I am hoping someone can help. I recently discovered that in Goat's Hole (beautiful name, I know) in South Wales in Paviland, South Wales, there was discovered three bone spatulae, notched, and very similar to bone spatulae known to exist in parts of Europe as part of Shamanic ritual. This was around 30,000 years ago that these were placed. Much more recently, during the Bronze Age, Britain traded intensely with the Baltic region, which has a history of Shamanism, resulting in us having objects such as a cup carved out of a single piece of amber that was part of a set of grave goods.
So I am thinking. Is anyone aware of the extent that Shamanism was either likely or possible in prehistoric Britain? That is, before the early Iron Age (when the "Celts" arrived with their pantheon). I am aware that because we were fickle with our religious beliefs on this island, we changed considerably before deciding that writing stuff down would be a grand idea and so we have no written records, only material culture. I personally am led to believe that the ancient, pre-"Celt" British were animistic and many were practicing Shamans (after all, many of the early people would have come to Britain via Doggerland from the Baltic region). This is the path I am drawn to and wish to pursue. What I need to do is find links between archaeological evidence found at Neolithic, Bronze Age and early Iron Age sites that have analogues to continental ritual use. For example, the antler skull caps found at Star Carr are often seen as a clear indicator of ritual. This may be the case, but maybe they were only used as camouflage in order to get closer to prey they were hunting? Or maybe they were props for story telling? If something similar was happening in another part of Europe which demonstrated a better link to ritual use, then one might surmise they at least were partly used for Shamanic ritual here, too.
If anyone knows of good books that are relevant to the prehistory of Britain, that would be greatly appreciated, thank you, especially if I can get them as an ebook!
Thank you in advance
So I am thinking. Is anyone aware of the extent that Shamanism was either likely or possible in prehistoric Britain? That is, before the early Iron Age (when the "Celts" arrived with their pantheon). I am aware that because we were fickle with our religious beliefs on this island, we changed considerably before deciding that writing stuff down would be a grand idea and so we have no written records, only material culture. I personally am led to believe that the ancient, pre-"Celt" British were animistic and many were practicing Shamans (after all, many of the early people would have come to Britain via Doggerland from the Baltic region). This is the path I am drawn to and wish to pursue. What I need to do is find links between archaeological evidence found at Neolithic, Bronze Age and early Iron Age sites that have analogues to continental ritual use. For example, the antler skull caps found at Star Carr are often seen as a clear indicator of ritual. This may be the case, but maybe they were only used as camouflage in order to get closer to prey they were hunting? Or maybe they were props for story telling? If something similar was happening in another part of Europe which demonstrated a better link to ritual use, then one might surmise they at least were partly used for Shamanic ritual here, too.
If anyone knows of good books that are relevant to the prehistory of Britain, that would be greatly appreciated, thank you, especially if I can get them as an ebook!
Thank you in advance
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