What is the difference between a shaman and a witch? I suppose the latter has a negative connotation and the former does not. Modern practitioners of the Wiccan religion engage in rituals designed to indicate respect for the Earth Mother and the forces of nature. By so doing, they find harmony with these forces and a sense of well being. The shamans of antiquity served their hunting and gathering, pastoral, and early agrarian societies in much the same way. Using their superior sensitivity to the forces of nature, they performed the rituals that their societies believed were essential to survival, e.g., rituals that ensured successful hunting, rainfall, crop growing, animal and human fertility, and recovery from illness and wounds. Shamans were respected, often high status, people.
Led by archeologist Leore Grosman, a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has spent the last thirteen years excavating a cliffside cave in northern Israel. In 2008, the Hilazon Tachtit cave (shown below) yielded a collection of artifacts consisting of the shells of 50 tortoises, parts of wild boars, cows, leopards, gazelles, stone martens, the wingtip of a golden eagle, a set of tools, and a severed human foot. The team also discovered the 12,000-year-old remains of a woman. Because of the unusual collection of artifacts buried with the woman, Grosman hypothesized that the she was a shaman, the first female shaman found in the Mediterranean region.
Grosman started exploring the cave in 1995. At first, her team’s work yielded little. Eventually, the cave yielded certain artifacts that caused the team to move to an adjacent area where they found a Natufian burial ground with four undisturbed graves and several pits containing the remains of at least 25 other individuals. The location of the cave is not far from previously excavated Natufian sites. Flourishing in the region between 15,000 and 11,500 years ago, the Natufian culture existed at a time when Middle Eastern cultures were transitioning from hunting and gathering life styles to agriculture. Hundreds of Natufian graves have been excavated in Israel, Jordon, Lebanon, and Syria. The 2008 find at Hilazon Tachtit, however, is unique because of the presence of ritual or shamanic objects in proximity to a woman’s remains. Grosman sometimes refers to her as “the witch,” but with fondness.
When she died, the shaman was approximately 45 years old, an advanced age in her culture. She suffered from severe skeletal deformations, such as a fusion of the coccyx and sacrum, and deformations of the pelvis and lumbar and sacral vertebrae. This would have caused her to limp or drag her feet and she would have had an unnatural, ill-proportioned appearance. She was buried in a plastered oval pit hewn into bedrock and sealed beneath a large slab. According to a zooarcheologist working with Grosman, the shaman’s burial ritual would have included the killing and eating of turtles, followed by the arrangement of the turtle shells around the deceased woman. Also, boar bones had been cracked open and the marrow had been removed before the bones were placed beneath the woman’s hand.
Why did the Natufians go to the trouble of burying the shaman in a pit carved high in a cliff? Usually they buried their dead in simple graves next to their living areas. Grosman is not sure. She points out, however, that at the time the shaman was buried, the Natufians were making the transition from a nomadic hunting and gathering way of life to a settled agrarian society. They may have needed special locations and topographical features with spiritual meaning. Grosman believes that the site became a cemetery because the shaman was buried there. Her presence made the location sacred.
The excavations at Hilazon Tachtit are increasing our knowledge of a very ancient culture of the Middle East and of the role of women in that culture. Was the woman buried there a shaman because she possessed unique qualities? Or were women regarded by the Natufians as more likely to have the ability to relate to the forces of nature and the spirit world? Continuing excavation may provide answers.
Led by archeologist Leore Grosman, a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has spent the last thirteen years excavating a cliffside cave in northern Israel. In 2008, the Hilazon Tachtit cave (shown below) yielded a collection of artifacts consisting of the shells of 50 tortoises, parts of wild boars, cows, leopards, gazelles, stone martens, the wingtip of a golden eagle, a set of tools, and a severed human foot. The team also discovered the 12,000-year-old remains of a woman. Because of the unusual collection of artifacts buried with the woman, Grosman hypothesized that the she was a shaman, the first female shaman found in the Mediterranean region.
Grosman started exploring the cave in 1995. At first, her team’s work yielded little. Eventually, the cave yielded certain artifacts that caused the team to move to an adjacent area where they found a Natufian burial ground with four undisturbed graves and several pits containing the remains of at least 25 other individuals. The location of the cave is not far from previously excavated Natufian sites. Flourishing in the region between 15,000 and 11,500 years ago, the Natufian culture existed at a time when Middle Eastern cultures were transitioning from hunting and gathering life styles to agriculture. Hundreds of Natufian graves have been excavated in Israel, Jordon, Lebanon, and Syria. The 2008 find at Hilazon Tachtit, however, is unique because of the presence of ritual or shamanic objects in proximity to a woman’s remains. Grosman sometimes refers to her as “the witch,” but with fondness.
When she died, the shaman was approximately 45 years old, an advanced age in her culture. She suffered from severe skeletal deformations, such as a fusion of the coccyx and sacrum, and deformations of the pelvis and lumbar and sacral vertebrae. This would have caused her to limp or drag her feet and she would have had an unnatural, ill-proportioned appearance. She was buried in a plastered oval pit hewn into bedrock and sealed beneath a large slab. According to a zooarcheologist working with Grosman, the shaman’s burial ritual would have included the killing and eating of turtles, followed by the arrangement of the turtle shells around the deceased woman. Also, boar bones had been cracked open and the marrow had been removed before the bones were placed beneath the woman’s hand.
Why did the Natufians go to the trouble of burying the shaman in a pit carved high in a cliff? Usually they buried their dead in simple graves next to their living areas. Grosman is not sure. She points out, however, that at the time the shaman was buried, the Natufians were making the transition from a nomadic hunting and gathering way of life to a settled agrarian society. They may have needed special locations and topographical features with spiritual meaning. Grosman believes that the site became a cemetery because the shaman was buried there. Her presence made the location sacred.
The excavations at Hilazon Tachtit are increasing our knowledge of a very ancient culture of the Middle East and of the role of women in that culture. Was the woman buried there a shaman because she possessed unique qualities? Or were women regarded by the Natufians as more likely to have the ability to relate to the forces of nature and the spirit world? Continuing excavation may provide answers.
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2 comments:
What an interesting article! Please let us know if there is any other research on this topic
I enjoyed reading the article. It was well written, very informative and interesting.
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