Deer Offerings in the Stone Age of Eurasia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Embodied Essence: Anthropological, Historical, and Archaeological Perspectives on the Use of Body Parts and Bodily Substances in Religious Beliefs and Practices" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Deer Cult was a primary element of the myth-ritual complex of ancient hunter-gatherers. Deer worship included rituals related to natural and economic cycles, including the human life cycle. In the Upper Paleolithic, accumulation of deer antlers in caves in Western Europe and the Urals as well as images of deer or deer heads in the monumental and portable art of the Franco-Cantabrian area are evidence of rituals devoted to the reproduction of deer. During the Mesolithic-Neolithic period of Northern Eurasia, the image of deer and elk became dominant in the myth-ritual complex. This rock art reflects the rituals of cervid reproduction and additional archaeological material point to the existence of sacrificial rites of deer and moose which over time developed into multilayered sanctuaries. Sacrificial offerings of deer, especially buried body parts or complete skeletons, found in Neolithic-Chalcolithic archaeological sites in Central Europe indicate that elements of the Deer Cult continued well beyond the transition to agriculture. The use of deer remains in agricultural magic is still well known among the peoples of North and Central America.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Embodied Essence: Anthropological, Historical, and Archaeological Perspectives on the Use of Body Parts and Bodily Substances in Religious Beliefs and Practices   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39768.0