News Archaeology

An ancient healer reborn

Excavations in Israel reveal one of the oldest known graves of a shaman, from 12,000 years ago

By Bruce Bower

The graves of people who died 12,000 ago rarely contain a woman’s skeleton pinned down in an unusual position by large stones, accompanied by a menagerie of animal remains and another person’s foot. Yet that’s what archaeologist Leore Grosman of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her coworkers recently discovered in a small Israeli cave called Hilazon Tachtit.

CAVE GRAVES Israel’s Hilazon Tachtit cave contains the grave, bottom left, of a 12,000-year-old Natufian woman identified as a shaman in a new study. N. Hilger

A SHAMAN’S BURIAL | This scale drawing shows the placement of the ancient woman’s body in her grave and the location of animal parts and other burial offerings.