Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
10.4 MB, PDF document
Journal | PLoS ONE |
---|---|
Date | Accepted/In press - 8 Mar 2016 |
Date | Published (current) - 13 Apr 2016 |
Issue number | 4 |
Volume | 11 |
Original language | English |
Shamanic belief systems represent the first form of religious practice visible within the global archaeological record. Here we report on the earliest known evidence of shamanic costume: modified red deer crania headdresses from the Early Holocene site of Star Carr (c. 11 kya). More than 90% of the examples from prehistoric Europe come from this one site, establishing it as a place of outstanding shamanistic/cosmological significance. Our work, involving a programme of experimental replication, analysis of macroscopic traces, organic residue analysis and 3D image acquisition, metrology and visualisation, represents the first attempt to understand the manufacturing processes used to create these artefacts. The results produced were unexpected-rather than being carefully crafted objects, elements of their production can only be described as expedient.
© 2016, Little et al.
Impact
Find related publications, people, projects, datasets and more using interactive charts.