2008/11/03 by Leore Grosman, Natalie D. Munro, Anna Belfer‐Cohen · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Southern Levant #Archaeology #Geography #Ancient history #Geology #History #Bronze Age
paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.0806030105
openalex publication_date 2008/11/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
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.