{"id":9407,"date":"2024-02-26T17:14:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T22:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=9407"},"modified":"2024-02-26T17:14:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T22:14:25","slug":"christ-tattoo-discovered-on-1300-year-old-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/02\/christ-tattoo-discovered-on-1300-year-old-body.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cChrist tattoo\u201d Discovered on 1,300-Year-Old Body"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Polish Center of Mediterranean Archeology<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A 1,300-year-old body discovered in Sudan has revealed an ancient \u201cChrist tattoo\u201d on the right foot of the remains. The body was discovered by scientists near the medieval Ghazali monastery in Sudan. A news release<\/a> called the site, \u201cone of the best-preserved archaeological sites in Sudan.\u201d The site was excavated from 2012 to 2018 by a Polish-Sudanese team headed by Prof. Artur Ob\u0142uski. There were four cemeteries at the site, with hundreds of graves. This particular body was taken to the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw for examination. Kari A. Guilbault of Purdue University discovered the tattoo, which is in the form of a \u201cChristogram.\u201d According to the release, a Christogram \u201cis a religious symbol combining the Greek letters \u2018chi\u2019 and \u2018rho\u2019 to form a monogram abbreviation for the name of Christ.\u201d The tattoo also contained the letters for \u201calpha\u201d and \u201comega,\u201d \u201cbeginning\u201d and \u201cend,\u201d a reference to God as the beginning and end of all things.<\/p>\n

Guilbault was not looking for a tattoo and expressed her surprise at the find saying, \u201cIt was quite a surprise to all of a sudden see what appeared to be a tattoo when I was working with the Ghazali collection. At first, I was not certain, but when the images were processed and the tattoo was clearly visible, any initial uncertainties were removed.\u201d According to The Daily Mail<\/em><\/a>, Dr. Robert Stark, head of the bioarchaeological study of the remains, believes the tattoo may be the symbol of the person\u2019s spiritual journey. The find is significant because only one other tattoo has been discovered from medieval Sudan. Stark also believed that the location of the tattoo hints that it was meant to be a private proclamation of the bearer\u2019s faith. Another interesting thing about the tattoo is that the remains are believed to belong to a man. Prior to this discovery, all religious tattoos had been found on women. Guilbault told The Daily Mail<\/em> that such tattoos give fascinating insights about the bearer. \u201cOne of the big questions is how can we tell someone was religious and this is one of those tangible markers of their Christian faith. This is a really fine example of how a person’s faith was a part of their life and their body,\u201d she said. Scientists believe<\/a> the individual lived between 667 and 774 AD and was between the ages of 35 and 50 at the time of his death. It is unclear if the individual was a monk as he was found in a cemetery separate from the monks.<\/p>\n

The arid conditions of Sudan, then called Nubia at the time, helped in the preservation of the body and the tattoo by naturally mummifying the remains. Due to the delicate nature of the body, scientists are unable to determine the makeup of the ink. Scientists hope to make similar discoveries going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 1,300-year-old body discovered in Sudan has revealed an ancient \u201cChrist tattoo\u201d on the right foot of the remains. The body was discovered by scientists near the medieval Ghazali monastery in Sudan. A news release called the site, \u201cone of the best-preserved archaeological sites in Sudan.\u201d The site was excavated from 2012 to 2018 by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":9413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cChrist tattoo\u201d Discovered on 1,300-Year-Old Body<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The body was discovered by scientists near the medieval Ghazali monastery in Sudan.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/02\/christ-tattoo-discovered-on-1300-year-old-body.html\" 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