some type of adult girl

bookshelfdreams:

museum-of-artifacts:

The shaman of Bad Dürrenberg are the remains of a 25-35 year old woman, who was burried 8600 to 9000 year ago in Germany. Around her, were the remains of an extraordinary head-dress, made from the bones and teeth of different animals such as deer, wild boar, crane and turtle

I know her! She’s in the Landesmuseum für Früh- und Vorgeschichte in Halle/Saale. Here’s the museum’s article about her on their website. They also made a video series about her (in german but with english subtitles).

One of the many interesting things about her is that she had deformities in her top vertebrae and the base of her skull that would have impacted circulation; blood supply to her brain may have been cut off when she moved her head a certain way, which could have given her very impressive episodes or fits. Of course it’s not known how exactly this impacted her, but it might have included seizures, loss of consciousness, or rapid eye movements. In any case, things that would have been present from birth and look very unusual. Maybe this could be part of the explanation for her spiritual significance; she might have been viewed as being able to communicate with gods or spirits during her episodes. Of course there’s no way to know that for sure. But the amount of grave goods she was buried with definitely suggest that she had a very important role in her society, and continued to be important after her death - some of the grave goods found there were a lot younger than the actual grave. Which suggests that people continued to visit her and bring her things long after her death.

She also lived in very turbulent times, right at the end of the Mesolithic, when highly mobile hunter/gatherers were slowly replaced by sedetiary farmers. She may very well have been one of the last hunter/gatherers.

(via bunjywunjy)