Abstract

Aaron Deter-Wolf is a Prehistoric Archaeologist with the Tennessee Division of Archaeology in Nashville, where his responsibilities include managing ancient Native American sites on State-owned lands and conducting archaeological excavations and research. In addition to his work in Tennessee, for the past decade Aaron has been a leading researcher in developing the archaeological study of tattooing. Those efforts include using contextual analysis and microscopic use-wear signatures to identify tattooing tools in archaeological collections, efforts to systematically document tattoos on mummified human remains, and experiments recreating and testing ancient and historic tattooing implements.

In 2009 Aaron organized the first American academic symposium to examine ancient and early historic Native American tattooing, which culminated in the volume Drawing with Great Needles: Ancient Tattoo Traditions of North America. He is co-editor of the volume Ancient Ink: The Archaeology of Tattooing, and in recent years was part of research teams that identified ancient tattooing tools including a 2,000-year old set of cactus spines from Utah, and 5,000-year old turkey bone needles from Tennessee. He and Ben Robitaille share information about the history of tattooing and body modification on the Instagram account @archaeologyink.
Transcript of this episode can be found here: docs.google.com/document/d/15Nken…/edit?usp=sharing

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