Close-ups of the tools show ink residue on the implements.
Posted on 03/10/2019 5:06:48 PM PDT by Fred Nerks
Researchers say a set of ancient tools found in a box at a Canberra university is the world's oldest known complete tattoo kit, thought to be made from human bones.
Key points: •The tools were fashioned out of bones, some of which researchers say were most likely human bones •Researchers say the bones may come from the graves of the tattooist's relatives •Radiocarbon dating proved the kit was about 2,700 years old, dating back to the beginning of Polynesian cultures
Four tattooing implements were found along with what was believed to be an ink pot on Tonga's Tongatapu Island in 1963.
Archaeologists knew the find was significant, but no one was sure how old the implements were.
Australian National University's Geoffrey Clark and Griffith University's Michelle Langley teamed up to study the artefacts in detail, using radiocarbon dating technology to determine their age.
It turns out they were 2,700 years old.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc.net.au ...
Close-ups of the tools show ink residue on the implements.
ping
“Radiocarbon dating proved the kit was about 2,700 years old,” Ah no, no it does not.
Next, a discussion of the world’s oldest Tramp Stamp.
Thanks Fred Nerks.
Why do you say that?
Why do you say that?
Jeeze, didn’t realize it started so early. No wonder unemployment has always so high since Biblical Times.
Researchers further stated that one of the more popular tattoos in ancient times, roughly translated, was the word “Juicy.”
The Development and Inheritance of Polynesian Tattoos
Traditional Polynesian Tattooing ToolsThe tradition of Polynesian tattooing existed from 2000 years ago. In 18th century this operation was strictly banned by the Old Testament. In early 1980’s, tattooing started to get a renaissance. Since then many lost arts were retrieved by Polynesians. But due to the difficulty in sterilizing the traditional tools, the Ministry of Health banned tattooing in French Polynesia in 1986.
Although many years passed, tools and techniques of Polynesian tattooing have changed little. For a strictly traditional design, the skill gets handed from father to son, or master to disciple. Each tattoo artist, or tufuga, learned the craft over many years of serving as his master’s apprentice. They vertically passed their knowledge and rarely spread it widely because of its sacred nature.
http://www.apolynesiantattoo.com/polynesian-tattoo-history
Cool, ouch.
Ta moko is the permanent marking of the face and body as traditionally practised by maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand.
Captain James Cook wrote in 1769:
The marks in general are spirals drawn with great nicety and even elegance. One side corresponds with the other. The marks on the body resemble foliage in old chased ornaments, convolutions of filigree work, but in these they have such a luxury of forms that of a hundred which at first appeared exactly the same no two were formed alike on close examination.[1][2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C4%81_moko
Helen Thomas?.........................
A few weeks ago I was at Wegmans for lunch and nearby was a man with elaborate Maori face tattoos and speaking with an obvious New Zealand accent. He was there with his young daughter. The contrast between those face tattoos and the sight of a dad helping his little girl pick out lunch was striking.
Update.
additional from the Tonga keyword:
:Indicates” or “gives a best guess.”
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