1,300-year-old Egyptian mummy had tattoo of Archangel Michael

A mummy of an Egyptian woman dating back to 700 A.D. has been scanned and stripped to reveal a tattoo on her thigh that displays the name of the biblical archangel Michael.

The discovery, announced by researchers at the British Museum over the weekend, was made during a research project that used advanced medical scans, including Computed Tomography (CT) images, to examine Egyptian mummies at a number of hospitals in the United Kingdom last year.

The woman’s body was wrapped in a woolen and linen cloth before burial, and her remains were mummified in the desert heat. As deciphered by curators, the tattoo on her thigh, written in ancient Greek, reads Μιχαήλ, transliterated as M-I-X-A-H-A, or Michael.

Curators at the museum speculate that the tattoo was a symbol worn for religious and spiritual protection, though they declined to offer additional details.

'Michael is an obvious identity for a tattoo, as this is the most powerful of angels.'
- Maureen Tilley, professor of theology at Fordham University

But other scientists and theologians offered their thoughts on the tattoo’s cultural context.

“There was a sizable Christian population in Egypt in the 700s, perhaps close to a majority of the population,” said Maureen Tilley, professor of theology at Fordham University in New York.

www.foxnews.com...

Egypt after the Pharaohs is a period that I should pay more attention to high cross cultural give and take in this era,the article stated that Jews also were fascinated by the nature of angels , this however seemed to me to smacks of Pharaohnic era burial rites,in any case pls klik the link above and check out the slide show.

reply to post by Spider879


Tattoo on her thigh? Sexy

Zcustosmorum
reply to post by Spider879

 

Tattoo on her thigh? Sexy

They could find women with hebrew tramp stamps dating back to the 4th dynasty and Zahi Hawass would still downplay the significance of it, as would most "mainstream" archaeologists. They tend to like to be hush hush about hebrew history in the region.

Michael? Not Mithra? (Metatron)
I never thought of Micheal being MORE powerful myself.

reply to post by Spider879


...or her partner was called Michael and the inner thigh was chosen for that reason?

Kandinsky
reply to post by Spider879

 

...or her partner was called Michael and the inner thigh was chosen for that reason?

Lol behave yourself

Just goes to show people got stupid tattoos even 1400 years ago. Wasn't that in the middle of the dark ages, when Christianity was wrapping itself around the globe, choking it's victim into obedience? Pretty sad that she gave up on her belief of the Egyptian afterlife for that. From wrong to wronger >

reply to post by Spider879


I'm curious - Did the tattoo state: Archangel Michael? Or just Michael?
If not, then that's a serious jump from a tat with Mick on a woman's thigh,
to 'ARCHANGEL MICHAEL' ! on woman's thigh !-
Desperate times

VioletKarma
reply to post by Spider879

 

I'm curious - Did the tattoo state: Archangel Michael? Or just Michael?
If not, then that's a serious jump from a tat with Mick on a woman's thigh,
to 'ARCHANGEL MICHAEL' ! on woman's thigh !-
Desperate times

Micheal but the article goes on to state

Placing the name of a powerful heavenly protector on one's body by a tattoo or amulet was very common in antiquity, Tilley told Foxnews.com. “Christian women who were pregnant often placed amulets with divine or angelic names on bands on their abdomens to insure a safe delivery of their child,” she said.

“Placing the name on the inner thigh, as with this mummy, may have had some meaning for the hopes of childbirth or protection against sexual violation, as in ‘This body is claimed and protected.’ Michael is an obvious identity for a tattoo, as this is the most powerful of angels.”

reply to post by DeadSeraph


There's quite a bit of "Hebrew history" from this region, is there not? Weren't they expelled from there, among many other places? I don't get where you're going with this

Anyway, claiming that it's a tat of Michael the angel is a jump. Better look out below!

reply to post by Spider879


Fox news. Smells like a hoax to me.

It wouldn't be the first time - as soon as this information is declared a hoax, it'll fuel even more anti-christian sentiments.

Kandinsky
...or her partner was called Michael and the inner thigh was chosen for that reason?

My thought exactly. Who says it had anything to do with an archangel?

Here is some additional information on it as it appears not to be a hoax.



www.washingtontimes.com...



Telegraph

kalinda
Here is some additional information on it as it appears not to be a hoax.



www.washingtontimes.com...

Telegraph

Thanks Kalinda I am curious the link you provided said the woman was Sudanese,but offered no other details not that it would matter much but I am interested in the three Christian Nubian kingdoms of Nobatia, Alawa and Makuria that existed around the same time as the woman in question..if it haven't been done here already I might just make a thread on them despite being very important for their era they remained very much unknown to most.
Also could you re-post the vid pls the link is broken.

Oh I found the full article have klik British Museum.

The mummy with the Archangel Michael tattoo was actually a Sudanese woman who lived A.D. 700, the Telegraph reported. Scientists found her — and the tattoo on her thigh — seven years ago and were able to use infra-red technology to bring it into better focus. It spells out ‘MIXAHA’ in ancient Greek, meaning Michael.

Read more: www.washingtontimes.com...
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Tattooed Woman

Blue Shift

Kandinsky
...or her partner was called Michael and the inner thigh was chosen for that reason?

My thought exactly. Who says it had anything to do with an archangel?

I guess most art weren't simply decorative back in the day they almost always have some religious connotation.

more information can be found here
www.abovetopsecret.com...

to me it looks like the cross and the geometry needed to measure angles and area which were an egyptian thing
the cross and pythagorian theorem
area is how they calculated taxes

the term aha that is supposed to be part of a greek term ( on an egyptian?)representing Micheal?

This has ramifications for the agreed history of ancient Egypt. Some Egyptologists hold that Menes is the same person as Hor-Aha

en.wikipedia.org...
hor as in horizon..which that horizontal line in the tat is as well as it makes right angle triangles which are elements of navigation using the cross to sight at least two stars to plot a position

see the link in my sig: menes /aha was the great admiral, he used the cross to measure and navigate the world, and his family are the prototypes for a whole bunch of so called gods, and lesser dye-ities
archive.org...


also like my old av the prototype for the confederate old glory flag...stars cross and pyramids, which belonged to a confederate general who was also a knights templar and mason


IMHP making this a christian thing is just herding cats or pushing string
as they say: if you hear hooves odds are its a horse not a zebra

reply to post by Danbones

Well I don't see why it can't be both after all Christianity is but a fusion of many parts and the era makes a good fit for "pagan" influences showing up in Christianity, I checked-out some of your second link though not all but I find it a little dated given what we now know about development on the Nile but that's for another discussion..

Spider879

I guess most art weren't simply decorative back in the day they almost always have some religious connotation.

Maybe the tattooing technique back then, in that part of the world was still quite primitive..

and maybe it hurt like heck, given it was placed in an intimate-ish area.

I don't know what they used for a local anaesthetic back in those days, that is to say, if they even did. I would say that's why they weren't so decorative. Maybe,

Anyways, star and flag OP, interesting find! Thanks for sharing!