Body Language: Tattooing and Branding in Ancient Mesopotamia

Abstract

Abstract The permanent marking of human bodies by branding and tattooing was practiced throughout the entire three millennia of the cuneiform record. Brands and tattoos were inflicted on slaves as a means of either marking human or divine ownership, or as a method of punishment for slaves who had already run away. This practice was surprisingly consistent; cuneiform tablets from the early third millennium list branded persons and animals owned by the temple household, while documents from the Achaemenid period detail legal disputes involving marked slaves. As the Near Eastern economy became increasingly international, slaves were marked in multiple languages ensuring the maintenance of social order across a broad geographical scope. Mesopotamian branding and tattoo practices had long-lasting consequences; the Greeks and Romans adopted the custom, the Egyptians began to mark prisoners of war, and the Bible prohibits skin marking in certain contexts. This essay provides a broad overview of the textual evidence for branding and tattooing throughout Ancient Mesopotamian history, placing it within the context of a civilization in which writing on natural bodies – animate or otherwise – was profoundly meaningful.