A 12,000-year-old Shaman burial from the southern Levant (Israel).
The Natufians of the southern Levant (15,000-11,500 cal BP) underwent pronounced socioeconomic changes associated with the onset of sedentism and the shift from a foraging to farming lifestyle. Excavations at the 12,000-year-old Natufian cave site, Hilazon Tachtit (Israel), have revealed a grave that provides a rare opportunity to investigate the ideological shifts that must have accompanied these socioeconomic changes. The grave was constructed and specifically arranged for a petite, elderly, and disabled woman, who was accompanied by exceptional grave offerings. 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 interment rituals and the method used to construct and seal the grave suggest that this is the burial of a shaman, one of the earliest known from the archaeological record. Several attributes of this burial later become central in the spiritual arena of human cultures worldwide.
Grosman
Leore
L
Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel. lgrosman@mscc.huji.ac.il
Munro
Natalie D
ND
Belfer-Cohen
Anna
A
D000825:Animal Structures; D000818:Animals; D001106:Archaeology; D002048:Burial / Q000266:history; D005580:Fossils; D005843:Geography; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D013997:Time Factors