The woman’s skull, partridge wings, and marten paws were found in the grave.
In 2019, researchers from Turkey unearthed the burial of a woman aged approximately 12,000 years in the Çemka Höyük settlement in the southeast of the country.
The woman, who was between 25 and 30 years old at the time of her death, was buried under the floor of a building made of clay. This custom of burying the dead in homes was common at the time. However, the peculiarity of this burial was the presence of numerous animals and a large limestone block covering the body.
The arrangement of the animals in the grave turned out to be extremely interesting. A taurus skull was placed over the woman’s body, with its jaw separated and placed at her feet. In addition, the archaeologists found partridge wings, marten paws, and scattered bones of sheep or goats.
The researchers suggest that this unusual combination of animals in the burial may indicate a woman’s special status in society. She could have been a shaman — a person who had a special connection with spirits, especially malevolent ones. In many cultures, shamans were considered intermediaries between the worlds of humans and animals, able to communicate with the spirits that live in animals.
The find at Çemka Göyük is unique for the early Neolithic settlements of Upper Mesopotamia. It is the only known example of a burial site that demonstrates such a close relationship between humans and various animals. The discovery allows archaeologists to reinterpret the spiritual practices and social structure of Neolithic communities in this region.
The study was published in the journal L’Anthropologie.
Source: Interestingengineering