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What Ötzi the Iceman’s Tattoos Reveal About Copper Age Medical Practices
- AvocadoPanic 8y agoWhat's with all the acupuncture?
- saalweachter 8y agoMy understanding is that acupuncture evolved from earlier bloodletting practices which were common throughout Eurasia.
- ilamont 8y agoPhotos here: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/01/30/scientists-mapped-otzi-icemans-61-tattoos/#.W5xhfS2ZNTZ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/01/30/scienti... Not at all like modern tattoos. I wasn't expecting anchors and skulls, but these are very simple and don't appear to have any rounded edges.
- mc32 8y agoWhat's striking to me is that they appear "precise", so it required training and technique. It wasn't some kind of amateur inking.
- saalweachter 8y ago> the tattoos, which were created via small incisions traced with charcoal That makes me assume that each of line was made with a single straight-line cut that was rubbed with charcoal.
- newnewpdro 8y agoThis can't even qualify as pseudo-science.
- AvocadoPanic 8y agoFaux-science?
- newnewpdro 8y agoWhatever category reading tarot cards and tea leaves falls under...
- cobbzilla 8y agoIf said tarot cards and tea leaves are 5000+ years old, then studying them could certainly be done scientifically.
- village-idiot 8y agoTechnically it’s history and anthropology.
- gnulinux 8y agoWow, I've seen Markov chains writing better articles than this. Pretty amazing what humans can do!
- whymauri 8y agowhat's wrong with the article?
- gnulinux 8y agoOh wait I'm so sorry, did someone change the original post? When I click the title now an article I never read pops up. I was ranting about this article: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/01/30/scientists-mapped-otzi-icemans-61-tattoos/#.W5xhfS2ZNTZ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/01/30/scienti... It's just very poor quality and sensational.
- irrational 8y agoWhat, the word "tats" isn't used in standard scientific reporting?
- the_duke 8y agoThe new link isn't better. Very sensationalist.
- jlj 8y agoPBS (US) had a show covering this the other night. The tattoo locations corresponded to areas of arthritis. Also carried different fungi, one for fire starter, another for antisceptic. Interesting that the tattoos, tools, and medicine pointed to a level of specialization that would have been supported by agricultural civilization, not by hunter gathers.
- ljf 8y agoInterested in that statement (I know little about this area) but why do you say that specialisation would only occur in an agricultural civilisation?
- lsc 8y agoThe theory goes that hunter gatherers have to spend a lot more time just getting enough food to survive, and don't generate the surplus food to dedicate people to medicine or to manufacturing. My understanding is that this is not very controversial within academic circles, but outside of academia, I personally know a lot of people who seem to think that living off the land is easy and would leave you with a lot of free time. The other argument is one of density. For specialization, you need enough people nearby for the specialist to trade with. Hunter-gatherers need a lot more space per person than agricultural societies. In a hunter-gatherer society, you'd have to travel a lot further, potentially while carrying food and trade goods, to get to that doctor or that smith.
- skookumchuck 8y agoI doubt people would transition to agriculture if it was harder than living off the land.
- saalweachter 8y agoWith all things evolutionary, you have to keep in mind the environment. Agriculture in 5000 BCE in places developing it may very well have been harder than hunter-gathering in 8000 BCE... but easier than hunter-gathering in 5000 BCE in the places developing agricultural. Environmental changes, increased population density, and loss of key plant and animal species could make what was once an idyllic lifestyle nearly impossible, and what was formerly a back-breaking waste of time “better than slowly starving to death”.