12,000-Year-Old Shaman's Burial Discovered at Çemka Höyük

Çemka Höyük is an archaeologicial site in SE Turkiye, dating back to between 12,000 and 8,800 years ago, an important site that provides clues about the transition from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture.

It’s located within the borders of Ilisu village in the Mardin Province of Southeastern Turkey, around 1,100 metres southwest of the Ilisu Dam on the Tigris River.


According to past news reports, the dam road works severely damaged the ancient site in many places, but thankfully some fantastic archaeology remains.


At the site, a human skeleton was discovered, dating back to the 10th millennium BC. It’s of a female and she’s accompanied by animal skeletal remains, which leads people to believe that this woman was a shaman, or was at least buried by someone practicing ways associated with what we understand nowadays as animism or shamanism.

Matt Sibson
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