1500 Year Old Shaman Sculpture Found Guarding Intact Tomb

From The Mail Online

Ancient shaman discovered in Mexican tomb: 1,500-year-old sculpture found guarding bodies in underground shaft

• The tomb, complete with the figure, was uncovered by archaeologists in the city of Villa de Alverez in Colima, Mexico
• Six pots of different sizes and human bones were found in the underground burial chamber along with the figure, which measures around 20 inches
• Few of the statues have been found intact as many have fallen victim to grave robbers in the region

The sculpture has a long face and holds a weapon to guard the shaft tomb which was covered over by slabs of volcanic rock. Six pots of different sizes (pictured) were also recovered

By Sarah Griffiths
PUBLISHED: 12:49 EST, 14 March 2014 | UPDATED: 13:18 EST, 14 March 2014 

He has been guarding a tomb for over 1,500 years.
And only now have a team of archaeologists come across a shaman sculpture in an underground burial chamber in the state of Colima, Mexico.
It is unusual to find one of the statues intact as many have fallen victim to tomb raiders over the centuries.
The sculpture has a long face and holds a weapon - probably an axe - to guard the shaft tomb which was covered over by slabs of volcanic rock.
It was uncovered by archaeologists at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) who have become the first people to see the sculpture in hundreds of years.
Archaeologist Marco Zavaleta explained that the model was found in the entrance of an underground funerary space in Villa de Alverez.
'With regards to the figure of the shaman, he was found upright and is holding some kind of weapon, probably an axe. He was placed exactly at the entrance, towards the crypt. He is some kind of a guardian of the main character deposited inside the shaft tomb,' he said.
Sites nearby have recently revealed burials of around 35 adults and three infants in cists - small stone coffin-like boxes or used to hold bodies from a slightly later period.
The square shaft, which is around one-and-a-half metres deep, is thought to date to between 300 AD and 600AD and leads to an underground vault measuring approximately two metres squared, containing bones of either one or two individuals, physical anthropologist Rosa Maria Flores Ramirez explained.
They could have been moved to the sides of the vault to make way for another individual who was found lying on his back, who was presumably buried slightly later.

Other shaman figures discovered from the time are less stylised and more representative of the ancient people, some of whom practiced cranial deformation to elongate their heads.
It is believed that burials of this kind belonged to elite members of society as only richer people had the resources to fund such constructions.
Dogs were also buried with important people at the time as a guide to the underworld for the deceased and archaeologists have recovered what they think are dog’s teeth from the Villa de Alverez site, hinting that those laid to rest there were of high social standing.

Interesting Petroglyphs Uncovered in Veracruz State, Mexico

Shaman and "dancing figure."  Being too cautious!  They're both representing the same thing, methinks.  And those spirals - spirals all over!  Yeah, but -- it's just coincidence, right, that the same exact symbols are found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.  Right? 

Rock slab covered in spiral petroglyphs. Image: Maria Eugenia Maldonado / INAH

At Past Horizons

Shaman petroglyph recorded in Veracruz

Article created on Wednesday, April 24, 2013

A set of petroglyphs including one which depicts a priest or “wise man” has been recorded by archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). These rock cut images were found on the slopes of Cerro del Bonnet in the Mexican state of Veracruz.

The pecked stone petroglyphs are thought to be about 500 years old and were discovered in January 2013 by members of the local farming community.

The priest or shamanic figure measures 1.40 m high by 50 cm wide. He is represented with his eye closed and mouth open and wears a zoomorphic helmet with a cape and underskirt decorated with triangles, a girdle and ankle bracelets and an ear plug. Around him there are symbols related to divination and astronomical elements and near the top of the stone there are two concentric circles that could have held a chalchihuitl (precious green stone – Literally “Heart of the Earth”).

Dancing figure, (left) with a circular earplug wearing a long flapping loincloth. Shaman figure (right) surrounded by symbols related to the divination and astronomy. Images: Maria Eugenia Maldonado / INAH

A constellation?

On a higher slab, lies a further though much cruder anthropomorphic figure (50 cm high by 20 cm wide) facing to the right. This time, depicted with mouth and eye open and also wearing an ear plug, the figure seems to be dancing as the máxtlatl (loincloth) lifts up at the front.
Unlike the shaman, this figure is schematically drawn. No hands are represented and the feet seem to be wearing shoes. It is possible that this figure represents a constellation rather than a human being.

Unknown meaning

One of the final elements on the petroglyph panels is a spiral whose terminal is intersected by a rough horizontal line which in turn is cut by a vertical line that divides into two lines ending in what has been suggested to represent a flower or leaf.

Although the iconographic style of the petroglyphs is not known in the Huasteca region, the symbols appear to be reinterpretations of known elements used by agricultural cultures, such as the zoomorphic helmet character which is reminiscent of the Teayo Castle sculptures, or the “Lord of Death” monolith discovered in the Las Flores Cinco Poblados.

“An important aspect to investigate is the location and function of all possible petroglyphs, because by observing the horizon and solar events it may represent a means of marking events in the agricultural year. “added archaeologist Maria Eugenia Maldonado.

“The study of petroglyphs in the region is still in it’s infancy, but becoming more important for understanding the cosmology and beliefs of the societies that inhabited this area. Such findings contribute to increasing knowledge of the cultural development of the Huasteca Veracruzana“, Maldonado concluded.

Source: INAH

Was Jesus a Shape Shifter?

I wouldn't be surprised that Jesus was a shape-shifter, but I don't think Rome would be very happy to acknowledge such tales, as it would place Jesus Christ in a long line of predecessor and contemporaneous priestesses, priests and shamans (female and male) who could, reputedly, do the same.  What would make Jesus special then, hmmm, if pagan practitioners could do the same thing...  And yet canonical biblical accounts recount that, especially after his resurrection from the dead, that many of Jesus' closest followers, including Mary Magdalene, did not recognize him as Jesus until he spoke!  What's up with that?

From science.nbcnews.com

1,200-year-old Egyptian text describes a shape-shifting Jesus
March 12, 2013

By Owen JarusLiveScience
A newly deciphered Egyptian text, dating back almost 1,200 years, tells part of the crucifixion story of Jesus with apocryphal plot twists, some of which have never been seen before.

Written in the Coptic language, the ancient text tells of Pontius Pilate, the judge who authorized Jesus' crucifixion, having dinner with Jesus before his crucifixion and offering to sacrifice his own son in the place of Jesus. It also explains why Judas used a kiss, specifically, to betray Jesus — because Jesus had the ability to change shape, according to the text — and it puts the day of the arrest of Jesus on Tuesday evening rather than Thursday evening, something that contravenes the Easter timeline.

The discovery of the text doesn't mean these events happened, but rather that some people living at the time appear to have believed in them, said Roelof van den Broek of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who published the translation in the book "Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem on the Life and the Passion of Christ" (Brill, 2013).

Copies of the text are found in two manuscripts, one in the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City and the other at the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Most of the translation comes from the New York text, because the relevant text in the Pennsylvania manuscript is mostly illegible.

PontiusPilate has dinner with JesusWhile apocryphal stories about Pilate are known from ancient times, van den Broek wrote in an email to LiveScience that he has never seen this one before, with Pilate offering to sacrifice his own son in the place of Jesus.

"Without further ado, Pilate prepared a table and he ate with Jesus on the fifth day of the week. And Jesus blessed Pilate and his whole house," reads part of the text in translation. Pilate later tells Jesus, "well then, behold, the night has come, rise and withdraw, and when the morning comes and they accuse me because of you, I shall give them the only son I have so that they can kill him in your place."

In the text, Jesus comforts him, saying, "Oh Pilate, you have been deemed worthy of a great grace because you have shown a good disposition to me." Jesus also showed Pilate that he can escape if he chose to. "Pilate, then, looked at Jesus and, behold, he became incorporeal: He did not see him for a long time ..." the text read.

Pilate and his wife both have visions that night that show an eagle (representing Jesus) being killed.
In the Coptic and Ethiopian churches, Pilate is regarded as a saint, which explains the sympathetic portrayal in the text, van den Broek writes.

The reason for Judas using a kissIn the canonical Bible ]not put together by "God" but by men], the apostle Judas betrays Jesus in exchange for money by using a kiss to identify him leading to Jesus' arrest. This apocryphal tale explains that the reason Judas used a kiss, specifically, is because Jesus had the ability to change shape.

"Then the Jews said to Judas: How shall we arrest him (Jesus), for he does not have a single shape but his appearance changes. Sometimes he is ruddy, sometimes he is white, sometimes he is red, sometimes he is wheat coloured, sometimes he is pallid like ascetics, sometimes he is a youth, sometimes an old man ..." This leads Judas to suggest using a kiss as a means to identify him. If Judas had given the arresters a description of Jesus he could have changed shape. By kissing Jesus, Judas tells the people exactly who he is.

This understanding of Judas' kiss goes way back. "This explanation of Judas' kiss is first found in Origen (a theologian who lived A.D. 185-254)," van den Broek writes. In his work "Contra Celsum," the ancient writer Origen stated that "to those who saw him (Jesus) he did not appear alike to all." [This mirrors one of the apostle's accounts of Jesus rising from the tomb, when Mary Magdalene, having gone to the tomb to annoint Jesus's body with herbs, found the tomb empty and, hysterical, ran from the tomb in tears, saw a "stranger" whom she did not recognize, and then he said Mary, do you not recognize me?  And it was only then that she did recognize him - as Jesus Christ.]

St. Cyril impersonationThe text is written in the name of St. Cyril of Jerusalem who lived during the fourth century. In the story Cyril tells the Easter story as part of a homily (a type of sermon). A number of texts in ancient times claim to be homilies by St. Cyril, and they were probably not given by the saint in real life, van den Broek explained in his book.

Near the beginning of the text, Cyril, or the person writing in his name, claims that a book has been found in Jerusalem showing the writings of the apostles on the life and crucifixion of Jesus. "Listen to me, oh my honored children, and let me tell you something of what we found written in the house of Mary ..." reads part of the text.

Again, it's unlikely that such a book was found in real life. Van den Broek said that a claim like this would have been used by the writer "to enhance the credibility of the peculiar views and uncanonical facts he is about to present by ascribing them to an apostolic source," adding that examples of this plot device can be found "frequently" in Coptic literature. [Well, I'm not so ready to dismiss that this book did not once exist, but was destroyed, and all memory but for a few whisps disappeared.]

Arrest on Tuesday
Van den Broek says that he is surprised that the writer of the text moved the date of Jesus' Last Supper, with the apostles, and arrest to Tuesday. In fact, in this text, Jesus' actual Last Supper appears to be with Pontius Pilate. In between his arrest and supper with Pilate, he is brought before Caiaphas and Herod. [So what? Pilate was not one of the TWELVE apostles, so what he did with Pilate doesn't count in the eyes of Roman Catholic tradition Christians.  Ask yourself why Coptic and Eastern tradition Christians believe differently. And whose tradition is closest to the truth, if indeed, there is any truth to be found in the canonical biblical narrative?]

In the canonical texts, the last supper and arrest of Jesus happens on Thursday evening, and present-day Christians mark this event with Maundy Thursday services. It "remains remarkable that Pseudo-Cyril relates the story of Jesus' arrest on Tuesday evening as if the canonical story about his arrest on Thursday evening (which was commemorated each year in the services of Holy Week) did not exist!" van den Broek wrote in the email.

A gift to a monastery ... and then to New YorkAbout 1,200 years ago the New York text was in the library of the Monastery of St. Michael in the Egyptian desert near present-day al-Hamuli in the western part of the Faiyum. The text says, in translation, that it was a gift from "archpriest Father Paul," who, "has provided for this book by his own labors."
The monastery appears to have ceased operations around the early 10th century, and the text was rediscovered in the spring of 1910. In December 1911, it was purchased, along with other texts, by American financier J.P. Morgan. His collections would later be given to the public and are part of the present-day Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. The manuscript is currently displayed as part of the museum's exhibition "Treasures from the Vault" running through May 5.

Who believed it? Van den Broek writes in the email that "in Egypt, the Bible had already become canonized in the fourth/fifthcentury, but apocryphal stories and books remained popular among the Egyptian Christians, especially among monks."

Whereas the people of the monastery would have believed the newly translated text, "in particular the more simple monks," he's not convinced that the writer of the text believed everything he was writing down, van den Broek said.

"I find it difficult to believe that he really did, but some details, for instance the meal with Jesus, he may have believed to have really happened," van den Broek writes. "The people of that time, even if they were well-educated, did not have a critical historical attitude. Miracles were quite possible, and why should an old story not be true?"

Likely Shaman's Stones Date to 2800-2000 BCE

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

4,000-year-old shaman's stones discovered near Boquete, Panama

Archaeologists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama have discovered a cluster of 12 unusual stones in the back of a small, prehistoric rock-shelter near the town of Boquete. The cache represents the earliest material evidence of shamanistic practice in lower Central America.

Ruth Dickau, Leverhulme Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Exeter in England, unearthed the cache of stones in the Casita de Piedra rock-shelter in 2007. A piece of charcoal found directly underneath the cache was radiocarbon dated to 4,800 years ago. A second fragment of charcoal in a level above the cache was dated to 4,000 years ago.

"There was no evidence of a disturbance or pit feature to suggest someone had come along, dug a hole and buried the stones at a later date," Dickau said. "The fact that the stones were found in a tight pile suggests they were probably deposited inside a bag or basket, which subsequently decomposed."

Based on the placement and the unusual composition of the stones in the cache, Richard Cooke, STRI staff scientist, suggested they were used by a shaman or healer. Consulting geologist Stewart Redwood determined that the cache consists of a small dacite stone fashioned into a cylindrical tool; a small flake of white, translucent quartz; a bladed quartz and jarosite aggregate; a quartz crystal aggregate; several pyrite nodules that showed evidence of use; a small, worn and abraded piece of chalcedony; a magnetic andesite flake; a large chalcedony vein stone; and a small magnetic kaolinite stone naturally eroded into an unusual shape, similar to a flower.

"A fascinating aspect of this find is that these are not ordinary stones but are rocks and crystals commonly associated with gold deposits in the Central Cordillera of Panama and Central America," Redwood said. "However, there are no gold artifacts in the rock-shelter, and there's no evidence that the stones were collected in the course of gold prospecting as the age of the cache pre-dates the earliest known gold artifacts from Panama by more than 2,000 years. But the collector of the stones clearly had an eye for unusual stones and crystals with a special significance whose meaning is lost to us."

Indigenous groups who lived near this site include the Ngäbe, Buglé, Bribri, Cabécar and the now-extinct Dorasque peoples. Shamans or healers (curanderos) belonging to these and other present-day First Americans in Central and South America often include special stones among the objects they use for ritual practices. Stones containing crystal structures are linked to transformative experiences in many of their stories.

Anthony Ranere, from Temple University in Philadelphia, first identified and excavated Casita de Piedra in an archaeological survey of western Panama in the early 1970s. He found that the small rock-shelter had been repeatedly occupied over thousands of years and used for a variety of domestic activities such as food processing and cooking, stone-tool manufacture and retouch, and possibly woodworking. Dickau returned to the site to expand excavations from December 2006 to January 2007.

Dickau's group radiocarbon dated charcoal from the base levels of the shelter and discovered it was first occupied more than 9,000 years ago, much earlier than Ranere originally proposed. Her research also showed that the people who would have benefitted from the shaman's knowledge practiced small-scale farming of maize, manioc and arrowroot, and collected palm nuts, tree fruits and wild tubers. They also probably hunted and fished in the nearby hills and streams, but the humid soils in the shelter destroyed any evidence of animal bones. Other Preceramic peoples in Panama who lived in small, dispersed communities across the isthmus by 4,000 years ago commonly practiced these activities.

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For further information click article title for link back.  I confess to being totally confused looking at the photograph of the stones.  I can see nine different stones quite easily, but when it comes to looking at the cluster of stones at the right hand side, which are the other three stones that make up "12 unusual stones?"  Just one of those things I will never know, I guess. 

Of course when I saw the photograph of the stones and saw the word "shaman" I immediately thought of divination rituals and how they lead the ancients to gradually invent board games using stones, boards scratched into the dirt or on convenient rocks.  Think about the ancient Egyptian game of Senet, for instance.  It was a symbolic work-out  of the soul of a deceased person playing with the help of good gods and against the obstacles of bad gods that were interposed between the soul and the Land of the Dead that lay, traditionally, in the western desert, ruled over by a powerful goddess.  If the soul was successful in his (or her) play, it entered into the peaceful land of the dead.  In many cultures, in fact, the earliest goddesses were goddesses of death/rebirth who sometimes ruled over a land in the west, often called the land of the dead. 

So, around about the time that the Egyptian game of Senet was taking hold in ancient Egypt and displacing a far older game called MHN ("Mehen"), which some games scholars suggest was a game of lions and marbles racing around the back of a serpent (oh, really?), in this cave in Boquete half a world away, someone's stones were left behind.  I wonder - why - and how did they come to be there?  These would have been incredibly valuable and meaningful objects to their owner! 

Is the Lion a Lioness After All???

Thank you, Der Spiegel, so much, for this article!  I can't believe how blind these researchers are!

12/09/2011

Is the Lion Man a Woman?

Solving the Mystery of a 35,000-Year-Old Statue

By Matthias Schulz

Using a hand hoe and working in dim light, geologist Otto Völzing burrowed into the earth deep inside the Stadel cave in the Schwäbische Alb mountains of southwestern Germany. His finds were interesting to be sure, but nothing world-shaking: flints and the remnants of food eaten by prehistoric human beings.

Suddenly he struck a hard object -- and splintered a small statuette.

It was 1939 and Völzing didn't have much time. He had just been called up to serve in the military and World War II was about to begin. He quickly packed the pieces into a box and the excavation, which was being financed by the SS, was terminated on the same day.

The Lion Man found in the Stadel cave. The Paleolithic figurine, carved out of mammoth ivory, was found on the eve of World War I. Archeologists have been puzzling over its meaning ever since. Indeed, they haven't even decided on its gender. But new pieces found recently may help researchers solve the mystery.

For the next 30 years, little heed was paid to the pieces. But then, they were reassembled to create one of the most impressive sculptures of the Paleolithic Age.

Called the Lion Man, it is fashioned from the tusk of a mammoth and stands about 30 centimeters (12 inches) tall. Its creator polished it with saliva and leather -- and an experiment showed that it likely took the sculptor about 320 hours to carve the figure.

Copies of the famous ice age treasure are now on display in New York and Tokyo. The original, however, is heavily damaged -- and no one knows exactly what it looks like. Many fragments were overlooked in the cave when the prewar dig was so abruptly terminated. The figure achieved its current form in 1988. It consists of 220 parts, but about 30 percent of the body is still missing. Large segments of the surface have broken off.

The poor condition of the figurine has only made it more mysterious. Is it meant to represent a mythical creature, or a shaman hiding under an animal hide? Are the six stripes on the left upper arm meant to depict scarification marks or something else? And what was on the right arm, which is missing?

The genitalia are also unrecognizable. German archeologist and Upper Paleolithic expert Joachim Hahn has interpreted the small plate on the abdomen as a "penis in a hanging position." Elisabeth Schmid, a paleontologist, classified it as a pubic triangle.

It was the beginning of a bitter dispute over the gender of the small idol that erupted in the 1980s and continues to this day. The statue has been made into an "icon of the women's movement," says Kurt Wehrberger of the Ulm Museum, the owner of the precious object.

Those who believe that the Lion Man is in fact a woman are convinced that primitive societies were matriarchal. They contend that women of the period, instead of standing obediently by the cooking fire and watching over the children, hunted mammoths and set the tone when it came to rituals and the priesthood. But is this true?

The debate remains undecided today. But that could soon change, now that new fragments of the Lion Man have turned up.

The new discoveries came after archeologists once again turned their attention to the Stadel cave. They sifted through all of the rubble from 1939, explains excavator Claus-Joachim Kind -- and the results were sensational. "We found about 1,000 pieces, which presumably belong to the statue," Kind says.

Some of the fragments are tiny, only a few square millimeters in size, but the cache also includes pieces as long as a finger.

The figurine will be taken to the State Conservation Office in Esslingen, near Stuttgart, where it will be completely taken apart. The old glue joints will be dissolved and the filler made of beeswax and chalk, which was used as a placeholder, will be removed.

Then the statue will be reassembled piece by piece, a task that those involved await with great anticipation. "We will soon be able to view the most mysterious work of art from (the southwestern German state of) Baden-Württemberg in its original form," Kind hopes.

Already it is clear that the figurine will become a few centimeters taller due to new neck pieces that have been found. Furthermore, the gaping hole in the back can now be plugged, and the right arm has been found in its entirety. Additional decorations, including raised dots and strange-looking lines, have come to light.

These new revelations offer a greater insight into the mind of the prehistoric sculptor, who created the figure about 35,000 years ago. His ancestors had migrated to Europe, which had been controlled by the Neanderthals, shortly before.

The statue was found near traces of a fire site in a niche 27 meters (89 feet) from the mouth of the cave. When Kind was working at the site, he also found a decorated deer's tooth, the incisors of an arctic fox and ivory beads. The items could have been pieces from a decorative robe. Perhaps the niche served as a shaman's changing room.

It is considered likely that prehistoric sorcerers wore furs as costumes when they celebrated rituals around the campfire. Hybrid creatures -- half-man, half-beast -- also appear in cave drawings in France.

It would seem that the shamans' preferred costumes were the hides of the more dangerous representatives of Ice Age fauna. The cave lion weighed more than 250 kilograms (550 lbs.); one swipe of its giant paw would have been enough. A human being holding what looks like a musical instrument is depicted in a cave in the foothills of the Pyrenees. The figure is wearing the hide of a bison, an 800-kilogram colossus that was not to be trifled with. Perhaps hunters hoped to acquire the animal's strength and even take possession of its soul through masquerade and dance.

Studies about primitive peoples in Siberia suggest how these rites might have proceeded. Even into the modern age, their shamans wore antlers on their heads. There are similar accounts involving the Blackfeet Indians in North America. Their healers hopped around under bearskins to the sound of drums.

The Lion Man is standing on tiptoes. He, too, seems to be dancing.

But who is hidden underneath the robe? From time immemorial, the lion has been viewed as a symbol of the masculine virtues of courage and strength. Shamans still exist today in the Amazon region and Australia. Most are men.

On the other hand, the statuette has some perplexing features. The navel, a symbol of childbirth, is especially pronounced. A horizontal crease runs across the lower abdomen, a feature that is typically female.

Paleontologist Schmid believes that the figure once had breasts, which eventually broke off. According to Schmid, the transition from the thighs to the buttocks is also indicative of a female body. She made a model out of modeling clay, which is now in a safe in Ulm. It depicts the Lion Man with an ample bosom.

Many scholars dismissed the jarring replica as nonsense at the time. Nevertheless, there is at least one piece of evidence to support Schmid's theory. An image of a 14,000-year-old human body with an animal head discovered in the Las Caldas cave in Spain is obviously female. The head looks like that of an ibex, while the lower part of the body features female genitalia.

Does this mean that female shamans did exist? Were women in charge of the religion of our ancestors? The new finds could solve the mystery once and for all. Hundreds of tiny ivory fragments will have to be pieced together to create a statue that experts estimate will contain 20 percent more of its original material.

According to one of the excavators, there is also sufficient fragmentary material to reconstruct the genitalia. "We'll figure out the gender," he says.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan.

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Oh please!  This is a lioness.  If it was a male LION, where the hell is the mane?

Yes, it is probably meant to represent a shaman's robe and yes, there were plenty of female shamans "back in the day." Those female shamans didn't spring out of nowhere!  There is archaeological evidence for female shamans and either the author of this article was unaware of that evidence or was being deliberately "coy" - which totally sucks if that's the case.

If you accept current archaeological theory about how so-called "modern human" population spread out of Africa, one of the major "arrow" of movement was across Asia from the west to the east, where people eventually ended up against the Pacific Ocean.  As those people moved, they took along with them their beliefs and customs.  Duh!  I know there is archeological evidence for female shamans in Sibera, along the western coast of Russia, northeastern China and I think in Korea and Japan, too -- I've posted about these discoveries at this blog. 

As for the article's emphasis on the figurine's "genetalia," honestly, are we so penis-focused today that we can't see a Delta for the trees?  Geez Louise! 

There are two "configurations" the experts interviewed in the Der Spiegel article did not consider:

(1)  A female shaman wearing a lioness' skin and a "jock strap" in the shape of an enlarged "delta" to signifiy both a vagina and a penis - you know - the sacred union.

(2)  A male shaman wearing a lioness' skin and a delta-shaped "jock strap" in the shape of an enlarged "delta" over his penis to signify both a vagina and a penis - you know - the sacred union. 

Come on, people, this is Archaeology 101.  Throw out your preconceptions, open up your mind, think outside the box! 

4300 Year Old "Dancing Shaman" Jomon Carving

Absolutely fascinating.  I could not find a larger image - it has feathers on it's head and holds some kind of object in its left hand.  Could it be a female shaman???

This is an English translation of an original Japanese language article, found at The Mainichi Daily News online.  What I do not understand is how, since this pottery shard was discovered in 1993, it wasn't until last month - LAST FRICKING MONTH? - that an unidentified "worker" discovered the carving on the pottery shard.  Amazing, absolutely amazing. 

Ancient pottery shard in Aomori found to hold carving of dancing shaman
July 9, 2011

A carving of a dancing shaman has been found on an ancient pottery shard unearthed years ago at an archaeological site in Aomori, making it possibly the oldest depiction of a shaman on an artifact uncovered in Japan.

"It is speculated to be a shaman with a ritual tool in hand, praying and dancing. It is a very valuable find," says Michio Okamura, chairman of an expedition committee for the site.

The shard was uncovered in 1993 from an earth mound near the center of the Sannai-Maruyama archaeological site in the city of Aomori. The shard has been dated to the middle Jomon period, around 4,300 years ago. Last month, a worker noticed that there was a carving of a human on it.

The shard is around eight centimeters tall and six centimeters wide, and the shaman depicted is dancing with a tool in hand and feathers decorating the top of the head, according to Aomori Prefecture's department of protection for cultural properties. The shaman carving is around four centimeters tall and three centimeters wide, and is thought to have been carved with a stick-like object around one millimeter in diameter.

According to the department, depictions of people and expressions of movement are both rare on Jomon pottery. The shard will be on public display at a museum situated next to the Sannai-Maruyama site from July 9 to Nov. 20.

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Perhaps the "carved in" figure on the shard was not spotted because it was so small?  It measures a mere four centimeters tall and three centimeters wide or about 1.58 inches tall and 1.18 inches wide. I guess I shouldn't be so critical - but really, didn't the original excavators take a good look at the shards they excavated back in 1993?  We have known for the past 50-60 years (at least), and I assume this has been taught to the last few generations of would-be archaeologists that the smallest mark could have the most incredible meaning...

Just by way of comparison, the Butrint chess piece was about 1.5 inches tall.

Latest on 12,000 Year Old Female Shaman Burial in Israel

Prior posts:

Earliest known shaman grave site found
Tuesday, Nov 04, 2008

More on the Female Shaman Burial
Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Isis sent me the update. Thanks, 'Sis. From Discovery Channel News iphone app:

World's First Feast: Beef, Turtles and a Dead Shaman

Anthropologists have unearthed the leftovers of the world's first known organized feast, which took place around 12,000 years ago at a burial site in Israel, according to a new study.  Based on the findings, approximately 35 guests ate meat from 71 tortoises and at least three wild cattle while attending this first known human-orchestrated event involving food.

The discovery additionally provides the earliest known compelling evidence for a shaman burial, the apparent reason for the feasting. A shaman is an individual who performs rituals and engages in other practices for healing or divination.

In this case, the shaman was a woman.

"I wasn't surprised that the shaman was a woman, because women have often taken on shamanistic roles as healers, magicians and spiritual leaders in societies across the globe," lead author Natalie Munro told Discovery News.

Munro, a University of Connecticut anthropologist, and colleague Leore Grosman of Hebrew University in Jerusalem excavated and studied the shaman's skeleton and associated feasting remains. These were found at the burial site, Hilazon Tachtit cave, located about nine miles west of the Sea of Galilee in Israel.

According to the study, published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the grave consisted of an oval-shaped basin that was intentionally cut into the cave's floor.

"After the oval was excavated, the sides and bottom of the floor were lined with stone slabs lined and plastered with clay brought into the cave from outside," said Munro.

The 71 tortoise shells, previously butchered for meat removal, were found situated under, around and on top of the remains of the woman. The woman's skeleton indicates she suffered from deformities that would have possibly made her limp and "given her an unnatural, asymmetrical appearance." A large triangular stone slab was placed over the grave to seal it.

Bones from at least three butchered aurochs -- large ancestors of today's domestic cattle -- were unearthed in a nearby hollow. An auroch's tail, a wild boar forearm, a leopard pelvis and two marten skulls were also found.  The total amount of meat could have fed 35 people, but it is possible that many more attended the event.

"These remains attest to the unique position of this individual within her community and to her special relationship with the animal world," Munro said.

Before this discovery, other anthropologists had correctly predicted that early feasting might have occurred just prior to the dawn of agriculture.  Harvard's Ofer Bar-Yosef, for example, found that fig trees were being domesticated in the Near East about 11,400 years ago, making them the first known domesticated crop. Staples such as wheat, barley and legumes were domesticated in the region roughly a thousand years later. Full-scale agriculture occurred later, about 10,000 years ago.

As agriculture began, however, "there was a critical switch in the human mind: from exploiting the earth as it is to actively changing the environment to suit our needs," Bar-Yosef said.

Munro agrees and thinks the change could help to explain the advent of communal feasting.

"People were coming into contact with each other a lot, and that can create friction," she said. "Before, they could get up and leave when they had problems with the neighbors. Now, these public events served as community-building opportunities, which helped to relieve tensions and solidify social relationships."

Shaman Tomb Discovered in Peru

Wow. It seems like Peru is in the archaeological news at least once a week. Note that two burials are reported in this article. More news from enperublog.com: Tomb of 800 year old shaman discovered January 23, 2010 Curandero – witch-doctor or medicine-man in English, but the most direct translation is healer. The tradition of the curanderos still runs strong in the Muchik northern coast of La Libertad and Lambayeque, particularly around Chiclayo. The traditions and techniques of theses healers date back to pre-Colombian times and the the civilisations of the Chimú, Sicán and the Moche before them. Archaeologists have recently been given a glimpse into this period of time with the discovery of the 800 year old tomb of a Sicán curandero. The curandero was found alongside 500 nectandra seeds, considered aphrodisiacs, at the archaeological complex of La Pava de Mochumí near Lambayeque’s Valley of Pyramids near Túcume. The seeds were contained in a ceramic vase that was discovered first and convinced archaeologists to keep digging. They eventually discovered the curandero along with a fan-shaped shell for smoking, mates burilados, textiles, a ceramic jug and a wooden staff. Then then discovered another burial from the same time period, again with objects, such as quartz stone and ceramics, that indicated his relative importance. Director of the Brüning Museum in Lambayeque, Carlos Wester, states that the discoveries of the curandero and the person of medium authority indicate the intense level cultural, artistic, technological and religious activities that were taking place in the Mochumí sector of the vast archaeological region. The curandero, according to experts in pre-Inca Lambayeque, was not only charged with healing, but was also a medium through which to communicated with the gods. Peru has destined 1.5 million soles, about 540,000 dollars, to archaeological investigations in the region which over various centuries was home to the Moche, Chimú and Sicán.