headdress

A rare roe deer skull headdress unearthed at the early Neolithic settlement of Eilsleben in Saxony-Anhalt is sharpening the picture of how Europe’s first farmers and local hunter-gatherers interacted, sharing not just materials, but symbolic objects and know-how. The striking find, dated to roughly 7,500 years ago, was recovered from a pit inside a Linear Pottery culture (LBK) village, suggesting close contact on the frontier where farming was still spreading into new territory. The research team, writing in Antiquity journal, argues that the headdress, along with unusual tool types, points to a “hunter-farmer encounter zone,” where practices moved between communities even while their core lifeways stayed distinct. Prehistoric Humans Shaped Europe Long Before Farming 11,000-year-old Spiritualized Deer Masks Whisper Tales