A Method for Determining the Practice of Shamanism in Archeological Cultures

Abstract

Researchers have frequently noted traces of shamanism in cultures of the ancient world, although the methodology for determining it is underdeveloped. Such a method is proposed here, to identify where shamanism was practiced. It is based on comparative research of written sources, archeological materials, ethnography, linguistics, and the natural sciences. Acceptable results require that the data corroborate one another, illustrating common worldview. The proposed method is tested on examples of Cimmerian and Scythian cultures, and their precursors. Ethnographic analogies should originate from the same region as the archeological culture being researched or an acknowledged site of migrational origin. Relevant here is the region ranging from southern Siberia to the Urals. Results indicate Cimmerians and Scythians had shamanistic worldviews, techniques and rituals identical to those of Siberian shamans. Archeological materials and written sources enable identification of some aspects that are already dying out in Siberian shamanism, although the cases covered do not exhaust all available information about rituals and objects that have analogies in ethnographic materials about the shamanism of peoples of Siberia. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the proposed research method in action.