Remains of 12,000-year-old woman hint she may have had mystical occupation, study says

A rare Neolithic skeleton discovered in Turkey may have belonged to a shaman, new research suggests.

The remains were unearthed in Çemka Höyük, an archaeological site along the Tigris River in southeastern Turkey, in 2019, according to a study published in July in the journal L’Anthropologie.

The “extremely fragile” bones — which belonged to a female — were found inside a circular house structure, which dates to 9300 B.C. Fourteen other remains, belonging to adults and children, were uncovered nearby.

Although road construction had damaged the site, the woman’s remains, which were placed on the floor of the building, remained intact.

Found alongside the woman’s skeleton was an assortment of animal bones, including those belonging to cattle, a canine, a marten and a partridge.

The bones indicate the woman may have been a shaman “or at least had been buried by someone practicing ways associated with what we understand nowadays as animism or shamanism,” researchers said.

The remains, therefore, could represent one of the oldest known shaman burial sites from the Neolithic period in Turkey.

Shamans, who have existed since the Paleolithic period, were religious leaders who were believed capable of communicating with spirits, according to Colloquium Anatolicum, a Turkish archaeology journal.

They were sought out for a number of reasons, including healing purposes, ensuring fruitful hunts and even manipulating the weather.

However, their supposed supernatural capabilities came with a cost, researchers said, according to Newsweek.

They may have been considered “mad” and were ostracized from their communities, the outlet reported.