The Archaeology of Shamanism

253 Pages·2001·13.56 MB·English

by  Neil Price

The Archaeology
of Shamanism
The meaning of ‘shamanism’ has been debated for almost three centuries, ever since the term
was coined to describe the activities of those who attained altered states of consciousness in
order to mediate between human beings and the supernatural world. The ritual practices that
characterised these perceived contacts with other realities have left highly physical traces in the
archaeological record of prehistoric peoples, and the potential for the recognition of shamanic
belief systems in the past is now being realised as never before.
In this timely collection, Neil Price provides a general introduction to the archaeology of
shamanism by bringing together recent work on the subject. Blending theoretical discussion
with detailed case studies, the issues addressed include shamanic material culture, responses to
dying and the dead, shamanic soundscapes, the use of ritual architecture and shamanism in the
context of other belief systems. Following an initial orientation reviewing shamanism as an
anthropological construct, the volume focuses on the Northern hemisphere with case studies
from Greenland to Nepal, Siberia to Kazakhstan. The chapters span a chronological range from
the Upper Palaeolithic to the present and explore such cross-cutting themes as gender and the
body, identity, landscape, the social perception of animals, prehistoric ‘art’, and shamanism in
the heritage and cultural identity of indigenous peoples. The volume also addresses the
interpretation of shamanic beliefs in terms of cognitive neuroscience and the modern public
perception of shamanism in the past.
This book is an essential study of ancient shamanism through its material remains. It serves
as a source of front-line case studies for specialists, while making these discussions accessible to a
broader public. Archaeologists, anthropologists, historians of religion and psychologists will find
the volume a valuable work of reference, as will those interested in alternative religions and
spiritual philosophies.
Neil S. Price is a Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. He has written
extensively on the Viking Age, and has conducted research projects in France, Iceland, Russia
and Sápmi (Lappland).
• ii • Recto running-head
Frontispiece. Ivory maskette, 500–1 BC, Tyara, northern Québec. (Photo: Canadian Museum of Civilization;
KbFk-7:308).
Verso running-head • iii •
The Archaeology
of Shamanism
Edited by Neil S. Price
London and New York
• iv • Recto running-head
First published 2001 by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
© 2001 selection and editorial matter, Neil S. Price: individual chapters,
the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The archaeology of Shamanism/edited by Neil Price.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Shamanism. 2. Ethnoarchaeology. 3. Material culture. I. Price, Neil S.
GN475.8.A73 2001
(cid:2)
306.6 91144–dc21 2001031750
ISBN 0-203-45170-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-45737-4 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-25254-7 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-25255-5 (pbk)
Verso running-head • v •
Contents
List of figures vii
List of contributors ix
Acknowledgements xi
PART ONE
The archaeology of shamanism: Cognition, cosmology and world-view
Chapter One
AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF ALTERED STATES:
SHAMANISM AND MATERIAL CULTURE STUDIES 3
Neil S. Price
Chapter Two
SOUTHERN AFRICAN SHAMANISTIC ROCK ART IN ITS SOCIAL
AND COGNITIVE CONTEXTS 17
J.D. Lewis-Williams
PART TWO
Siberia and Central Asia: The ‘cradle of shamanism’
Chapter Three
ROCK ART AND THE MATERIAL CULTURE OF SIBERIAN AND
CENTRAL ASIAN SHAMANISM 43
Ekaterina Devlet
Chapter Four
SHAMANS, HEROES AND ANCESTORS IN THE BRONZE
CASTINGS OF WESTERN SIBERIA 56
Natalia Fedorova
Chapter Five
SUN GODS OR SHAMANS? INTERPRETING THE ‘SOLAR-HEADED’
PETROGLYPHS OF CENTRAL ASIA 65
Andrzej Rozwadowski
Chapter Six
THE MATERIALITY OF SHAMANISM AS A ‘WORLD-VIEW’:
PRAXIS, ARTEFACTS AND LANDSCAPE 87
Peter Jordan
• vi • Contents
Chapter Seven
THE MEDIUM OF THE MESSAGE: SHAMANISM AS LOCALISED
PRACTICE IN THE NEPAL HIMALAYAS 105
Damian Walter
PART THREE
North America and the North Atlantic
Chapter Eight
THE GENDERED PEOPLING OF NORTH AMERICA:
ADDRESSING THE ANTIQUITY OF SYSTEMS OF MULTIPLE GENDERS 123
Sandra E. Hollimon
Chapter Nine
SHAMANISM AND THE ICONOGRAPHY OF PALAEO-ESKIMO ART 135
Patricia D. Sutherland
Chapter Ten
SOCIAL BONDING AND SHAMANISM AMONG LATE DORSET
GROUPS IN HIGH ARCTIC GREENLAND 146
Hans Christian Gulløv and Martin Appelt
PART FOUR
Northern Europe
Chapter Eleven
SPECIAL OBJECTS – SPECIAL CREATURES: SHAMANISTIC IMAGERY
AND THE AURIGNACIAN ART OF SOUTH-WEST GERMANY 165
Thomas A. Dowson and Martin Porr
Chapter Twelve
THE SOUNDS OF TRANSFORMATION: ACOUSTICS, MONUMENTS
AND RITUAL IN THE BRITISH NEOLITHIC 178
Aaron Watson
Chapter Thirteen
AN IDEOLOGY OF TRANSFORMATION: CREMATION RITES AND ANIMAL SACRIFICE
IN EARLY ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND 193
Howard Williams
Chapter Fourteen
WAKING ANCESTOR SPIRITS: NEO-SHAMANIC ENGAGEMENTS
WITH ARCHAEOLOGY 213
Robert J. Wallis
Index 231
Verso running-head • vii •
Figures
Frontispiece Ivory maskette, 500–1BC, Tyara, northern Québec ii
2.1 Map showing the locations of San groups and places mentioned in the text 20
2.2 Rock painting of a shamanistic dance 22
2.3 A painted shamanistic dance scene 23
2.4 A shamanistic dance group 24
2.5 A rock painting showing ‘non-real’ relationships between human beings and eland 25
2.6 A unique painting of two fresh-water crabs 29
2.7 A rock painting that shows an upside-down eland 30
3.1 Rock art anthropomorphs in the ‘X-ray style’ 44
3.2 Rock art images of shamans from the Altai region 45
3.3. Fine line engraving of a shaman on a stone plaque from the Altai 45
3.4 The Niukzha rock art panel, Olekma River basin: a shaman is flying among
the celestial bodies 46
3.5 Rock art images of shamans 47
3.6 Paintings on shamans’ drums 48
3.7 Rock art anthropomorphs in head-gear with rays 51
3.8 Burial from Ust’-Uda and a reconstruction of the ritual coat of a female shaman 52
3.9 Shamans depicted on Yakut birch-bark tobacco containers 53
3.10 Shamanizing in a yurt 54
4.1 The anthropomorphic images of the Early Iron Age 59
4.2 The images of warriors with sabres 60
4.3 The anthropomorphic bird-headed images 61
4.4 The bird images 62
4.5 The bear in the so-called ‘ritual posture’ 63
5.1 Examples of ‘sun-gods’ in Saymaly-Tash, Kirghizstan 67
5.2 ‘Sun-headed’ petroglyphs in the Tamgaly Valley 68
5.3 The big panel with ‘sun-headed’ petroglyphs, Tamgaly Valley 70
5.4 ‘Shamans’ associated with the horse, Tamgaly Valley 70
5.5 Examples of dressed humans with crosier-like staffs 71
5.6 The staff of the Central Asian dervish 72
5.7 The horse divided by two parallel cracks, Tamgaly Valley 74
5.8 The transformed human figure associated with two parallel cracks, Tamgaly Valley 74
5.9 ‘Sun-heads’ and entoptic imagery 76
5.10 The human figure with unnatural head versus visual imagery 79
5.11 Zigzag motifs in Saymaly-Tash 80
5.12 Comparison of double crenelation motifs in petroglyphs 80
5.13 Painted images on the slabs of graves in Altai 81
5.14 Location of the sites with rock art imagery of potential shamanistic features
in relation to the hypothesis about expanding Indo-Europeans from the
Eurasian steppes 82
• viii • Figures
6.1 The social and material contexts to shamanism 88
6.2 Acts of communication linking human and spirit domains 89
6.3 Lengths of white cloth (pory) hung from a tree at a sacred site on the
Malyi Iugan River 95
6.4 Kot Mykh (earth-house) cedar tree from which a domestic idol has been cut 96
6.5 Ritual meal at the Daughters of Pugos Anki holy site 97
6.6 The role of the shaman/healer within broader elements of Khanty cosmology 98
6.7 The location of sacred sites and the cemetery at a base yurt on the Malyi Iugan
River 99
6.8 Carving of the bear on a cedar tree 100
6.9 Skin of a sacrificed animal hung at a local holy site 101
–
7.1 A Chetri dhami-jhãkri dances and drums on the veranda of the house during
–
a familial healing ritual (cinta) 107
7.2 A Chetri house in the Solu Khumbu district of Nepal 108
7.3 Sketch plan of the ground floor of a Chetri house 109
– – –
7.4 A Chetri kul-dhami uses bundles of leaves (syaulı) to indicate his possession
by the lineage deities 116
9.1 Map showing areas occupied by Early Palaeo-Eskimos and the Dorset culture 136
9.2 Antler baton with faces, c.AD 1000 138
9.3 Animal/woman figure, carved in ivory, c.AD 700 139
9.4 Ivory shaman’s teeth, c.AD 500–1000 139
9.5 Ivory flying bear with skeletal markings, c.AD 0–500 140
9.6 Ivory seal with skeletal markings, c.AD 1000 141
9.7 Four bell-shaped tubes, carved in ivory 142
10.1 Late Dorset ‘longhouse’ distribution 149
10.2 General plan of the Greenland megalithic site, Hatherton Bay, Smith Sound 150
10.3 The megalithic structure prior to excavation 151
10.4 The mid-axial passage 152
10.5 General plan with stone-lined pits 153
10.6 Distribution of flakes in the megalithic structure 155
10.7 The megalithic structure with the authors’ reconstruction of the colonnade
of upright stones 156
11.1 The Vogelherd horse 165
11.2 The reconstructed human-lion statuette from Hohlenstein-Stadel 169
11.3 A lion statuette from Vogelherd with pointed ears 169
11.4 The head of a lion from Vogelherd 170
11.5 A bear statuette from Geißenklösterle in an aggressive posture 170
11.6 A schematic rendition of a more complex motif of multiple arcs, zigzags and
notches on a statuette from Vogelherd 171
12.1 The passage entrance and façade at Camster Round 182
12.2 Maeshowe passage grave 183
12.3 An elevation and plan of Maeshowe 183
12.4 Looking out along the passage from the chamber inside Maeshowe 184
12.5 The chamber inside Maeshowe 185
13.1 The conjectural and simplified sequence of rites during early Anglo-Saxon
cremation practices informed by archaeological and osteological evidence 196
13.2 Aged burials from Spong Hill containing animal remains 197
13.3 Sexed burials from Spong Hill containing animal remains 198
13.4 Urn from burial 2443 from Spong Hill 200
14.1 A large procession of Druids at Avebury Henge 217
14.2 ‘Runic’ John, Heathen neo-shaman, completing a shamanic healing 218
14.3 ‘Runic’ John is possessed by the spirit of the god Woden, in a public shamanic ritual 219