The Quest for the Shaman: Shape-Shifters, Sorcerers and Spirit Healers in Ancient Europe

by Miranda Aldhouse-Green, Stephen Aldhouse-Green

Here is an exciting, innovative study of ancient European religious practice and practitioners. The Aldhouse-Greens entertaining and informative book represents a search, a voyage of discovery in which evidence is sought that there were individuals living in Europe from the Stone Age to the early post-Roman period who believed they were able to liaise with the spirit-world through the medium of trance and who perceived themselves to be part-human and part-animal.The authors support their argument with diverse and rich evidence, including the 30,000-year-old lion-human ivory figurines found in south-western Germany, which may represent monsters seen by shamans in altered states of consciousness; the newly discovered and spectacular Nebra sky-disc, which depicts the sun, moon and the Pleiades, indicating that Bronze Age shamans were using highly sophisticated objects to explore the heavens; and, the Doctors Grave from southeast England, which suggests that a Late Iron Age chieftain, who may have been a shaman, was sent to the Otherworld equipped with hallucinogens, medical kit and divining tools.

Genres: Archaeology, Anthropology, History, Nonfiction, Magic, Spirituality, Religion

240 pages, Hardcover

First published June 13, 2005

About the author

Miranda Green was born in London and educated at Greycoat Hospital, Westminster. She took an Honours degree at University College, Cardiff and an M. Litt. at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She gained a research scholarship at the Open University and was awarded a doctorate in 1981 for her thesis on Romano-Celtic sun-symbolism. She has received research awards from the Society of Antiquities of London and from the British Academy, and was awarded the Leverhulme Research Fellowship at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. After holding posts at Worthing and Peterborough Museums, she took up posts as Tutor in Roman Studies and full-time administrator at the Open University in Wales.

Until recently professor of archaeology at Newport University, Miranda's teaching experience ranges from leading undergraduate courses on Roman Britain and Iron Age Europe to managing and contributing to Newport's MA in Celto-Roman Studies. She has supervised more than twenty PhD and MPhil students to successful completion.

Miranda Aldhouse-Green is Tutor for the MA Archaeology programme, and is module leader for three of the MA skills modules (Research Methods, Writing Archaeology/Writing the Past and Speaking Archaeology). She lectures on Early Celtic Studies and contributes to the third-year undergraduate Theory course.

External responsibilities include membership of the Ancient Monuments Advisory Board for Wales, presidency of the Prehistoric Society (2004-6) and membership of the management board of the University of Wales Press.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't so much a history of Shamanism but rather a look at how different aspect of Shamanistic practice could be seem from different aspects of burial, art and mythology in Europe. I have to say that in many ways I found this book frustrating. Knowing that there are archaeological and written texts from the 3rd century BCE outlining Shamanism in the state of Chu in China, to have all this guessing seemed a bit annoying. The book started with a definition of shamanism as a religion and world view as seen in different parts of the world and then went and looked at individual practices that were included in that definition and shown how those things could be seen in British (and European) archaeology. In many cases it felt like these were reaching, especially in the later section where it was talking about Celtic and Roman mythologies that had their own religious structure, the fact that there were some similar practices seemed more like a coincidence or a common theme of religion rather than specifically shamanism. That said it did include lots of interesting photos of artifacts and information about early burials and art in Europe, even if their conclusions weren't always convincing.

[Krystal Rains · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently acquired this interesting book and while it was a bit of a struggle to get started through all the anthropology information at the beginning, I appreciated the wide scope of inquiry. As a descendant of Western Europeans, we have little connection to the indigenous peoples of the land we are from in many contexts. In the esoteric worlds, we often see European descendants looking to practices from other cultures because we have such scant information to build our own practices upon. It is from that perspective that I approached this book.

Seeing some possible threads of connection between ancient practices as well as an awareness of current esoteric practices, gave me the ability to see where the suggestions were pointing and positing. There will never be definitive documentation of the actual living practices from ancient Europe, but making some educated guesses and suggestions are ways to interpret the wide range of anthropological evidence we possess.

[Lee Broderick · Rating 2 out of 5]

It isn't made clear from the description of this book that it's largely an art-history study. For the most part, that means rock art. There's a fundamental problem in the interpretation of rock art which is that it is still intrinsically impossible to date (although recent work at Cresswell Crags may be beginning to change that). That this book discusses such sources from a wide range of contexts in the discussion of an over-arching theme could go some way to mitigating some of the problems of the source material. Instead though, the authors choose to take a strictly chronological approach which aggravates the problems. Despite not acknowledging these problems they do admit to a further problem with the book as a scholarly work - a bias on behalf of the authors.

[Trunatrschild · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know, I know Miz Aldhouse Green is a famous archaeologist but she sure reaches into outer space with her theories, some which openly conflict with what I was taught in school...School isn't perfect, but one thing it does is to not make flying judgements on a very little bit of evidence. It looks like every burial, even the children's burials were shamanic.... everything is shamanic, even a chalk axe. One minute she makes the statement that most shaman are males, which isn't supported by modern tungus shaman, the next she's saying that burials of women with children are shamanic....
I just don't know.... all this leaping to conclusions, my legs are getting tired, I don't know if I can finish the book.

[Snicketts · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little heavy going, but I think this is due to the scope of the evidence included which ranges from palaeolithic to modern ethnographic. I wasn't always utterly convinced that the cases cited showed shamanistic fingerprints but I was interested by the continuity shown in some of the practices and ideas. Lots of good illustrations.

[Hannelore · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it only skims the surface of the multitude of cultures, this book does not feel incomplete. I would consider it an introduction to anthropology and mythology of the ancient peoples. It's a great jumping off point to discover the many varied cultures of our past.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please read my review at Celtic Scholar.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent mix of archeology, history, and mythology.

Lots of pictures of artifacts related to shamans.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodness, I finished this a long time ago, and neglected to move it. I don't honestly remember much, though I know I liked it a great deal.