12,000-Year-Old Burial of Female Surrounded by Wild Animals, Likely a Shaman

A woman buried around 12,000 years ago near the upper Tigris River in southwestern Turkey might have been a shaman with a spiritual connection to wild animals, according to a new study. This unusual burial site at Çemka Höyük—meaning “mound by the water” dates back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period, a transitional era between 10,000 and 8,800 BC, just before the advent of agriculture.

During this time, people were still hunter-gatherers, similar to their Mesolithic ancestors, and had not yet developed pottery. However, it appears that settlements had already started to form, at least seasonally, in places like Jericho in the Palestinian Territories and Göbekli Tepe, an archaeological site in Turkey about 150 miles west of Çemka Höyük. This, amongst other finds, have been published in the latest edition of L’Anthropologie.

Excavations are ongoing at the Çemka Höyük neolithic settlement, Turkey. (Anatolian Archaeology)

Examining the Burial: Curious Animal Remains

The woman, who died of natural causes at the adult age of 25 to 30, was buried beneath the floor of a mud-brick building at Çemka Höyük, oriented northwest-southeast and facing west lying in the prone position on her right side, alongside 14 other individuals buried under nearby buildings. Although burying the dead under home floors was common during the PPNA, archaeologists were intrigued to find the woman’s grave covered with a large limestone block, which is atypical for this period.

Intriguingly, she was buried with several animal remains. Researchers identified bones (including a skull) from an extinct cattle species known as the aurochs, as well as remains of a small ruminant, a partridge bone, a canid bone, and a marten bone.

The nature of the burial and the associated animal remains suggest that the woman might have been a shaman, or at least buried by someone practicing shamanism, according to the study. This burial could represent one of the earliest known examples of its kind in a Neolithic context from the Anatolian peninsula, the authors conclude, reports Newsweek.

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The burial of the ‘shaman’ included a woman curled up on her right side and accompanied by a variety of animal bones. (Associate Professor Doctor Ergül Kodaş/Anthropology Journal)

Further surprises emerged during the excavation: the skull of an aurochs (an ancient ox) was placed above the woman's body, with its jaw separated and positioned at her feet. Additional animal bones, such as the wing of a partridge, the leg of a marten, and remains of a sheep or goat, were scattered throughout the burial pit.

The authors wrote in the study:

"Considering the fact that the female individual and the animal bones were deposited together in one burial, we may assume some symbolic relations between the animals and the hunter-gatherer-fishers of Çemka Höyük, who had already embarked towards a sedentary life…. It might be argued that the relationship was based on the early sedentary peoples' new perspectives towards the animal world surrounding their environment in view of species to tame, herd and manage."

Since the woman’s burial occurred before the domestication of farm animals, the creatures must have been wild, explains Ergül Kodaş, an archaeologist from Turkey’s Mardin Artuklu University and the study’s lead author. He notes that the presence of numerous aurochs bones underscores the significance of wild cattle, which would not be domesticated for thousands of years but were already a key food source.

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Cemka Hoyuk Neolithic site, in Mardin, Turkey. (Ergul Kodas/Anthropology Journal)

Fearing the Unknown: Honoring Magical Forces

Archaeologist Steve Mithen of the University of Reading adds that social and environmental changes during the PPNA period may have heightened the importance of individuals who could communicate with unseen forces. In this context, the findings at Çemka Höyük offer new insights into the development of ritual beliefs in early societies, reports Arkeonews.

The authors write:

“In this regard, a shaman differs from ordinary people, and may appear as a charismatic, occasionally religious, but possibly as well a 'mad' figure of a particular social group. It is very likely that such people were different also in their habit and appearance. They may have had a handicap or visual markers that made them different and perhaps [were] lonely and socially marginalized [as well] despite, or because of, their role as a traveler between worlds. For this reason, in many traditional societies 'shamans' are buried with different funeral ceremonies compared to the funerary rites of ordinary members of their society.”

Archaeologist Bill Finlayson of Oxford University points out that the term 'shaman' was coined in the 18th century to describe indigenous practices in Siberia, so the exact role of such individuals in the Neolithic period may not be fully understood. Nonetheless, comparing the female grave at Çemka Höyük to similar shamanic burials suggests she might have been a spiritual leader.

It is also possible that certain aspects of the burial indicate the community's desire to ensure the (potential) former shaman remained in the world of the dead, fearing her return as a malevolent spirit.

The researchers suggest that the auroch's skull might have been placed in the grave to guard her remains, while the limestone slab could have been intended to prevent her from leaving the grave. Similar characteristics in other prehistoric burials suggest that communities sometimes took measures to prevent the deceased from returning.

Top image: Representation of a young shaman woman.             Source: jozefklopacka/Adobe Stock

By Sahir Pandey