Re: Prehistoric shaman from 10,000 B.C. found buried

On Nov 7, 8:01 pm, "Steven L." <sdlit...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Prehistoric shaman found buried with leopard, human foot

Archaeologists have found the 12,000-year old skeleton of a female
shaman buried in northern Israel alongside 50 tortoises, body parts of a
leopard, a boar and other animals as well as a human foot.

The burial site is among the earliest known of a shaman, or healer,
according to the archaeological team led by Leore Grosman of the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem.

"The grave was constructed and specifically arranged for a petite,
elderly, and disabled woman, who was accompanied by exceptional grave
offerings," the archaeologists wrote in this week's edition of the US
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The grave goods comprised 50 complete tortoise shells and select
body-parts of a wild boar, an eagle, a cow, a leopard, and two martens,
as well as a complete human foot," the experts said.

"Several attributes of this burial later become central in the spiritual
arena of human cultures worldwide."

The grave was found during excavations of a 12,000-year-old cave site of
the Natufian culture in Hilazon Tachtit, in the Galilee area of northern
Israel.

Analysis of the bones show that the shaman was 45 years old, petite and
had an unnatural, asymmetrical appearance due to a spinal disability
that would have affected the woman's gait, causing her to limp or drag
her foot.

The burial site was unlike any from the Natufian or the preceding
Paleolithic periods discovered to date, said Grosman.

"Clearly a great amount of time and energy was invested in the
preparation, arrangement, and sealing of the grave," she said.

"This was coupled with the special treatment of the buried body, which
was laid on its side with the spinal column, pelvis and right femur
resting against the curved southern wall of the oval-shaped grave. The
legs were spread apart and folded inward at the knees."

The Natufians lived in the eastern Mediterranean region 15,000 to 11,500
years ago.

Grosman suggests the grave could point to shifts from foraging to
farming that took place in the region at that time.

© 2008 AFPhttp://www.physorg.com/news145004515.html

--
Steven L.
Email:  sdlit...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.

I look forward to readign the entire article. Based on you presis; I
have excavated a few burials that judged from the ceremonial gear were
the burials of "shamans." (Shaman is a particular cultural role that
does not really translate cross-culturally any better than "priest" or
"doctor"). There was even one with a wide representation of pedatory
critters and some isolated human anatomical parts- a few hands.

These burials were all from California hunter/gatherer, non-
agriculturalists, and were C14 dated between 6K and 300 years ago. One
very interesting example was a fellow who had been speared from behind
in his left shoulder (after which he ran a good distance, deeply
scoring his scapula) and then was clubed to death. He was finally
"killed" ceremonially with an arrow point made from quartz crystal
that was shot into his left eye.

I have also excaveated the burials of farily mutilated people who
survived what had to have been terrible accidents. They had no
unusulal accoutrements sugesting any special social status.

.

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