Human Sacrifice Alive and Well in - Nepal

Holy Hathor!

Nepal arrests 11 in suspected case of human sacrifice

2 hours ago

Police have arrested 11 villagers on charges of murdering a 10-year-old boy in southwestern Nepal, an official said Sunday, in what villagers described as a case of human sacrifice.

 

Local media reports said the father of a sick teenager had last Tuesday lured away the 10-year-old, Jeevan Kohar, with a packet of biscuits and the promise of 50 rupees (50 cents).

 

The suspect then reportedly slit the child's throat on the advice of a shaman (traditional spiritual healer), who said his own son's health would improve if he committed the crime.

 

"We have arrested 11 people, including four women, for murdering a ten-year-old boy," said Nal Prasad Upadhyaya, police superintendent of Nawalparasi district where the incident took place.

 

"All the villagers say the boy was killed in a case of human sacrifice, because the suspects were superstitious and believed in witchcraft," Upadhyaya told AFP.

 

"But we cannot confirm anything until our investigations are completed," he said.

 

According to a report in The Himalayan Times, one of the suspects, who confessed to the crime, believed that his sick child was under the "spell of a ghost" who could only be "pacified with human flesh".

 

Shaman healers and mystics are a common presence in the Himalayan nation, especially in remote villages with poor access to healthcare.xxx

Shaman 'Rainmaking' Center Discovered in South Africa

From Live Science via Yahoo News

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor | LiveScience.com – Fri, May 31, 2013

A towering "rain control" site, where shamans would have asked the gods to open up the skies centuries ago, has been discovered in South Africa.

Photo credit.

Located in a semiarid area of the country, near Botswana and Zimbabwe, the site of Ratho Kroonkop (RKK) sits atop a 1,000-foot-tall (300 meters) hill and contains two naturally formed "rock tanks." These tanks are depressions in the rock created when water weakens the underlying sandstone. When the scientists excavated one of them, they found over 30,000 animal specimens, including the remains of rhinoceros, zebra and even giraffe.

"What makes RKK special is that every piece of faunal material found at RKK can in some way be linked to rain control," researcher Simone Brunton, a doctoral candidate at the University of Cape Town, wrote in an email to LiveScience.

The shamans, or religious leaders, would have ascended to the top of Ratho Kroonkop through natural tunnels (fissures) in the rock. When they reached the top of the hill, they would have lit a fire to burn the animal remains as part of their rainmaking rituals.

The people who conducted these rituals were from the San, an indigenous group in southern Africa who lived as hunter-gatherers. "They were San rain controllers who were employed by the farmers to control the rain," Brunton explained. The farmers, in turn, depended on their chief to make sure this arrangement went smoothly and that they did, in fact, get rain.

Access to the rain-control site would have been strictly controlled.

"The shaman or ritual specialist was usually the only one directly involved with the actual doing of the rituals. It would have been strictly forbidden for normal folks to go near the site," Brunton wrote in her email. The site "was placed away from society because it was seen as very dangerous or 'hot,' and any interference would cause the gods to be angry."

The team's findings were reported in Issue one of the 2013 volume of the journal Azania.

Fat power

Brunton and her colleagues used ethnographic studies to determine the importance of the different animals at Ratho Kroonkop for rainmaking.

Some of the animals, the team found, were sacrificed for their fat. "Many San believed (and believe) that fat contained a high concentration of supernatural potency," the researchers wrote in the Azania paper.

For instance, the rhinoceros remains the team found were mainly from the animal's lower extremities. "People were taking the lower parts of the rhinoceros, in the region of the leg and thighs. These parts of the animal contain a lot of fat and meat, which is linked to potency and power," wrote Brunton.
Other fatty creatures they found at the site include the rock hyrax, a bushpig and what might be the remains of an eland. "In San cosmology, the eland was the most potent animal; killing one would give the shaman immense power to ask the ancestors for rain," Brunton wrote in her email.

Exploration and dating

Maria Schoeman, Brunton's supervisor and co-author of the study, originally surveyed the area as part of her doctoral work. "We were originally interested in [Ratho Kroonkop] because we found rock art at the bottom of the hill and decided to investigate it further. We climbed up the hill, and that was when we found the mound of bones contained in the rock tank 2," Brunton wrote.

Dating the excavated rock tank has proven difficult, as it contains a termite mound, and the insects may have moved some of the smaller objects. It's also possible that Ratho Kroonkop was used as a rain-control site before the rock tank was in use.

Brunton said the history of the region, and the rock art at the site, may provide clues as to exactly how long the site was in use.

"The site was possibly used by hunter-gatherers for many years, as there is San rock art at the bottom of the hill. Over time, farmers came onto the landscape and knew that the site was sacred in San cosmology; they would hire the San shamans to control the rain, but also left their own marks on the site by painting their own sacred animals over the San art, adding power to their own animals," Brunton wrote, adding that farmers were in the area by A.D. 1000.

"The way I see it is that this site could have been used over many years, but this paper is a snapshot in time for one of many periods of occupation/use," Brunton wrote.

Shamans in Action

I happened across this very interesting photograph taken today in Lima Peru, of shamans conducting a "good luck" ceremony over two posters - one is the Prime Minister of Spain; the other is the new Fearless Leader of North Korea.  Is he out of diapers???

I wonder why they did this???

Blue Eyed Mummy and Cannabis in Ancient Chinese Grave

I had no idea that most strains of cannabis today originated in China! Fascinating article - and more of those troublesome blue-eyed certainly Caucasian mummies (this one was most likely a shaman) showing up in the far northwest region of China. [Map - shows how close Turpan a/k/a Turfan is to Urumchi a/k/a Urumqi - see prior posts under Mummies of Urumchi: (1) (2)]. Story from The Canadia Press.com Researchers find oldest-ever stash of marijuana 1 day ago OTTAWA — Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China. The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany. The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China. The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour. "To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent," says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo. Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties. The 18 researchers, most of them based in China, subjected the cannabis to a battery of tests, including carbon dating and genetic analysis. Scientists also tried to germinate 100 of the seeds found in the cache, without success. The marijuana was found to have a relatively high content of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis, but the sample was too old to determine a precise percentage. Researchers also could not determine whether the cannabis was smoked or ingested, as there were no pipes or other clues in the tomb of the shaman, who was about 45 years old. The large cache was contained in a leather basket and in a wooden bowl, and was likely meant to be used by the shaman in the afterlife. "This materially is unequivocally cannabis, and no material has previously had this degree of analysis possible," Russo said in an interview from Missoula, Mont. "It was common practice in burials to provide materials needed for the afterlife. No hemp or seeds were provided for fabric or food. Rather, cannabis as medicine or for visionary purposes was supplied." The tomb also contained bridles, archery equipment and a harp, confirming the man's high social standing. Russo is a full-time consultant with GW Pharmaceuticals, which makes Sativex, a cannabis-based medicine approved in Canada for pain linked to multiple sclerosis and cancer. The company operates a cannabis-testing laboratory at a secret location in southern England to monitor crop quality for producing Sativex, and allowed Russo use of the facility for tests on 11 grams of the tomb cannabis. Researchers needed about 10 months to cut red tape barring the transfer of the cannabis to England from China, Russo said. The inter-disciplinary study was published this week by the British-based botany journal, which uses independent reviewers to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of all submitted papers. The substance has been found in two of the 500 Gushi tombs excavated so far in northwestern China, indicating that cannabis was either restricted for use by a few individuals or was administered as a medicine to others through shamans, Russo said. "It certainly does indicate that cannabis has been used by man for a variety of purposes for thousands of years." Russo, who had a neurology practice for 20 years, has previously published studies examining the history of cannabis. "I hope we can avoid some of the political liabilities of the issue," he said, referring to his latest paper. The region of China where the tomb is located, Xinjiang, is considered an original source of many cannabis strains worldwide. Copyright © 2008 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

More on the Female Shaman Burial

Follow-up post (see below for initial post)

Here's an image and further explanation/description of the find.

Ancient Grave May Have Belonged to Shaman By Michael BalterScience

NOW Daily News

3 November 2008

Before there were priests or doctors, people seeking solace or treatment for an illness often called in a shaman, an intermediary between the human and spirit worlds.

Archaeologists working in Israel now claim that a 12,000-year-old grave of a woman buried with various animal and human body parts is that of an early shaman. If true, it could mean that shamanism arose during a critical period in human cultural evolution.

Although largely supplanted by organized religion, shamanism is still widespread in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. For example, many Eskimo groups around the Arctic Circle practice shamanism. The roots of shamanism reach back at least to the ancient Greeks and possibly even to prehistoric times. Many archaeologists assume that shamanism preceded organized religion, and some see depictions of shamans in cave art from 15,000 years ago or earlier--although that interpretation is controversial.

But recent excavations at Hilazon Tachtit, a cave west of the Sea of Galilee in Israel, may provide new support for prehistoric shamanism. Hilazon Tachtit was occupied by the Natufians, a people who inhabited the Near East between about 15,000 and 11,500 years ago. Most archaeologists see

Natufian culture as a transition between hunting and gathering and the sedentary lifestyles of early farmers. At Hilazon Tachtit, a team led by archaeologist Leore Grosman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has found the remains of at least 25 people, most in collective burials. But one was treated differently. A woman, about 45 years old when she died and whose pelvis and spine were deformed, was buried separately, accompanied by a menagerie of animal remains. Among her grave goods were tail bones from wild cattle, a wing bone from a golden eagle, the shells of 50 tortoises, and a large foot from another person.

The team, which reports its findings online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, notes that tortoises, cow tails, and eagle wings play a role in the ritualistic practices of many shamans today and that many societies ascribe special powers to physically disabled people. "It seems that the woman in the Natufian burial was perceived as being in a close relationship with these animal spirits," the authors write. They suggest that shamanism either sparked, or was the result of, the cultural upheavals that accompanied the agricultural revolution in the Near East.

"This is an extremely important report on a rare find at a critical time of cultural evolution," says Brian Hayden, an archaeologist at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada. Ian Kuijt, an anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, adds that the "authors have done an excellent job of supporting their argument" for prehistoric shamanism. But Mina Evron, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa in Israel, cautions that there may be alternative explanations, though she doesn't offer one herself. Just because the team's "colorful interpretation" seems plausible, she says, "it ain't necessarily so."

Earliest known shaman grave site found

A significant and important discovery. A female shaman's burial. As I understand prior evidence, the earliest shamans were of both sexes. Tue Nov 4, 8:29 am ET LONDON (Reuters) – An ancient grave unearthed in modern-day Israel containing 50 tortoise shells, a human foot and body parts from numerous animals is likely one of the earliest known shaman burial sites, researchers said on Monday. The 12,000-year-old grave [10,000 BCE] dates back to the Natufian people who were the first society to adopt a sedentary lifestyle, Hebrew University of Jerusalem researcher Leore Grosman and colleagues said. "The interment rituals and the method used to construct and seal the grave suggest this is the burial of an ancient shaman, one of the earliest known from the archaeological record," they wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Shamans play an important role in many cultures, mediating between the human and spiritual worlds and acting as messengers, healers, magicians to serve the community, the researchers said. The Israeli team found the bones in a small cave in the lower Galilee region of present-day Israel that was a Natufian burial ground for a least 28 people. At the time of burial, more than 10 large stones were placed directly on the head, pelvis, and arms of the elderly woman whose body was laid on its side. The legs were spread apart and folded inward at the knee. The special treatment of the body and use of stones to keep it in a certain position suggests the woman held a unique position in the community, likely some sort of a shaman, the researchers said. "The burial of the woman...is unlike any burial found in the Natufian or the preceding Palaeolithic periods," Grosman's team wrote. "We argue that this burial is consistent with expectations for a shaman's grave." The woman was also interred with some unusual grave goods, including the complete tortoise shells and select body-parts of a wild boar, an eagle, a cow, a leopard, and two martens, as well as a complete human foot. The grave portrays several hallmarks that later become central in the spiritual arena of cultures worldwide, the researchers added. "Tortoises, cow tails, eagle wings, and fur-bearing animals continue to play important symbolic and shamanistic roles in the spiritual arena of human cultures worldwide today," they wrote. "It seems that the woman in the Natufian burial was perceived as being in a close relationship with these animal spirits." (Reporting by Michael Kahn, Editing by Maggie Fox and Jon Boyle)