First Feast? The Burial at the Hilazon Tachtit Cave Site
Excavation at the 12,000-year-old Hilazon Tachtit cave site, located in what is now Israel, led to an astonishing discovery. At the cave site, twenty-nine Natufian individuals are buried. Twenty-eight of those burials took place in a collective pit, but one burial was special. A woman, believed to be a shaman, was buried separately, with evidence that a pre-burial feast took place in her honor, providing the earliest known evidence of a feast in honor of a woman’s burial.
Natufian archaeological excavation site in Hilazon Tachtit, in the Galilee area of northern Israel, where archeologists found the 12,000-year-old skeleton of a female shaman. Image source: Hebrew University
The Natufians were an Epipaleolithic culture, dating back to between 13,000 and 9,800 BC. Found around the Eastern Mediterranean, the Natufians were a sedentary hunter-gatherer culture who lived in gathered communities. Some evidence indicates that they cultivated barley and wheat, and that they created tools specifically for the harvesting of crops. This indicates a key transition in human civilization, from hunter-gatherer to a farming society.
The separate burial of the shaman woman raised many questions about the functioning of the Natufian culture. The woman was estimated to be 45 years old. Her spine and pelvis were deformed, indicating that she walked with a limp. Within the burial pit, the woman was surrounded by 71 tortoise shells, cattle bones, a wing bone from a golden eagle, two marten skulls, a leopard’s pelvis, and a human foot. To highlight the woman’s status, the shells and other items were placed strategically throughout the burial. A tortoise shell was placed under the woman’s head, with the remaining shells arranged under her pelvis and around her body.
An image depicting the features of the woman’s burial at Hilazon Tachtit. Image source: Science20.com
Experts contend that the presence of these items within the burial pit indicates more than just a ritualistic use of animal parts, and that the evidence strongly suggests that a feast took place in the woman’s honor prior to her burial. The breaking of the tortoise shells would have made the meat easily accessible, and burn marks indicated that the meat had been roasted. The cattle bones, coming from the head, neck, limbs, and feet, showed clear signs of being cut or butchered.
Some argue, however, that this evidence does not indicate a feast or any significance to the burial, but that it may have been merely a communal meal. Based on the animal remains within the burial site, it is estimated that there had been at least 17 kilograms of cattle and tortoise meat, or enough to feed at least 35 people. Nevertheless, the presence of a large meal does not necessarily indicate a feast of importance.
The possibility that feasting took place during this burial, nearly 12,000 years ago, indicates important cultural changes that had been taking place. During this transitional time in human civilization, the presence of a shaman indicates organized religion. The great time and effort that went into the burial show that the woman was of great importance to the society, and the animal remains are evidence of her spiritual connection with healing objects. It has been said that the presence of the eagle wing within the burial is strong evidence that the woman was a shaman. The eagle wing represents flight to the ‘Other World’.
Whether this petite woman was a shaman or not, it is clear that her burial held a special significance to the Natufian people. Feast or no feast, her burial within a pit separate from the communal grave, and the presence of a great number of well-arranged animal parts show that whatever role she played within the community was considered an important one. Further study of this ancient grave may unlock additional secrets about this unique burial.
Featured image: A reconstruction of the shaman woman’s burial at the Hilazon Tachtit cave site in Israel. Image source.
Sources:
A 12,000-Year-Old Shaman From Hilazon Tachtit, Israel & The Emergence Of Religion – Anthropology.net
The First Feast? – Sciencemag.org
Hilazon Tachtit (Israel): Natufian Shamanism and Feasting – Archaeology.about.com
Natufian Period: Guide to the Hunter-Gatherers of the Levant – Archaeology.about.com
12,000 Year Old Shaman Burial Site Discovered in Northern Israel – And it was a Woman – Science 2.0
The Shamaness - Bensozia
By M R Reese
Comments
Or maybe she was unworthy or considered a danger and was buried apart from the others and all the items in there were meant to protect everyone from her.
Neat alert("chee");
If anyone may be doing a DNA genome sequence of ancient peoples who lived 12,000 years ago. Do they have living descendants today as far as DNA matches? And does this population also represent those who migrated into Europe as Neolithic farmers or remained in the same place through the centuries? Just curious as to what these peoples looked like, what their DNA was like, and whether facial reconstruction will be done in the future from plaster casts, etc...to see whether this population is the same that migrated into what parts of Europe between 12,000 and 20,000 years ago or stayed in the same area, had recently arrived from other areas, or represents a general population found today all over the Mediterranean areas as far as DNA matches. Just wondering who these peoples' descendants might be in current times and where they may live today. For example, some living people today in many different areas of the world match some centimorgans of DNA with a man who lived 45,000 years ago in Siberia.
You must be new to..well, everything.
"Hilazon Tachtit cave site, located in what is now Israel" - what is now Israel? Is that a way to describe a location? "Accident victim is treated at hospital in Manhattan, in what is now USA." If this is a science site (even if its a fringe science), please, stay out of politics.
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