A 12,000-year-old Shaman burial from the southern Levant (Israel)

TLDR

The Natufians of the southern Levant (15,000–11,500 cal BP) experienced major socioeconomic shifts as they transitioned from foraging to farming and settled life. The study aims to examine ideological changes accompanying the Natufian socioeconomic transition by analyzing a rare 12,000‑year‑old grave at Hilazon Tachtit. The grave, built for a petite, elderly disabled woman and furnished with 50 tortoise shells, animal parts, and a human foot, indicates she was a shaman, and its features later became central to spiritual practices worldwide.

Abstract

The Natufians of the southern Levant (15,000-11,500 cal BP) underwent pronounced socioeconomic changes associated with the onset of sedentism and the shift from a foraging to farming lifestyle. Excavations at the 12,000-year-old Natufian cave site, Hilazon Tachtit (Israel), have revealed a grave that provides a rare opportunity to investigate the ideological shifts that must have accompanied these socioeconomic changes. The grave was constructed and specifically arranged for a petite, elderly, and disabled woman, who was accompanied by exceptional grave offerings. The grave goods comprised 50 complete tortoise shells and select body-parts of a wild boar, an eagle, a cow, a leopard, and two martens, as well as a complete human foot. The interment rituals and the method used to construct and seal the grave suggest that this is the burial of a shaman, one of the earliest known from the archaeological record. Several attributes of this burial later become central in the spiritual arena of human cultures worldwide.