSolange Ashby, historian of ancient Nubia and Egypt from the University of California, Los Angeles, noted that whether related to ancient Egyptian religion or Christianity, there is a continuing history of tattoos in ancient Nubia and other parts of Africa.
“Nubian Christians continued an earlier tradition by marking their bodies with signs of their belief in the sacred, in the way that earlier priestesses proclaimed their devotion and service to the goddess Hathor,” Ashby said. As she has done previously proventhere were strong links between Nubia, tattoos and the revered goddess.
In ancient Roman times, the most common Latin term for a tattoo was “stigma,” derived from the Greek verb στίζωwhich means ‘to prick’. There was often a negative, punitiveor barbaric connotation associated with the practice among the ancient Greco-Roman elite. Involuntary tattoos and brandings could be imposed on prisoners, enslaved people trying to escape, and others considered deviants. This view later influenced the elite western mentality in places like Victorian Britain (even if there are only a few). Victorian rebels enjoyed secret tattoos) and even caused tattooed women to be overlooked as lower-class sex workers or concubines during excavations from ancient Egyptian sites such as Deir el-Bahari at the end of the 19th century.
During the European Middle Ages, tattoos became symbols of spirituality, religious identity and often places of pilgrimage. They functioned as important markers of faith and were generally not regarded as disreputable or as signifiers of class, as would later be the case. As I have discussed previously, Early Christian pilgrims began to adopt religious tattoos that continue to this day, especially in long-established tattoo parlors. The Razzouk family has operated a pilgrim tattoo shop in Jerusalem since the 14th century, offering religious tattoo services to clients from Coptic Christian, Armenian and other communities.
We are only beginning to understand that skin coloring was part of the Christian experience in medieval Nubia – although its frequency is still unknown. In 2014, the British Museum revealed the existence of the only other known medieval Nubian tattoo: a marking found on the inner thigh tattoo of a woman who lived along the Nile around 655 to 775 CE. The tattoo spelled out the name Michael (MIXAHΛ) in Greek or Coptic, probably referring to the archangel Michael and calling on him to guard her. Ultimately, researchers concluded that the tattoo had no ‘aesthetic value’ and was intended to be protective or ‘apotropaic’. Her tattoo revealed the woman’s Christian identity to modern researchers, but it also speaks to a longer tradition of religion and tattooing that is only now becoming a reality with advances in technologies such as ultraviolet to infrared scanning.
While the stigma and contempt directed at tattooing still persists today, more and more people are embracing the deeply personal experience of tattooing as a historic art form that was often subject to colonial exterminationwhether it be through the Māori people of New ZealandNative facial tattoo practices, or the Swedish love for good ink. These recent discoveries of tattoos on human remains from the pre-modern world underscore the role of new archaeological methods and technology in bringing mysterious and often ephemeral written landscapes to life.
Perhaps more importantly, knowledge of these tattoos reveals how expressive and protective these markings can be. Whether in ancient Egypt or medieval Nubia, for ancient worshipers of Hathor or for those who wish to invoke Saint Michael in times of need, tattoos have always been a way to communicate through the most personal canvas we have available : our body.
