National Geographic History - July 2019

NEWS

archaeologists has concluded

that a tool, found near Bears

Ears National Monument,

is a tattoo needle. The un-

assuming artifact is made of

cactus spines, less than half

an inch long, inserted in-

to a sumac-twig handle, and

tied in place with yucca-leaf

strips. Tips of the spines are

stained with dark pigment.

R

esearchers have evi-

dence that tattooists

were busy honing their

skills nearly two thou-

sand years ago, pushing back

the timescale for the practice

in North America by almost

a millennium.

Presenting their findings

in the Journal of Archaeologi-

cal Science: Reports, a team of

Ancient Ink: The Story of

Tattoos in North America

Identification of an ancient tattoo needle confirms that the practice

began in the Southwest much earlier than was previously thought.

A NEW PICTURE

New research reveals that they

were used for inking patterns

onto people in the first or

second centuries A.D., making

the tiny instrument the ear-

liest evidence of tattooing in

the Southwest.

Revisiting the Past

Archaeologists first found the

curious implement in 1972,

A POINTED

HISTORY

TWO SPINES from a prickly pear

cactus (above) form the sharp end

of what has now been confirmed

was a tattoo tool used at an An-

cestral Puebloan settlement in

Utah around 2,000 years ago. The

tool was dated by analyzing the

area of the midden (trash heap)

in which it was found. The spines

are mounted in a sumac-twig

handle (below). Placement of the

black pigment on the spines is

consistent with the proper depth

to pierce and stain the epidermis.

4 JULY/AUGUST 2019

Salt Lake City

Turkey PenRuin

UTAH

Bears EaMors Nnatumioennalt

ANDREW GILLREATH-BROWN, WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

0.4 inch

ALAN CRESSLER

TURKEY PEN RUIN

clings to the walls of

Grand Gulch, Utah,

in the Greater Bears

Ears landscape. The

site was occupied

intermittently by An-

cestral Puebloan peo-

ples until about 1250.

Drought may have led

to its abandonment.

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THE BIG KACHINA PANEL IN BEARS

EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT, UTAH,

WAS PRODUCED DURING ROUGHLY THE

SAME PERIOD AS THE NEEDLE, LEADING

SOME TO BELIEVE THE FIGURES ARE

ADORNED WITH BODY ART.