As the great ice sheets from the last ice age retreated around the globe, tribal peoples on the European continent began to follow the game and animals northward while at the same time on the North American continent tribal peoples either came through an ice free zone or skirted along the coast to hunt game and animals on that continent south of the ice sheets. During those early post-glacial years both continents were peopled only by tribes that were small in number and few and far between. Food was scarce and sometimes difficult to obtain, especially for the support of any tribes composed of large numbers --- both continental groups depending on the hunting of available animals and gathering nourishment from natural plant sources.

On the European continent around 10,000 years ago agriculture and the domestication of stock-animals came into being in what is now Turkey. Larger amounts of food enabled the peoples that raised the animals and crops to increase their populations a hundred-fold. Having done so, those same people, who only generations before were once small tribal peoples themselves, gradually forayed into Europe, taking their animals and crops with them and driving back into even more inhospitable regions the hunter-gatherers. The movement took place over a period of 4,000 years, affecting the whole of Europe and all of the people and tribes therein. Unlike what is found on the North American continent, most of the European tribal names, customs, culture and rituals were almost totally wiped out or erased during that 4,000 year period, nearly eradicating all traces of say, Shamanism, day to day existence, and other tribal beliefs.

However, to take the seeming lack of any "in your face present-day proof" because some cultures in existence today clearly have Shamans and shamanistic practices while other cultures and their backgrounds are veiled to the obvious by the mists of time, does not necessarily translate into the non-existance of shamanistic abilities, even among those of European origin --- or that Shamanism wasn't an indepth, ingrained part of their culture and their tribal heritage like some people tend to believe. Matter of fact, Shamans and Shamanism was a major part of European tribal existance, not unlike almost any tribal people found around the world today. Staying with that theme, in POWER OF THE SHAMAN:Where Does It Come From, How Does It Work?, the following is found:

In the fall of 1991, in the remote part of an ancient mountain range, high above the tree line, a group of modern day hikers stumbled across the body of a man frozen to death in the snow, fully dressed in clothes of a tribal nature, his body nearly intact and almost perfectly preserved. Incredibly, tests showed the man had been frozen 5000 years years before, sometime between 3350-3140 BC. After a rather intensive investigation over a period of years by a team of scientific experts from a variety of fields, it was concluded that the man appeared to have been a Shaman, presumably dying of exposure when caught out in the open during a mystical retreat on the side of the treacherous mountain.

Several associated facts presented themselves for such speculation. Like many shamans from many cultures the body was tattooed; his weapons, consisting of a roughly-hewn bow made of yew, several unfinished arrows, and an all wood dagger, resembled dummy weapons associated with shamans in other cultures; he carried a medicine bag containing, among other things, a leather thong on which was threaded two pieces of a common birch fungus Piptoporus betulinus which contains polyporic acid C, an effective antibody, especially against stomach microbacteria, which would indicate, if not a specific knowledge of herbs and natural ingredients, at least a general acceptance of their use. A similar fungus, also closely associated with the birch, Amanita muscaria, is not only hallucinogenic but has been used by various shamans cultures as an aid to ecstasy before the dawn of history. It is possible that, if not authentically hallucinogenic, the ones the frozen iceman carried, could at least have been believed to be so; he also carried with him, and unusually so, a copper-headed axe. A very rare object for the time, and because it was metal, for the most part quite valuable in those days, marking him as an individual of high status. Last, an item not discussed at any length in the numerous reports on the frozen man was a net he carried, an object not typically found in hunting as much as used to trap spirits and seen in various forms as a dream catcher and such. Taken together, the fact that he carried only what HE needed and not a variety for wider shamanistic use, again underscores his mountain sojourn as having a more "mystical retreat" aspect to it.

And finally, while it is true the frozen man's location was somewhat close to ancient trade routes and trails which ran through passes nearby, he was NOT actually on one. Aerial photographs of the area show that the site he was found is not in easily accessible terrain, thus it is thought unreasonable he simply strayed there from one of the passes. The body was well above known trails, high in the mountains above the 10,400 foot level, and alone it seems, suggesting the possibility that he had traveled there to be closer to the gods.

The problem most people had with the situation was not that the man might have been a Shaman, because a preponderance of the evidence seemed to implicate nothing other than that, but where he was found. Not in the tundra of Siberia or the ancient ice path of the Rocky Mountains in North America, but the Oetzaler Alps between Austria and Italy, a location that eventually became modern day Europe, an area NEVER thought of in the present era for any sort of a background in things Shaman or even of tribal people. Yet there he was, a 5000 year old frozen Shaman right in the heart of Europe.

Now, if you believe the Power of the Shaman courses through the blood and veins of present day Shamans, you must know that that power is an eternal power and does not ebb over time...no matter how far back in the past one must go to find it.

Some of you may have heard of a man by the name of Carlos Castaneda, an author of a dozen best selling books chronicling his apprenticeship under a shaman-sorcerer by the name of Don Juan Matus, who was, as written, supposedly in lineage from a very ancient lineage of powerful Mesoamerican Aztec Toltec shamans called Naguals.

According to Castaneda, Don Juan Matus, at the age of twenty, after having grown from a young boy into a young man under the umberella of the Mexican government's Yaqui relocation project to southern Mexico, supposedly came in contact with a master sorcerer by the name of Julian Osorio. He introduced Don Juan into a lineage of shaman-sorcerers that was purported to be twenty-five generations long. In turn Osorio had inherited everything from his teacher, Elias Ulloa. Elias had learned from Rosendo; he from Lujan; Lujan from Santisteban; and Santisteban from Sebastian. Before Sebastian there were eight others, but, according to Don Juan, they were quite different. They had a different attitude toward sorcery as well as a different concept of it, although they were still directly related to his line of sorcery. It wasn't until Sebastian's encounter and eventual alliance with the semi organaform-being called the Death Defier that the lineage truly changed.

The interesting part of it all, and again according to Castaneda, in a lineage of Naguals twenty-five generations long, Osorio, the teacher of Don Juan, was NOT an Indian, but the son of European immigrants to Mexico. Don Juan told Castaneda that Osorio was an actor and during one of his theatrical tours he met Ulloa, who transmitted to Osorio all the knowledge and power of his lineage of sorcerers.

So, the master shaman that taught Don Juan was NOT an Indian, but the son of European immigrants to Mexico. European immigrants (i.e., European immigrants: read WHITE. In other words, non-native).

Again, if you believe the Power of the Shaman courses through the blood and veins of present day shamans, you must know that that power is an eternal power and does not ebb over time...no matter how far back in the past --- or what continent --- one must go to find it.

The Shaman/Trickster appears in cave paintings of the Early European Tribes about 18,000 years ago. Warriors don't appear until about 9,000 years ago. Kings appeared even later. It appears historically that the Shaman/Trickster came a lot earlier, perhaps even before the cave painters appeared. The Shaman/Trickster is closely tied to hunting, and hunting and gathering were the origin of human society, maybe 50,000 years ago. The warrior and the king are possible only after the development of cities. (source)

In a cave used for burials by a tribal people called the Zawi Chemi by archeologists, around 8870 BC (plus or minus 300 years, according to carbon-dating) -- over 10,000 years ago -- and 4,000 years before the beginnings of the various Mesopotamia cultures -- were found a number of goat skulls placed next to the wing bones of large predatory birds, including the bearded vulture and griffon vulture. The conclusion of the archeologists was:

"The Zawi Chemi people must have endowed these great raptorial birds with special powers, and the faunal remains we have described for the site must represent special ritual paraphernalia. Certainly, the remains represent a concerted effort by a goodly number of people just to hunt down and capture such a large number of birds and goats... either the wings were saved to pluck out the feathers, or that wing fans were made, or that they were used as part of a costume for a ritual. One of the murals from a Catal Hayuk shrine (which was 2000 years later in time, and several hundred miles away in distance)... depicts just such a ritual scene; ie, a human figure dressed in a vulture skin" (source)

About 11,000 years ago at Zawi Chemi in the Zagros Mountains,
people used river boulders to build some of the earliest houses.

Present day inhabited Navajo stone hogan in the U.S. American
southwest. Note similarity of construction to Zawi Chemi, above.

(click image)

The following presents various aspects of some of the early European tribes such as habitats, tools, weapons, etc., that were developed or used at the time:

HABITAT

© 2000-2001, La Roque Saint-Christophe, Dordogne, FRANCE

TOOLS AND WEAPONS

SOME ANIMALS HUNTED

EUROPEAN BISON (WISENT)

EUROPEAN RED FOX

OTTER

RED DEER

ANIMAL PHOTOS AND SOURCES, DON'S MAPS: ICE AGE ANIMALS

ROCK ART AND PETROGLYPHS

Compare European sprial above with
the Native American spiral located in
Verde Valley, Arizona, below.

Compare both with the Sun Dagger
site in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.
See also Vortexes

MT BEGO, MARITIME ALPS, FRANCE: EURA ROCK ART

THUNDERBIRD FIGURE, VALCAMONICA, ITALIAN ALPS, ITALY: EURA ROCK ART

The thunderbird image and legend is well known throughout Native American lore. As can be seen, thunderbird images also appear in European rock art, however any legends thereof have been lost to the sands of time, usurped and modified by later cultures into Rukhs (rocs), gargoyles, dragons, etc. Disregarding petroglyphs and early European rock art, the first mention "on record" of gigantic birds was found in connection with much later cultures than the early European tribes such as ancient tablets excavated from Mesopotamian ruins. They describe unnamed monstrous and fantastic birds of prey that could carry off an antelope in each talon. In the North, similar stories of gigantic birds were told right up until modern times. In the northern plains of Russia, the bird was called Vekher, the wind-demon. The Norsemen knew it as Hraesvalg, a huge eagle-like creature.

Compare the above European petroglyph with the Native American petroglyphs, for example, as found in Dry Fork Canyon Utah. The thunderbird is represented in a variety of ways scratched and painted along the walls of Dry Fork Canyon, some appearing as a full figure with “bird-like” appendages almost exactly like the image carved in the rock surface in the Italian Alps at Valcamonica. If you scroll down the page that comes up on the Dry Fork Canyon link above (a little over half way) you can view the comparison imgage in a photo on the left of the page. Notice the wing structure, posture, and "rays" radiating from the head. For more on thunderbird lore and legend please visit the Thunderbird Site List.

See also VULTURE SHAMANISM: 10,000 Years Ago.

TALON AND SCRATCH MARKS OF THE GIANT BIRD

APPEARANCE AND DRESS
of Early European Tribes

PENDEJO CAVE: The Ancient Ones
In a remote section lost deep in the southern New Mexico
desert- there exists a small- cave that was once inhabited
by truly Ancient Ones, evidence dating back 50,000 BCE.

WE DO NOT HAVE SHAMANS The Case Against "Shamans" In the North American Indigenous Cultures

OBEAH: SHAMAN-SORCERER OCCULT, BLACK ARTS, OR IMPLEMENT OF GOOD?

THE WANDERLING'S JOURNEY

SEE:

SHAMAN IN THE CAVE
(click image)

SEE ALSO:
OTZI