
Well, well, well. The Upton Lovell shaman, dug out of a Wiltshire barrow in the early 1800s and shown off ever since as a bearded bloke in a bone cloak, turns out to have been a woman – a shamanka. Ancient DNA, three separate bones, the same answer each time. She lived around 3,800 ya (BC 1,800), and she was buried barely 10 miles (16km) west of Stonehenge.
Derived from the Tungusic word šaman meaning “one who knows” a shamanka is a female shaman. The word combines the term “shaman” with the Russian feminine suffix “-ka.”
