Halle (dpa/sa) – The headdress of the shaman from Bad Dürrenberg is currently delighting the audience at the large Stonehenge exhibition in the British Museum in London. “At around 9,000 years, the find is the oldest verifiable female shaman grave in the world,” said Harald Meller, director of the State Museum of Prehistory Halle and state archaeologist. “The woman was buried in a sitting position with a child about six months old in her arms.”
Because of the loan to London, the find was re-examined in collaboration with other scientists. The grave was discovered in 1934 during sewer works. Other skeletal parts of the shaman and bones of the infant were found. The burial pit was lined with mud and wattle and a thick layer of sanguine, a red colored powder, covered the walls and floor. “In order to find a comparable grave of this type, we have to look to Israel or the USA,” said Meller.
