London: In a surprising discovery, scientists have found a tattoo of a man's name on the inner thigh of a 1,300-year-old Egyptian mummy.
British researchers found that ancient Egyptians suffered from high cholesterol and agonising toothache, and even had tattoos - just like the modern man. Researchers at the British Museum made the tattoo discovery while examining the mummified body of a Sudanese woman, aged between 20 and 35, who is believed to have died around 700 AD. The symbol, tattooed on the skin of the inner thigh of her right leg, spells out the ancient Greek characters M-I-X-A-H-A, which translates as Michael. The tattoo is thought to be a protective biblical symbol representing the Archangel Michael, 'The Telegraph' reported. "She is the first evidence of a tattoo from this period.
This is a very rare find," said Daniel Antoine, the museum's curator of physical anthropology. The woman was about 5 feet and 2 inch tall and was found in 2005 on an archaeological dig in a cemetery in Sudan. Other ancient Egyptians who were mummified had their organs removed before being preserved.
