Did shamans always play the drum? Tracking down prehistoric shamanism in Central Asia

This paper considers the question of antiquity of shamanism in Central Asia and outlines several lines of enquiry into the issue. It analyses both linguistic and archaeological data with particular emphasis on ancient rock art. In the sphere of rock art studies it focuses on methodological questions...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Andrzej Rozwadowski
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani (Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts) 2012-12-01
Series:Documenta Praehistorica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/DocumentaPraehistorica/article/view/1825
Description
Summary:This paper considers the question of antiquity of shamanism in Central Asia and outlines several lines of enquiry into the issue. It analyses both linguistic and archaeological data with particular emphasis on ancient rock art. In the sphere of rock art studies it focuses on methodological questions connected with identifying shamanism in visual arts. It concludes that most convincing traits of shamanic symbolism, which characterizes Central Asian tradition, can be deciphered in the art dated to four thousand years.
ISSN:1408-967X
1854-2492