A team of archaeologists from Mardin Artuklu University in Turkey has uncovered a 12,000 year old grave believed to belong to a woman who lived as a shaman. The discovery was documented in a scientific outlet associated with L’Anthropologie, highlighting its significance in understanding early ceremonial practice in the region.
The excavation took place at Cemka Mound, situated in the southeastern part of modern Turkey. Earlier investigations suggest that hunter gatherer groups in this area gradually transitioned to more settled living during the Neolithic era, laying groundwork for the first village organizations and communal structures.
The remains of a woman were found beneath the floor of a clay-walled dwelling. While such an interment would not be unusual for that period, researchers were intrigued by an unusual arrangement of animal bones surrounding the body. Among the assemblage were the skull of a small bird, wings from a partridge, and the legs of a marten, laid out with care around the skeleton. This meticulous placement hints at ritual practices or symbolic meaning tied to the individual’s role in the community.
The body itself was pressed to the ground with a substantial limestone block, a method that appears to reflect deliberate burial choices. Such a technique may indicate ceremonial importance, possibly connected to beliefs about linking the shaman with the spiritual realm, which ancient societies often imagined as a conduit for messages from both benevolent and malevolent forces. In many early cultures, shamans were believed to bridge worlds, and some traditions held that spirits could temporarily inhabit a priest or priestess during sacred work. These practices would align with broader patterns seen in disparate prehistoric communities where ritual anatomy, grave goods, and grave architecture carry symbolic weight.
Context for this find also involves broader patterns in European prehistory, where large-scale burials and specialized interments are interpreted as markers of social roles and religious leadership. The Cemka Mound discovery contributes to a growing picture of how early Neolithic communities organized spiritual life, how they interpreted dreams and visions, and how these beliefs influenced daily life, including food sharing, communal labor, and governance. The team continues to analyze the grave goods, the placement of the body, and the architectural context of the dwelling to better understand the transition from nomadic to more permanent settlements and the emergence of ritual specialists within those communities.
In related archaeological news, researchers have previously documented mass burials and complex burial rites across northern Europe from periods such as the Bronze Age, underscoring the diversity of burial customs across ancient populations. Each new discovery, including the Turkish site, adds depth to the mosaic of human ritual expression and supports ongoing comparisons that help scholars reconstruct social hierarchies, belief systems, and the transmission of cultural knowledge across generations.