National Geographic History - July 2019

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 5

of the tool and tested them.

They established that the wear

patterns on the used replicas

matched those on the original.

They ran the artifact

through a series of microscopy

and X-ray analyses, revealing

pigment on the cactus spines.

The team dated the tool to be-

tween A.D. 79 and 130, predat-

ing the previous oldest tattoo

implement found in the region

by nearly a millennium.

Patterns of History

Archaeologists estimate that

the Turkey Pen site was occu-

pied by the Ancestral Puebloan

civilization between 50 B.C.

and A.D. 200, during the Bas-

ketmaker II period. Some

pieces of rock art from this

era depict figures with body

adornment, which some spec-

ulate are tattoos. This tool is

the first solid evidence that

Ancestral Puebloan peoples

practiced tattooing.

The discovery has major

implications for the under-

standing of Ancestral Pueb-

loan practices, as well as for the

wider meanings of tattooing.

Elsewhere in the world, tattoo-

ing is associated with agricul-

ture and increases in popula-

tion. The Ancestral Puebloans

were experiencing such a rise

at the time the tool was made,

leading the team to speculate

that tattoos strengthened a

sense of social identity in a

rapidly changing world.

HOT FOOD AND

HIGH DWELLINGS

THE ANCESTRAL PUEBLOANS who fashioned the tat-

too tool were part of the Basketmaker II culture. Their

artifacts, dwellings, and artworks have been found

across the American Southwest in Utah, Arizona,

New Mexico, and Colorado. Lasting about a millen-

nium, from 500 B.C. to A.D. 500, the Basketmaker II

period coincides with the transition to agriculture.

The period gets its name from the abundance of bas-

kets found at archaeological sites. These skillfully

woven baskets were often sealed with pine pitch,

making them watertight. The baskets could be used

in food preparation by placing fire-warmed stones

inside to heat food. Later, Ancestral Puebloan peo-

ples began living in cliff dwellings, which still dot the

landscape throughout the Southwest.

while excavating the Turkey
Pen site near what today is
Bears Ears National Monu-
ment in Utah. Found among
artifacts in a midden (an an-
cient trash heap,) the little
bundle of spines was boxed up
and stored at Washington
State University (WSU).
It took more than 40
years for scholars to identi-
fy the find. In 2017 Andrew
Gillreath-Brown, a WSU an-
thropology doctoral candi-
date, came across the artifact
and thought he knew what
it might be. He showed it to
Aaron Deter-Wolf, an expert
on ancient tattooing practices.
In the year that followed,
the pair made exact replicas

BRI

DGE

MAN

GET

TY

COLORFUL BASKETS

(RIGHT) ARE TYPICAL

OF THOSE MADE BY THE

BASKETMAKER II

CULTURE. A CLIFF

DWELLING NEAR

BEARS EARS NATIONAL

MONUMENT, UTAH

(BELOW), IS NAMED

“HOUSE ON FIRE,” FOR

ITS VIBRANT ROCK

FORMATIONS. IT WAS

SETTLED CIRCA A.D. 750.