1,300 year-old mummy and her intimate tattoo

Telegraph ^ | March 27, 2014 | Robert Mendick

[NYer]

Wrapped in bandages and caricatured as figures of terror in Hollywood movies, Egypt’s mummies have long captivated and bewildered scientists and children alike.

Now a new exhibition at the British Museum will disclose the human side of the mummies of the Nile.

Eight have been – scientifically speaking – stripped bare revealing secrets taken to the grave thousands of years ago.

snip

One of the mummies, whose remains were found just seven years ago, was so well preserved that archaeologists could almost make out the tattoo on her skin on the inner thigh of her right leg with the naked eye. Infra-red technology helped define it more clearly.

The woman, aged between 20 and 35, had been buried wrapped in a linen and woollen cloth and her remains had mummified in the dry heat. The tattoo has been deciphered by curators and spells out in ancient Greek – M-I-X-A-H-A, or Michael.

The owner of the tattoo was a woman who died in about AD 700 and lived in a Christian community on the banks of the Nile.

The tattoo represents the symbol of the Archangel Michael, who features in both the Old and New Testaments. The symbol has previously been found in ancient churches and on stone tablets, but never before in the form of a tattoo.

“You can see her tattoo really clearly using infra red reflectography,” said Dr Antoine, “The tattoo on her right inner thigh represents a monogram that spells Michael in ancient Greek.

“She is the first evidence of a tattoo from this period. This is a very rare find.”

[TexasFreeper2009]

quote “You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.”

actually nothing could be further from the truth.

1 Corinthians 11:14 clearly states “Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him”

and from the old testament:

Ezekiel 44 The priests must not shave their heads. They must not let their hair grow long.

now on the other hand Nazirites were commanded that:

Numbers 6:5 During the entire period of their Nazirite vow, no razor may be used on their head. They must be holy until the period of their dedication to the LORD is over; they must let their hair grow long.

So, I am going to argue that men should (in general) keep their hair short and they shouldn't shave their beards. If I am wrong, I am wrong. The admonition in lev 19:27 in my opinion is referring to a specific hair style worn by followers of a pagan God.

Now some would argue that the admonition against tattoos was for a similar reason, that it (like the rounded hair cut) was a practice used by followers of some pagan Gods to display to the world which God they worshiped. It could also be argued that it falls into the same category as the dietary restrictions, in that it simply was dangerous and risked infection and death in the ancient world to shave or prick your skin with a needle.

But either way, I don't like tattoos either way, so it makes no difference to me.

I look at it this way (from a purely secular perspective)... when I pull out old pictures from the 80’s and look at what I was wearing... I laugh. Now what if I had tattooed those clothes on me? No thanks, my tastes change to much to do something so permanent to myself.

[LurkingSince'98]

She would be thinking where would I put that homage to Michael the archangel where no one will see it.

AMDG

[Dead Corpse]

I have tattoos, no sideburns, relatively short hair, and a neatly trimmed goatee.

Guess I’m a Heathen then...

[TexasFreeper2009]

Actually, you are sort of right. It was about Peter accepting Gentiles into the church. And one of the stumbling blocks to getting Gentiles to come into the church was the dietary restrictions and the rules about eating with others.

Circumcision was also a major stumbling block to conversion and was also removed as a requirement.

(although I personally had both my boys circumcised and would never have considered not doing so)

[TexasFreeper2009]

lol

No, your just a nice guy who made a mistake, just like the rest of us. And when enough years have gone by you will come to agree with me on the tattoo.

[Oberon]

I personally had both my boys circumcised and would never have considered not doing so...

Even though Paul says that circumcision of the flesh is of no value to the Kingdom of God?

My thoughts on this were guided primarily by ideas found in Galatians chapter 2. For this reason, we opted out of circumcisions for my two sons.

[Dead Corpse]

Been almost twenty years since I got my first one. Haven’t regretted any of them yet. They are each related to a turning point in my life. Things I’d rather not forget.

Thanks for the kind sentiments though. :-)

[Slyfox]

“We can only speculate why she had a tattoo. Perhaps for protection.”

Like asking St. Michael to protect her and help her to remain pure. Or a reminder to herself that she belongs to God.

[TexasFreeper2009]

I know your sort of kidding, but I honestly dont understand why people dont seem to “get” that Christians are not perfect.

Many non-believers claim that any Christian that isn't perfect is a hypocrite. Well I am sorry to inform them, but no one is perfect. We all fall short, as was clearly stated in Romans 3:23

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

To me there is a BIG difference between falling short and denying that you have fallen short.

I for instance have been married for 20+ years. According to what Jesus taught about adultery, I have committed adultery because I have looked at other women in a lustful manner. But I know that it is not right and ask for forgiveness and strength in the future.

I do not however go around and say that it's ok to look at women in a lustful manner to justify my shortfalls.

[TexasFreeper2009]

Having said all the above, I would add one more thought.

Many things in the bible are not as cut and dry as many (including myself at times) might want to believe. And I believe that many passages of scripture can be interpreted in many different ways by those “honestly” seeking to know God's will, and NOT just to justify the actions they are already taking, or wish to take.

And I feel pretty confident that God will look into our hearts and see that we were doing our best with the information that we had at the time, and if and more likely when we were wrong about something and made the wrong assumption about what God wanted.. then I have full faith and confidence he wont hold that against us.

For God can see into our hearts and knows the truth motivations behind what we did.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I wonder if it is like a cattle brand, indicating she was the property of Michael.

Hang out in Compton much?

[dglang]

That’s not quite accurate. Jesus said do not call unclean what I have called clean. Paul was reluctant to minister to the gentiles because the Jews considered them “unclean”.

Jesus used the message of eating something declared by Jewish law or tradition to hold less value than whatever HE declared to be clean.

Basically Jesus was saying in effect don’t treat the gentiles as unclean and to be avoided if I tell you to go minister to them.

Jesus was only using the example of the unclean food to state that whatever he says is the thing to be obeyed, not tradition.

I don’t believe that Jesus was declaring those items to be clean in general but whatever He specifically cleaned or sanctified is now clean despite it’s earlier condition.

[TexasFreeper2009]

There is a Good chance what you are explaining might be right, but you must know you are in the minority among Christians in your belief?

Otherwise how did a ham become the traditional Christmas feast food?

[shotgun]

Reminds me of the joke where a gal goes in to get a tattoo of Elvis on her inner thigh. The tattoo artist gets done and shows it to his client and shes unsure if it looks like Elvis so she tells him to do it again on the other side.

The tattoo artist completes the second one and shows it to her and she still not sure it looks like the king. So the tattooist says they need a second opinion and steps outside and pulls in a drunk off the street. The drunk gets down to get a good look and says “ I don’t know who the twins are but the one in the middle looks like Willie Nelson”!

[fishtank]

Did someone find another mummy?

[TexasFreeper2009]

I personally believe that most biblical laws were put in place to protect us.

Without being able to (or wanting to) reveal the knowledge of bacteria, germs and viruses to ancient man, the best God could do was to basically ban certain types of foods and give specific instructions on how others were to be prepared.

It may sound silly... but I get the impression that God sort of operates under something similar to the “prime directive” from Star Trek for the most part. In that he is very careful not to interfere to much with our development.

[Sherman Logan]

I’m sure you could. But you seem to leave it up to your own judgment which laws still apply and which don’t.

Which was pretty much my point. A law is only meaningful if you obey it when it isn’t convenient to you.

Here’s a very short list of Mosaic Laws that modern American violate routinely, with AFAIK no specific abrogation of them by Christ.

1. Don’t castrate animals. (Steers, dogs, cats, etc.)
2. All sex outside of marriage is prohibited.
3. A man cannot remarry his ex-wife, if she married another man in the meantime.
4. Not to leave the house or do any work at all on the Sabbath. (Admittedly, Christ did say specific things about Sabbath-keeping.)
5. Keep multiple religious holidays per the rules.
6. Don’t eat meat killed while hunting, or pork, shrimp, etc.
7. Not to till the ground in the 7th year.
8. Don’t wear garments of mixed fibers.
9. A menstruating women is unclean and defiles those with whom she comes in contact.
10. Special rules for raping women you capture in war. If you don’t decide to keep her as a wife, you have to free her. Her opinion on the matter not relevant.

When a Christian group, as I said, can show me they keep all these commandments, as well as the others, then I’ll take them seriously on the matter. Since they don’t, IMO their “observance of the law” consists solely of keeping (sort of) those commandments they find convenient, while ignoring the rest. This is largely an excuse to look down on those Christians who don’t keep the same list of convenient commandments.

[dglang]

I certainly agree with God’s laws being for our benefit. In regards to the dietary laws that is especially true and that is why Jesus didn’t say that those “unclean” foods are now clean.

The reason for what he said was to reinforce His authority and ABILITY take something different than what it usually is. The entire focus was His authority and power, not the food itself.

[Biggirl]

Yet Christians do it anyways.

[Biggirl]

Can you show me the passage from the Bible on thank-you!