A female shaman was buried at Bad Dürrenburg, Germany, around 8000 years ago. She was reverently covered with a 30 cm thick layer of red ochre. She probably limped due to an irregularity in her first vertebra.

Her regalia: a headdress with two deer antlers, several boar-tusk plaques, 16 deer incisors, 3 turtle shells, 2 crane bones, and a variety of shells, needles, knives, and microblades. 120 freshwater mussels; and bone needles, flint knives, antler hoe, and a crane-bone container with 31 microliths.

The woman had been buried in an upright posture, as it was typical for the hunter-gatherers.

Prehistoric Shamanism

Approximately 10,000 years ago began a new era for humanity. Agriculture, the domestication of animals and first fired ceramic, etc. allow a new way of life.

Çatalhöyük is an excavation in present day Turkey. It is a settlement from the Neolithic period, located on the plateau of Anatolia and had up to 8000 inhabitants. It was a cultural center. Stone blades, mirrors and fired ceramics were found there.

It is seem certain now, that women had a central role. Statues represent goddesses, priestesses or queens. Central is a belief about the woman and the bull.