What to Make of the Prehistory of Tattooing in Europe?
Résumé
Although Ötzi (ca. 3370--3100 B.C.) still represents the oldest direct evidence for the practice of tattooing in Europe, the specific antiquity of the tradition is unknown. In the absence of tattoos preserved on human skin other than Ötzi, and given the shortcomings in reliably identifying ancient tattoo tools from the region, I will here focus my attention towards anthropomorphic representations of possibly tattooed figures recovered from the Upper Paleolithic through the Bronze Age. In turn, I review those artifacts most likely to be invoked as evidence of tattooing practices. I will attempt to sort out those which should be rejected from those which we should hold onto, and also describe those artifacts whose relation to tattooing remains inconclusive. All things considered, there is no secure evidence for ornamental tattooing in Europe before the Iron Age. This practice could have reached the southeast quarter of Europe as early as the Neolithic, but this remains a mere supposition. As for the men and women of the Paleolithic, the material legacy they left behind suggests that tattooing had not yet entered the repertoire of practices which they used to mark and decorate their bodies.