SLEIPNIR – the role of horses in Viking culture
April 19, 2022HANDPOKED FUTHARK
October 15, 2021
I am very happy with this project :)
For his arm Julius asked me to use subjects from some tattoos found on the mummified remains belonging to members of the Pazyryk tribe, which name in the Altai Mountains (Siberia, south of the city of Novosibirsk, Russia) the Iron Age ( 600-300 BC).
The Pazyryks were nomads on horseback, who traveled to trade goods with merchants in China, India, and Persia.
Much of their culture has been revealed by the finds from the same tombs where the tattooed mummies were found.
These exhibits included felt curtains, Chinese silk, carpeting, wooden furniture and other household items, a fur bag containing cannabis seeds, a stone-filled incense burner, and the frame of an inhalation tent.
The mummies and artifacts were well preserved thanks to water which, seeping into the tomb, froze everything in a block of ice.
The earliest remains belonged to a man believed to be a Pazyryk chief, it is believed that the man was around 50 years old at the time of his death and was robust.
Many of the drawings on his body represent large animals, including a donkey, a mountain ram, two deer with long horns, an unidentified carnivore on his right arm, two griffin-like beasts, three damaged images believed to be two deer and a goat, a fish and four rams, he also had several small circular tattoos near his spine, which may have been for therapeutic purposes.
The second mummy, perhaps the most famous, is that of the Ice Princess, also known as the "Altai Maiden" or Princess Ukok.
Her was a ceremonial burial in a wooden chamber with six horses.
She was a young woman, she had her head shaved but she wore a wig and a headdress.
Her tattoos also include beasts and animals, which are believed to have been used to define an individual's place in society.
These are some of the oldest and most complex tattoos known to date.
There has been some controversy over the discovery of the Ice Maiden's remains and its use ads a museum exhibit.
Some say it is very disrespectful to display the remains of naked women for all to see, in such historical value.
Many Siberian villagers want the remains to be buried again, as they attribute the recent natural disasters to disturbing the Ice Maiden's spirit.
They believe the body was placed specifically to block the entrance to the chamber of the dead, and that the recent floods and earthquakes are a direct result of her body being removed.
