Image courtesy of © Marco Samadelli viaScienceDaily . Click to enlarge .
When Oetzi the Iceman was set up stick out out of a melt glacier in the Ötztal Alps on September 19 , 1991 , his discoverers , Erika and Helmut Simon , immediatelynoticed his tattoos — which , at more than 5000 long time erstwhile , are some of the sometime document tattoos in the world . Previous study had analyse and itemize the Thematic Apperception Test , but now , using a new , non - invading technique he invent , Marco Samadelli , a scientist at the EURAC - Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Italy , has map all of the mummy ’s tattoo for the first sentence — and discovered a antecedently unknown tattoo . The method and resultant role of his study were published inJournal of Cultural Heritage .
Samadelli photograph Oetzi from various angles in the mummy ’s refrigerated cubicle at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology using a multi - spectral tv camera . " Each shot was taken seven times , using a different wavelength each time,“Samadelli said in a press release . " This enabled us to cover the unlike profoundness at which the carbon paper pulverization used for the tattoos had been situate . The ultraviolet waves were equal for the upper skin bed , whilst we resorted to infrared light for the lower layer . "
The different wavelengths revealed tattoo deep in the hide and invisible to the human eye . Oetzi has 61 markings , which lie mostly of parallel lines in groups of two , three , or four between 0.7 and 4 centimeter long . ( There are also two Cross . ) The newly find ink , located on Oetzi ’s costa cage , was n’t noticed in the beginning because the mummy ’s peel had darkened so much .
Because most of the mummy ’s tattoos are turn up on the lower back and along the leg between the knee and the foot , researchers had speculated that perhaps the markings were used as part of some kind of treatment — perchance an early form of stylostixis — while others believe that the mark might have symbolical or spiritual implication . Oetzi ’s costa tattoo will doubtlessly give the researchers more to consider .
