The Gebelein Man (British Museum. EA32751), also known informally as “Ginger” due to his red hair, is the mummy of a young Egyptian man found in Gebelein (modern Naga el-Gherira, 25 miles south of Thebes). This mummy dates back to the Late Pre-Dynastic Period, around 3400 B.C.
During the time of the Gebelein Man’s life and death, Egyptians were buried in oval pit graves in a fetal position. Unlike their later descendants from the Dynastic age, they did not undergo a ‘man-made’ mummification process. In these oval pit graves, bodies would become naturally mummified by the desert sands and climate. It is believed that these early burials were studied by later Egyptians to perfect the art and science of mummification, a technique for which Dynastic Egyptians would become famous.
The British Museum sent the body of the Gebelein Man to the Bupa Cromwell Hospital in London for CT scans to discover more about who he was and what might have happened to him. The findings were fascinating.
The results revealed that the Gebelein Man was between 18 and 21 years old at the time of his death, and unfortunately, he was murdered. X-rays showed that the young man had been stabbed in the back, just slightly above his left shoulder blade, which was the cause of his death. His shoulder blade was shattered during the attack, as were his 3rd and 4th ribs on the left side of his chest.
Despite the tragedy of the Gebelein Man, the CT scans of his remains provided historians with surprising and valuable information about the culture of this very early period of Egyptian history, and human history in general.
Using infrared technology, it was discovered that the Gebelein Man had tattoos, making him (along with the Gebelein woman; British Museum. EA32752) the oldest humans discovered with tattoos of distinguishable figures. Only Ötzi the Iceman from the European Chalcolithic period, with his mysterious 61 line tattoos across his body, predates them.
The tattoos on the Gebelein Man are on his upper right arm and depict two horned animals, seemingly a bull and a Barbary sheep. In Dynastic Egyptian art, it was the Libyans (Egypt’s neighbors to the west) who were depicted with tattooed limbs (arms and legs). However, modern technology has revealed that tattoos were indeed present in Ancient Egypt during the Dynastic age as well, most notably on a female mummy from Deir el-Medina, whose mummy has a tattooed chest and neck.
Before the scans of the Gebelein mummies, scholars were aware that tattoos existed in the Pre-Dynastic age, but the Gebelein Man is the first male found with such tattoos. Previously, due to the lack of evidence, Egyptologists presumed that tattoos were a feminine cultural practice.
Modern technology, such as non-intrusive scans, infrared technology, and DNA analysis, is bringing us closer to understanding the ancient world in ways that were seemingly unfathomable just decades ago.
The tattoo on the arm of the Gebelein Man appeared to the naked eye as just a smudge, yet today’s technology revealed it as a distinguishable figure. This makes the Gebelein Man of Pre-Dynastic Egypt the earliest known man to have a recognizable figure tattooed upon him.
