Egyptian Tattoos Lecture Notes

Egyptian Tattoos Lecture Notes:

1. Thebes: Amunet the priestess of Hathor was located at Thebes on the banks of the West Nile. Hathor was the goddess of the earth or the goddess of women. Amunet’s tomb had the symbol of Hathor engraved on it. Hathor was said to be from the Dynaster XI (2160-1991 BCE)

2. Her tomb was found at the Valley of Der-el Baahri. The site was found in 1891 by Gebaut. Amon’s tombs were found frist. Amunet’s tomb was found by H.E. Winlock in 1923 Amunet’s tomb was found in a side chamber near Mentuhotep II. This indicated that she was a royal concubine. In the tombs they found jewelry and two other female caskets

3. Amunet’s Tattoos. She has small dots beneath her breasts and on her lower stomach, near the womb. There are debates about whether or not the tattoos are therapeutic, meant to promote or prevent fertility.

4. Bride of the Dead Small engraved sculptors buried with males. Said to promote sexual arousal in the afterlife. The engraved statues are thought to represent either tattooed women or women who underwent scarification. Women were the only known tattooed Egyptians.

5. The Egyptian word for tattoo was Mentenu. The literal translation was inscribed or engraved. This gives further credence to the idea that scarification may have been present.

6. Libya: The Tomb of Seti I was found in 1300 BCE. Drawing and bodies were found with small geometric dot and line designs on the thighs of men and women. There is a question about if these tattoos were therapeutic or if they represented Neith- the fierce goddess who led men to battle because soldiers had these tattoos.

7. In the Nubian Kingdom, tombs were found with bodies with tattoos. These tattoos explicitly displayed an image. This is significant because prior to this, Egyptian tattoos had questionable meaning. The oldest symbolic tattoos were from the Pazyryk Culture in 500 BCE. The Nubian tattoo were from 400 BCE and they represented the dwarf god Bes. Bes was the protector of the household and often referred o as the patron of dancing girls. Concubines and musicians tattooed Bes on their thighs. Bibliography

Bianchi, Robert S. 1998. “Tattoo in Ancient Egypt.” In: Arnold Rubin (editor), Marks of Civilization. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, The University of California.

Hambly, W.D. 1925. The History of Tattooing nd its Significance. London: H.F& G. Witherby.

Lionel Casson, Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt. (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. 2001).

Carolyn Graves-Brown. Dancing for Hathor: Women in Ancient Egypt. (London: Continuum, 2010)