4,000-year-old 'shaman' burial near Stonehenge has a golden secret

livescience.com ^ | https://www.livescience.com/4000-year-old-shaman-burial-near-stonehenge#:~:text=Tom%20Metcalfe,publi

[BenLurkin]

Stone tools found in a 4,000-year-old grave near Stonehenge have traces of gold on their surfaces that indicate they were used to fashion gold ornaments.

In 1801, archaeologists found the assemblage of Bronze Age artifacts, including the stone tools, in a barrow or burial mound from about 1800 B.C. near the village of Upton Lovell, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Stonehenge.

The assemblage(opens in new tab) includes flint axes, a necklace of beads of polished stone and dozens of bone points — possibly from another necklace and the fringe of a garment. The collection, which is now on display at the Wiltshire Museum in the town of Devizes, was interpreted at that time as the grave goods of a "shaman" or holy man.

Researchers discovered the traces of gold on the stone tools during a reanalysis of the artifacts using modern archaeological techniques, which included using a scanning electron microscope and an X-ray spectrometer to verify the presence of any residues and determine their chemical make-up.

The study confirmed that the traces of gold on the tools are prehistoric, and that they have similar impurities to other sources of gold used in Bronze Age Britain.

Crellin said that the wear on the stone tools also shows they were used in different ways to shape gold and a variety of other materials, such as amber, wood, copper and jet — a finely grained, semi-precious form of coal.

[BenLurkin]

gnip

[Starboard]

traces of gold on their surfaces that indicate they were used to fashion gold ornaments

*************

Making bling.

[Red Badger]

The collection, which is now on display at the Wiltshire Museum in the town of Devizes, was interpreted at that time as the grave goods of a "shaman" or holy man.

Always with the 'religious' aspect. Why couldn't they interpret it as 'He was a rich goldsmith'?..............

[Gay State Conservative]

later

[Verginius Rufus]

Was there anything to show that the shaman was a man rather than a woman? I think female shamans were found in some societies.

They did not use miles or kilometers in Britain at that time. If this was a genuine Siberian shaman, maybe he/she measured distances in versts (but maybe those were only used in European Russia)...and chances are the person was born locally.

[BenLurkin]

Article says they were unable to sex the skeletons. Also unable on someone interred “royally” at a nearby barrow.

Usually a pelvis is all you need. And there’s usually a pelvis in every burial.

It’s undergrad stuff (even old Ben knew how, once upon a time) Not sure what the problem seems to be for this current crop of bone wranglers.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

For the same reason that anything they can not figure out is "status".

Did you know that building a hill fort was just to show off?

Had nothing to do with defending your stuff.

It was just to impress your neighbors.

It was the same reason you white washed and decorated your castle. It was to show off, not because your wife would have gone back to her family if you insisted on living in a gloomy hole with vermin all over the place.

[Red Badger]

Maybe he was Travelling Shaman, kinda like a paleo-Gypsy............

[Red Badger]

They don’t know what their pronouns were............

[Red Badger]

Perhaps the deceased was lawyer..................

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Nah.

They did not bury him alive.

[Red Badger]

LOL!..................

[Ezekiel]

The "magic" of interpretation:

"The ability to transform other objects by the delicate and skilled process of covering them with gold sheet may have been seen as a magical or ritual process, a secret method known only to a few people," she told Live Science in an email. "This research shows how metalworking was closely related to magical, ritual and religious beliefs."

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

It was a more civilized time.

[PLMerite]

“It was just to impress your neighbors.”

It was to impress upon your neighbors not to mess with your stuff.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

You have a line of stakes. The stakes have various body parts adorning them.

People don't mess with your stuff.

[Red Badger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf1A8Ukk5Us

[Ezekiel]

Clever!

[SunkenCiv]

Silly, it would have been id’ed as a shawoman.