Discovered in Egypt, bequeathed by (Major) Robert Grenville ‘John’ Gayer-Anderson, the head of the unknown woman now resides at The Fitzwilliam. Unfortunately, not much is known about this woman, only her head remains. The Pazyryks also believed the tattoos would be helpful in another life, making it easy for the people of the same family and culture to find each other after death. This mummy of a woman has a gilded, golden face and a wig of human hair adorned upon her head. Tattoos were used as a mean of personal identification - like a passport now, if you like. 'Compared to tattoos found by archaeologists around the world, those on the mummies of the Pazyryk people are the most complicated, and the most beautiful,' said Dr. Natalia Polosmak, the scientist who discovered the mummy. A team of scientists led by Sahar Saleem, a professor of. Scholars state the Pazyryk culture, to which the mummy belonged, valued tattoos the more one had, the higher one's status. A new digital scan has revealed intimate details about a teenage boy who was mummified about 2,300 years ago.
The tattoos may depict a battle between birds and hoofed animals - a battle between predators and herbivores. You can also find a snow leopard with wings. An argali - mountain sheep - also appears with a bird's beak. The princess's left shoulder shows a deer-like creature with goat horns and an eagle's beak. The 2,500-year-old princess of Ukok bears stunning tattoos most hipsters would be proud to call their own.