Hilazon Tachtit
In the cave of Hilazon Tachtit ( Hebrew חילזון תחתית), about 14.0 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast in western Galilee in northern Israel , scientists have found about 25 burials of Natufiens . An outstanding find was the 12,000 year old remains of an approximately 45 year old and 1.5 meter tall woman in an individual grave, while the other burials were found in communal graves.
The individual grave consists of an oval hollow cut into the hard rock, the lower area of which is covered with clay. The walls are lined with limestone slabs . The dead woman was laid with her back to the wall, her legs bent like sitting cross-legged, and covered with ten larger stones. The grave was closed with a triangular block of limestone. The grave goods consisted of about 50 turtle shells , two marten skulls , wing bones of a golden eagle , wild boar bones , a cattle tail , as well as a human foot and fragments of a basalt shell .
According to Leore Grosman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , she is a shaman . In addition to the nature of the accessories, the crippling of the woman speaks for this thesis. Deformations of the bones of the dead suggested that she had been unable to walk from birth. Grosman's interpretation was rejected as "colored" by Mina Evron of Haifa University .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Michael Balter: Ancient Grave may have belonged to Shaman. Science , November 3, 2008, accessed November 4, 2008 .
- ↑ a b Sven Stockrahm: The grave of the voodoo priestess. Die Zeit , November 4, 2008, accessed November 4, 2008 .
Web links
- Leore Grosman, Natalie D. Munro, Anna Belfer-Cohen: 12,000-year-old Shaman burial from the southern Levant (Israel). http://www.univie.ac.at/mcogneu/lit/grosman.pdf
- Ishaan Tharoor: 12,000-year-old Shaman Unearthed in Israel. Time , November 11, 2008
- Sonja Römer: 12,000 year old shaman's grave discovered in Israel. Image of Science , November 4, 2008
Coordinates: 32 ° 52 ′ 9.15 " N , 35 ° 18 ′ 31.27" E