Skeletal Clues of a 9,000-Year-Old Woman Shaman Show How She Induced Ecstatic Behavior During Spiritual Rituals
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Meet the Bad Dürrenberg shaman and how lavish grave goods help us paint a picture of shamanistic practices of the Middle Stone Age.
Jenny Lehmann is an Associate Editor at Discover Magazine who writes articles on microbiology, psychology, neurology, and zoology, and oversees the Piece of Mind column of the print issue.View Full Profile. In 1934, workers digging trenches for sewer construction in Bad Dürrenberg, Germany, made a surprising discovery: a human skeleton adorned with a variety of animal bones and teeth. Experts who visited the site soon after immediately recognized the significance of the finding.
Today, the remains are known as the Bad Dürrenberg shaman, a site that is not only one of the oldest burials in central Germany but also gives a detailed insight into why we believe in her spiritual significance and the lives of hunter-gatherers after the last ice age — all based on the burial objects and an unusual medical condition revealed by her skeleton. The woman, expected to have died around 9,000 years ago between the ages of 30 and 40, was adorned with rare animal parts and tools that were only reserved for special figures within a community. She was not alone in her grave.
Her 6-month-old child was buried alongside her, telling a story of family bonds, prehistoric rituals, sickness, and survival in a changing world. Today, the skeletal remains of the Bad Dürrenberg shaman and the extraordinary burial objects that accompanied her are displayed at the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle, Germany. A diversity of animal bones and teeth, such as turtle shells, mussels, a deer skull, and bird and boar bones, was buried alongside her, hinting at an elaborate headpiece and decorative adornments that she may have worn during her lifetime.
Based on the variety and amount of artifacts, experts believe she was not just a hunter of the Mesolithic forests that covered the area after temperatures rose around 11,500 years ago, but also an important spiritual practitioner based on ethnographic comparisons from other burial sites. Another highlight was the discovery of one of the oldest color pencils and remnants of the precious prehistoric red ochre, used for artistic expression in caves and on the skin. But it was not just the objects that were buried with her that link her to this very special role within prehistoric human communities.
After taking a closer look at her skeleton, researchers found malformed vertebrae close to her skull. This anomaly may have made it possible for the woman to induce seizure-like episodes by restricting the blood flow to her brain by tilting her head at a certain angle. This could have manifested as hallucinations, ecstatic eye movements, or unusual tingling sensations, which could be part of shamanistic techniques aiming to connect with the beyond for her community.
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