Author: Bruce Bower / Source: Science News
While taking an inventory of stored artifacts excavated in Utah in 1972, archaeologist Andrew Gillreath-Brown thought he recognized one: a tattooing tool.
That previously overlooked find dates to nearly 2,000 years ago, making it the oldest known tattoo implement from western North America.Until now, several similar tattoo implements from the U.S. Southwest dated to no more than around 900 years ago, Gillreath-Brown and his colleagues report online February 28 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
The long-unnoticed tool consists of a wooden handle bound at the end with split leaves…
The post A 2,000-year-old tattoo tool is the oldest in western North America appeared first on FeedBox.