Reconstruction of tattooing on the forehead of a 3-year-old female (657–855 CE) from Kulubnarti. Credit: Mary Nguyen. 2025 UMSL

Ancient Nubians who lived between the 7th and 9th centuries tattooed the cheeks and foreheads of their infants and toddlers. This surprising discovery was made during a systematic survey of more than 1,000 human remains from the Nile River Valley, an area once part of ancient Nubia and now in present-day Sudan.

Humans have been using tattoos to mark their identity, religious beliefs, and also to tell a story of their life experiences through cultural symbolism. Archaeological evidence suggests that some tattooing practices date back at least 5,000 years.

Tattoos from the ancient Nubian regions have captivated archaeologists since the 1800s. For generations, scientists have studied these designs on mummies, but many details remained hidden, until now. New imaging techniques, capable of detecting wavelengths beyond the human eye, are finally revealing striking new information hidden within the tattoos.

In the PNAS study, researchers used multispectral imaging—a technique that captures images at multiple wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum— to examine human remains from three archaeological sites (Semna South, Kulubnarti, Qinifab School) in Sudan.

This new approach enabled researchers to examine tattoos at the microscopic level, allowing them to identify faded or previously hidden tattoos on darkened, aged, or even mummified skin. Using this method, they found tattoos on more than 27 individuals, including an 18-month-old child with clearly defined tattoo marks and an infant aged 7.5–10.5 months with possible tattooing.

Reconstruction of tattooing on the forehead of a 3-year-old female (657–855 CE) from Kulubnarti. Credit: Mary Nguyen. 2025 UMSL

Influence of religion on tattoos

In the Nubian region, tattooing practices were primarily associated with women, with subtle designs commonly placed on the hands and forearms to remain discreet. The patterns often reflected elements of nature and ethnic identity and usually consisted of clusters of small dots, which scholars believe were created by repeatedly poking a single-pointed tool into the skin.

Around the 7th century CE, the spread of Christianity across the region brought about significant changes in cultural practices, including who received tattoos and how they were applied.

For this study, 1,048 individuals from three archaeological sites were surveyed, and Kulubnarti in northern Sudan—primarily occupied during the Christian era—showed evidence that tattooing extended beyond women.

The researchers found that 19% of Kulubnarti individuals were tattooed, with men, women, and even toddlers among them. Unlike the pre-Christian era, when tattoos were hidden from view, these markings became defining features of the face, often placed on the forehead, temples, and cheeks.

Reconstruction of geometric tattoos on the right hand of an adult woman from Semna South. Credit: Mary Nguyen. 2025 UMSL

The tattooing techniques also likely evolved from slow, dot-based hand-poking to faster, single-puncture techniques using sharper tools, resembling a knife point.

Before this, only 30 instances of tattoos had been recorded from the Nile Valley, spread across a span of 4,000 years, leaving many gaps in our understanding of tattooing practices and the cultural significance.

The researchers note that the findings from this study provided crucial connections between tattooing in the medieval and modern periods in the Nile Valley, helping to fill these temporal gaps.

Written for you by our author Sanjukta Mondal, edited by Sadie Harley, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Egan—this article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You’ll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.

More information: Anne Austin et al, Revealing tattoo traditions in ancient Nubia through multispectral imaging, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2517291122

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Citation: Toddlers with facial tattoos: How Christianity expanded body art in Nile Valley civilizations (2025, December 22) retrieved 22 December 2025 from https://phys.org/news/2025-12-toddlers-facial-tattoos-christianity-body.html

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