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#176

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Picture slideshow in article
Norway archaeologists find 'world's oldest runestone'

JAN M. OLSEN
Tue, January 17, 2023 at 12:07 PM GMT+1

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Archaeologists in Norway said Tuesday that have found a runestone which they claim is the world’s oldest, saying the inscriptions are up to 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing.

The flat, square block of brownish sandstone has carved scribbles, which may be the earliest example of words recorded in writing in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. It said it was “among the oldest runic inscriptions ever found” and “the oldest datable runestone in the world.”

“This find will give us a lot of knowledge about the use of runes in the early Iron Age. This may be one of the first attempts to use runes in Norway and Scandinavia on stone,” Kristel Zilmer, a professor at University of Oslo, of which the museum is part, told The Associated Press.

Older runes have been found on other items, but not on stone. The earliest runic find is on a bone comb found in Denmark. Zilmer said that maybe the tip of knife or a needle was used to carve the runes.

The runestone was discovered in the fall of 2021 during an excavation of a grave near Tyrifjord, west of Oslo, in a region known for several monumental archaeological finds. Items in the cremation pit — burnt bones and charcoal — indicate that the runes likely were inscribed between A.D. 1 and 250.

“We needed time to analyze and date the runestone,” she said to explain why the finding was first announced on Tuesday.

Measuring 31 centimeters by 32 centimeters (12.2 inches by 12.6 inches), the stone has several types of inscriptions and not all make linguistic sense. Eight runes on the front of the stone read “idiberug” — which could be the name of a woman, a man or a family.

Zilmer called the discovery “the most sensational thing that I, as an academic, have had."

There is still a lot of research to be done on the rock, dubbed the Svingerud stone after the site where it was found.




https://www.yahoo.com/news/norway-archa ... 25797.html
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#177

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English civil war
‘Better than finding gold’: towers’ remains may rewrite history of English civil war
Archaeologists say finding medieval gatehouse at Coleshill was ‘real shock’ and ‘highlight of our careers’

Esther Addley
Sat 21 Jan 2023 06.00 GMT

When archaeologists working on the route of HS2 began excavating a stretch of pasture in Warwickshire, they were not expecting to uncover what one of them calls “the highlight of our careers”. Their excavations revealed the monumental stone bases of two towers from a late medieval fortified gatehouse, the existence of which had been completely lost to history.

While that find was remarkable in itself, the ruins were even more significant than they first appeared – and might even rewrite the history of the English civil war.

Peppering the sandstone walls were hundreds of pockmarks made by musket balls and pistol shot, showing that the building had come under heavy fire. Experts think this may be evidence that the gatehouse was shot at by parliamentarian troops heading to the nearby Battle of Curdworth Bridge in August 1642, which would make this the scene of the very first skirmish of the civil war.

The finds were “a real shock”, said Stuart Pierson of Wessex Archaeology, who led excavations on the site. “The best way to describe it is that we were just in awe of this tower.

“People always say that you want to find gold in archaeology, but I think for a lot of us finding that tower will always be better than finding gold. I think it’s the highlight of our careers finding that, and I don’t think we’re going to find anything like that again.”

The team knew that a large Tudor manor house had stood somewhere near the site at Coleshill, east of Birmingham, but its location had been lost. As they started excavating, they were astonished at the state of preservation of its vast ornamental gardens – larger in scale than at Hampton Court.

Pierson had said to colleagues that he expected there might be the remains of a gatehouse, “but we figured a small box structure. We weren’t thinking anything involving towers.” He was on holiday when the first walls were uncovered. “My colleagues say their favourite memory from the site was my expression when I [returned and] saw this complete tower,” he said.

Taken together, the finds make the site “nationally significant – and a bit more”, he added.



https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... -civil-war
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#178

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the Brits do it again ...
‘Incredible’ Roman bathers’ gems lost 2,000 years ago found near Hadrian’s Wall
Intricately carved stones that fell down drain at ancient pool uncovered by archaeologists in Carlisle

Dalya Alberge
Sat 28 Jan 2023 14.15 GMT

Taking your valuables with you into a swimming pool is always a risk. The Romans should have paid better heed, judging from the quantity of gemstones recovered from the drain of one of their bathhouses.

As many as 30 semi-precious stones have been discovered by archaeologists almost 2,000 years after their owners lost them at a site in modern-day Carlisle, just behind Hadrian’s Wall.

The stones had dropped out of their ring settings, their glue probably weakened in the steamy baths. They were simply flushed into the drains when the pools and saunas were cleaned.

Their loss would have been painful as these were engraved gems, known as intaglios. Although barely a few millimetres in diameter, they bear images whose extraordinary craftsmanship suggests they would have been expensive items in their day – the late 2nd century or 3rd century.

One bather lost an amethyst depicting Venus, holding either a flower or a mirror. Another lost a red-brown jasper featuring a satyr seated on rocks next to a sacred column.

Frank Giecco, an expert on Roman Britain who is leading the bathhouse excavation, was astonished by the collection: “It’s incredible,” he said. “It’s caught everyone’s imagination. They were just falling out of people’s rings who were using the baths. They were set with a vegetable glue and, in the hot and sweaty bathhouse, they fell out of the ring settings.”




https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... rians-wall

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#179

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https://www.theguardian.com/culture/202 ... rwickshire

Charlie Clarke had been metal detecting for just six months when he stumbled across what he calls his “once in a lifetime – no, once in 30 lifetimes”, find. He was exploring a Warwickshire field, turning up “junk” and about to call it a day, when a clear beep on his detector led him to dig to the depth of his elbow. What he saw there caused him to shriek “like a little schoolgirl, to be honest. My voice went pretty high-pitched”.

What the Birmingham cafe owner had discovered was a huge and quite spectacular early Tudor pendant and chain, made in gold and enamel and bearing the initials and symbols of Henry VIII and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon.

When Rachel King, curator of Renaissance Europe at the British Museum, first heard about the discovery, she had to sit down. Nothing of this size and importance from the Renaissance period had been found in Britain for more than 25 years, she said.

The heart-shaped pendant, attached to a chain of 75 links and made of 300 grams of 24-carat gold, is decorated with a bush bearing the Tudor rose and a pomegranate, Katherine’s symbol, and on the reverse the initials H and K. Ribbon motifs carry the legend TOVS and IORS, which King called “a beautiful early English Franglais pun” on the French word “toujours” and “all yours”.

Despite initially seeming almost too good to be true, said King, careful scientific analysis has proved the pendant to be genuine. What experts have not been able to uncover, however, despite scouring inventories and pictures of the time, is to establish a personal link to Henry or Katherine.

“Nonetheless, its quality is such that it was certainly either commissioned by or somehow related to a member of the higher nobility or a high-ranking courtier.”

One hypothesis, based on careful analysis of its iconography and other historical records, is that the pendant may have been commissioned to be worn or even given as a prize at one of the major tournaments of which Henry was so fond, around the time of the famous Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. Though its size suggests it would only fit a woman, it may not have been meant to be worn at all.

Nothing remotely similar survives from the period, said King. “In the British Museum, we’ve got the largest collection of objects from the early Tudor periods in precious metal; none of them are anything like this.”
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#180

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Beautiful find! :lovestruck:
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#181

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Gorgeous!!
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#182

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copied over
Dave from down under wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 4:00 pm https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/202 ... /101937222

2.9-million-year-old butchery site in Kenya suggests humans perhaps weren't first to use crafted stone tools

Around 2.9 million years ago, an ancient hominin in East Africa butchered a hippopotamus and feasted on its pulverised flesh.

Key points:
Archaeologists found fossilised hacked bones of animals alongside crafted stone tools
The discovery pushes back the age at which crafted stone tools were used by around 300,000 years
Discovery of teeth at the site raises the question of whether an ancient hominin known as Nutcracker Man was the first to use crafted tools

Leftovers from the hominin's meaty meal were recently discovered at a site on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya by an international team of archaeologists.

Along with the hacked hippo bones were some of the oldest stone tools ever found, reports the team in the journal Science.

"It's the earliest evidence of large animal butchery," said study co-author Julien Louys, deputy director of Griffith University's Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution.

use this Google Search for the related Nutcracker Man mentioned in the side box of this article
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Nutcracker+Man
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#183

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54,000-year-old flints suggest ‘Homo sapiens’ were already shooting arrows when they made contact with Neanderthals
Hundreds of small stones found in a cave in southern France indicate that both species met millennia earlier than previously thought

Miguel Ángel Criado
Feb 24, 2023 - 13:12Actualizado:FEB 24, 2023 - 17:54 CET

The story about the first encounters between Neanderthals and modern humans could depend on hundreds of small stones, recently discovered in a cave in southern France.

Carved with care, these flints would have been used as arrowheads, according to the authors of the discovery. Dating back about 54,000 years, this would be the oldest example of their use in Western Europe.

There’s consensus among scholars of human evolution that the bow and arrow was a technology that gave modern humans a competitive advantage over Neanderthals. If confirmed, this discovery would mean that Homo sapiens made contact with them much earlier than previously thought. But there are still traces of doubt among several scientists.

In February of last year, a group of French scientists published a study that raised as much dust as skepticism among paleontologists. In that article, they detailed the discovery of several teeth in a cave in the Rhône Valley, in France. All belonged to Neanderthals, except for one: an incomplete milk tooth from a child no more than seven years old.

The scientists maintain that the tooth belonged to a Homo sapiens – that is, to a modern human. They estimated that it must be about 54,000 years old. The problem with this dating is that it would imply moving up the accepted date of arrival of modern humans to Western Europe by several millennia. Hence the relevance of this new work – published in Science Advances – is that it offers up even more evidence: arrows, an invention of modern humans.

For about 300,000 years, the European territories were the domain of the Neanderthals, who went extinct about 40,000 years ago. Although the topic is hotly debated, for scientists, these humans would have succumbed to a process which saw the expansion of other humans – specifically, the modern ones.

During this period, sapiens left Africa through Suez and spread throughout the rest of the world, reaching Western Europe in the final part of the Middle Paleolithic era. The clearest clues are found in Germany and Italy, originating from between 48,000 and 45,000 years ago.

The same researchers who found the milk tooth found some 1,500 stone artifacts in the same layer of soil. Made mostly of flint, these cutting blades are sharp on both sides, with a blunt end. The small triangular-shaped points indicate that they must be arrowheads. Hence, this would imply that modern humans used the bow and arrow to hunt – a technology that Neanderthals didn’t have, giving Sapiens a competitive advantage.




https://english.elpais.com/science-tech ... thals.html
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#184

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https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/ar ... -years-ago
Archaeologists find evidence that horseback riding began at least 5,000 years ago

Researchers analyzed more than 200 Bronze Age skeletal remains in museum collections in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic to look for signs of what co-author and University of Helsinki anthropologist Martin Trautmann calls “horse rider syndrome” – six tell-tale markers that indicate a person was likely riding an animal, including characteristic wear marks on the hip sockets, thigh bone and pelvis.

“You can read bones like biographies,” said Trautmann, who has previously studied similar wear patterns in skeletons from later periods when horseback riding is well-established in the historical record.

The researchers focused on human skeletons — which are more readily preserved than horse bones in burial sites and museums – and identified five likely riders who lived around 4,500 to 5,000 years ago and belonged to a Bronze Age people called the Yamnaya.

“There is earlier evidence for harnessing and milking of horses, but this is the earliest direct evidence so far for horseback riding,” said University of Exeter archaeologist Alan Outram, who was not involved in the research, but praised the approach.

The study was published Friday in the journal Science Advances.

That does not mean the Yamnaya people were warriors on horseback, as the horses they rode were likely too skittish for stressful battlefield situations, he said. But horses may have allowed the Yamnaya to more effectively send communications, build alliances and manage the herds of cattle that were central to their economy.
:snippity:

Because only a small percentage of the skeletons studied clearly showed all six markers of riding horseback, “it seems that a minority of the people at that time were riders – that does not suggest that a whole society was built on horseback riding,” said molecular archaeologist Ludovic Orlando, who is based at the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse in France and was not involved in the research.

Still, he praised the work for helping to better pinpoint the potential genesis of horseback riding.

“This is about the origins of something that impacted human history like only a few other things have,” said Orlando.
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#185

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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/nors ... -rcna73939

Viking treasure reveals oldest reference to Norse god Odin
Before the Vindelev hoard’s discovery, the oldest mention of Odin was a brooch found in southern Germany from the latter half of the 6th century.

A centuries-old gold disc found in Denmark has revealed the earliest known mention of the Norse god Odin and shown he was being worshipped at least 150 years earlier than previously thought.

The disc, known as a bracteate, was unearthed in a treasure trove in Vindelev, central Denmark, in 2020, alongside Roman coins that had been reworked into jewelry.

It was displayed to the public at a museum near the discovery site and only recently made available to academics who were able to establish its significance.

Odin is one of the primary gods of Norse mythology, a pre-Christian pagan belief system central to Viking society.

“This is the smoking gun for Odin’s presence in Scandinavia as early as the 5th century,” Simon Nygaard, an assistant professor in pre-Christian Nordic religion at Aarhus University in Denmark, told NBC News on Wednesday. “In the proper sense of the word, it’s historic.”

Nygaard, who was consulted about the interpretation of the inscription on the bracteate, added that finding a runic inscription that includes Odin's name was “spectacular.”

Before the Vindelev hoard’s discovery, the oldest mention of Odin was a brooch found in southern Germany from the latter half of the 6th century
There's more at the story.
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#186

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

Ninja'ed, or rather, Viking'ed by our resident Viking!
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#187

Post by keith »

"Captain Obvious" here, perhaps, but it needs to be pointed out that this find does NOT show that Odin "was being worshipped at least 150 years earlier than previously thought" as the article says in its first sentence.

It shows that ART WAS BEING MADE about Odin at least 150 years earlier than previously KNOWN.

It says absolutely nothing about how old Odin worship is. How long was Odin worshipped before someone had the idea to make a representation of him in a piece of art? How long has mankind been telling stories around the campfire? How long is a piece of string?

Mythology is tough to pin down as to where and when thought patterns evolved and adapted from earlier patterns. But it is not difficult to clearly state what is KNOWN and differentiate it from what is UNKNOWN, even for a mass consumption pop-sci article.
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#188

Post by Kriselda Gray »

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: Wed Mar 08, 2023 5:45 pm Ninja'ed, or rather, Viking'ed by our resident Viking!
:thor:
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#189

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keith wrote: Wed Mar 08, 2023 6:28 pm It says absolutely nothing about how old Odin worship is. How long was Odin worshipped before someone had the idea to make a representation of him in a piece of art? How long has mankind been telling stories around the campfire? How long is a piece of string?

Mythology is tough to pin down as to where and when thought patterns evolved and adapted from earlier patterns. But it is not difficult to clearly state what is KNOWN and differentiate it from what is UNKNOWN, even for a mass consumption pop-sci article.
I took it as saying that this represents the oldest known attestation of Odin worship. The inscription "I am Odin's man" certainly would seem to indicate the inscriber (or person who hired the inscriber) saw himself as subservient to Odin.

The article says that it sets the *known* date of Odin worship to be *at least* 150 years earlier than previously *known*. That's not saying they had previously thought it had started in the last half of the 6th century and now they think it started 150 earlier. That "at least" says this is the earliest we know of, but it could be even earlier than that - which I think is what you're also saying, unless I'm misunderstanding you.
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#190

Post by keith »

Yeah, I think you got what I said right, but I think I read the article wrong too.

Mea culpa.
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#191

Post by Kriselda Gray »

keith wrote: Thu Mar 09, 2023 1:51 am Yeah, I think you got what I said right, but I think I read the article wrong too.

Mea culpa.
It's all good :)
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#192

Post by Liz »

What is it?
Two thousand-year-old object found at Roman fort in Northumberland in 1992 has been reassessed by archaeologists.
Theory 1 - 1992. A darning tool.
Theory 2 - Sun 19 Feb 2023. A sexual implement used for pleasure or torture.
Theory 3. - " " " . Part of a statue which passersby would touch for good luck.
Theory 4. - Sun 26 Feb 2023. A type of drop spindle.

Image

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... ildo-found

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... op-spindle

6.3 inches... it's a dildo.
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#193

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... tery-leeds
Skeletal remains of a Roman aristocrat have been unearthed in a “truly extraordinary” hidden cemetery dating back 1,600 years.

Bones belonging to the high-status woman were discovered in an ancient lead coffin during a dig in the town of Garforth, near Leeds.

Archaeologists said the “once in a lifetime” find could help unlock secrets of a period spanning from the fall of the Roman empire in AD400 to the beginnings of the Anglo-Saxon era.

David Hunter, the principal archaeologist with West Yorkshire Joint Services, said: “This has the potential to be a find of massive significance for what we understand about the development of ancient Britain and Yorkshire.”

Unusually for an ancient cemetery, the remains found in Garforth belonged to people from the late Roman and the early Saxon eras. The skeleton of the late Roman aristocratic woman was found alongside the remains of 60 men, women and children from the two periods.
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#194

Post by RTH10260 »

moved as suggested below ;)

I only did see something "old" and "recovered from the earth" and according to Young Earther their deity used these critters as transport :bag:
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#195

Post by keith »

archae·ology
[ˌɑːkɪˈɒlədʒi]
NOUN
the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artefacts and other physical remains.
palae·on·tology
[ˌpalɪɒnˈtɒlədʒi, ˌpeɪlɪɒnˈtɒlədʒi]
NOUN
paleontology (noun)
the branch of science concerned with fossil animals and plants.
Sorry. I'm a little crusty today after the results.
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#196

Post by RTH10260 »

H/T 8-)
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#197

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pictures in the article
Zodiac symbols uncovered on 1,800-year-old temple ceiling in Egypt. Take a look inside

Aspen Pflughoeft
Mon, March 20, 2023 at 7:50 PM GMT+1

Soot and grime slowly accumulated on the ceiling of an ancient Egyptian temple. The once-vibrant and colorful decorations became increasingly obscured as centuries of apathy stretched into millennia of neglect. Not anymore.

The Temple of Esna, also known as the Temple of Khnum, has stood in Esna, Egypt, since the Roman era, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a Sunday, March 19, news release. The temple is being restored by a joint team of Egyptian and German archaeologists from the University of Tübingen.

Construction of the temple began in 186 B.C. and finished around 250 A.D. All that remains of the structure is a grand hall with 24 columns, officials said.

The Temple of Esna was dedicated to the ancient Egyptian deity, Khnum, believed to have created humans on a pottery wheel, Lonely Planet reported.

Every available surface of the temple — from the base of the columns to the ceiling 50 feet above — is covered in inscriptions, carvings and painted designs, the University of Tübingen said in a news release about the project.

Archaeologists uncovered a complete series of 12 zodiac symbols on the ceiling of the 1,800-year-old temple, Egyptian officials said. The unique astrological designs were painted on a pale blue background, photos show.

Two red figures, mirroring each other and holding hands, represent the Gemini sign, photos show. A yellow scorpion surrounded by white stars represents the Scorpio sign, and a two-faced centaur-like creature with a bow and arrow represents Sagittarius.




https://www.yahoo.com/news/zodiac-symbo ... 32984.html
(original: Miami Herald)
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#198

Post by Liz »

The Shaman's Secrets The Shaman's Secrets
1934 Germany. Workers digging a trench find grave from 9,000 years ago.
Local archaeologists say that the grave is a Neolithic farmer.
Nazi party says a white man from the Neolithic, an ur-Aryan
1950's - It's a Mesolithic woman. pelvis shape and other bones.
The copious grave goods—in addition to the antler headdress, blades, mussel shells, and boar tusks there were hundreds of other artifacts, including boars’ teeth, turtle shells, and bird bones—clearly marked the burial as special. The flints and other finds were firmly rooted in the world of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who lived between 12,000 and 6,000 years ago, rather than the more agrarian Neolithic farmers in the following period. That dating, too, deepened the mystery. The few Mesolithic graves that had been unearthed in Europe contained a flint blade or two, at most. In comparison, the Bad Dürrenberg grave was uniquely rich for the period.
Late 1970's - Radiocarbon test dates bones at 9,000 years old.
At the time, radiocarbon dating required a large amount of bone, and the woman’s right femur was almost entirely obliterated in the process. Today, it takes less than 1/25 of an ounce of bone powder to establish a date.
DNA analysis conducted by geneticist Wolfgang Haak of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology confirmed that the shaman was female, as had first been suggested by researchers in the 1950s, and added color to her portrait. Genes for skin pigmentation and hair and eye color showed she was probably dark-skinned, dark-haired, and light-eyed, a far cry from the blond Aryan man imagined by the original excavators.
The baby, the researchers found, was a boy. believes that the Bad Dürrenberg burial is proof that human spirituality became more specialized at this time, too, with specific people in the community delegated to interact with the spirit world, often with the help of trances or psychoactive substances. Combined with the earlier analysis of the woman’s grave, the team’s new finds and meticulous look at her bones painted a more complete picture of the shaman. They conjectured that, from an early age, she had been singled out as different from other members of her community. Even in death, her unusually rich grave marked her as exceptional. Earlier scholars, including Grünberg, had speculated that she was a shaman who served as an intermediary between her community and the spirit world, and Meller says that the new finds prove it beyond a doubt.
... the baby was not hers... they were 2nd cousins or maybe she was the great great grandmother.
In her role as a shaman, the woman would have interceded with supernatural powers on behalf of the sick and injured or to ensure success in the hunt. “You travel in other worlds on behalf of your people with the help of your spirit animal,” says Meller. Just as some people in the Mesolithic specialized in fishing or carving, the Bad Dürrenberg woman specialized in accessing the spirit world. “She must have had talents or skills that were highly esteemed in society,” Jöris says.
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A leg bone of a crane (top) fashioned into a container for tiny flint blades (middle) as well as bone points (above) were included in the unique array of grave goods buried with the shaman.

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An impressive selection of grave goods including roe deer antlers (top) that could have been worn as a headdress and boars’ teeth (middle) and tusks (above) with holes drilled in them enabling them to be suspended from an animal skin were found in a 9,000-year-old shaman’s burial.
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Kriselda Gray
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Post by Kriselda Gray »

Very interesting - thank you!
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roadscholar
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Very. :thumbsup:
The bitterest truth is more wholesome than the sweetest lie.
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