12000 year old little Israeli unearthed

Last update - 19:57 04/11/2008    

 

 Israelis unearth skeleton of 'petite' priestess who died 12,000 years ago

  By Bradley Burston, Haaretz Correspondent  Tags: Galilee, archeology, shaman  Archeologists excavating a small cave in northern Israel have discovered the skeleton of a woman shaman or priestess-healer who lived some 12,000 years ago, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced on Tuesday.

 

It said that the Natufian or Middle Stone Age burial site at Hilazon Tachtit, near the Western Galilee city of Karmiel, also contained rare grave offerings including 50 complete tortoise shells, the pelvis of a leopard and a human foot. The Natufian culture existed in the area of present-day Israel, Lebanon, and Syria 11,500 to 15,000 years ago.

 

According to Hebrew University archeologist Leore Grosman, who headed the dig, the elaborate nature of the burial rituals and the method used to construct and seal the grave suggest that the woman had a very high standing within her community.

"Analysis of the bones show that the shaman was 45 years old, petite and had an unnatural, asymmetrical appearance due to a spinal disability that would have affected the woman's gait, causing her to limp or drag her foot," the university said in a statement.

 

It said that burials of shamans often reflected their role in life, incorporating healing kits and animals with whose spirits the shaman was seen to have a special connection.

 

"Clearly a great amount of time and energy was invested in the preparation, arrangement, and sealing of the grave," Grosman was quoted as saying, adding that the burial site was unlike any other found in the Natufian or the preceding pre-historic periods.

 

The grave contained body parts of several animals rarely seen in burials of the period, including the remains of tortoises apparently brought to the site and eaten as part of a feast, the near-compete pelvis of a leopard, the wing tip of a golden eagle, a tail of a cow, two marten skulls and the forearm of a wild boar which was directly aligned with a bone of the woman's left arm. A human foot belonging to an adult individual who was substantially larger than the interred woman was also found in the grave, the university said.

 

It noted that the body was also buried in an unusual position, lain on its side against the curved wall of the oval-shaped grave.

 

"Speculating why the body was held in place in such a way and covered with rocks, Dr. Grosman suggests it could have been to protect the body from being eaten by wild animals or because the community was trying to keep the shaman and her spirit inside the grave."