8,000-year-old elk teeth reveal psychedelic Stone Age dance tendencies
Researchers danced in Stone Age-style elk tooth ornaments for hours on end then compared the markings to those found in ancient burial grounds.
A YouTube screenshot of Stone Age-style elk tooth ornaments believed to have been worn for dancing
(photo credit: YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT)
Ornaments made of elk teeth dating back some 8,000 years have revealed a startling pattern of psychedelic-like dancing that
took place in the Stone Age, according to a new study co-authored by
researchers from the University of Helsinki and the Russian Academy of
Sciences.
The peer-reviewed study,
published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, revealed that
ancient ornaments attached to clothing would make rattling noise when
moving, egging on a dance based on the sound.
This
study used ornaments found in the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov burial site,
which contains 177 graves discovered so far, over half of which contain
elk tooth ornaments. Some of those contain over 300 individual teeth.
"Wearing
such rattlers while dancing makes it easier to immerse yourself in the
soundscape, eventually letting the sound and rhythm take control of your
movements," said auditory archaeologist Riitta Rainio from the
University of Helsinki, according to the university's website. "It is as
if the dancer is led in the dance by someone."
"Elk
tooth rattlers are fascinating, since they transport modern people to a
soundscape that is thousands of years old and to its emotional rhythms
that guide the body," said University of Helsinki Associate Professor of
Archaeology Kristiina Mannermaa. "You can close your eyes, listen to
the sound of the rattlers and drift on the soundwaves to a lakeside
campfire in the world of Stone Age hunter-gatherers."
Rainio
tested the theory by dancing in the ornaments for six hours straight,
imitating the way in which those who wore them during the Stone Age
would dance.
Stone Age Rattle Reconstructed
The teeth clanged against one another, creating microscopic marks
that were later compared to those found by Evgeny Girya of the Russian
Academy of Sciences - who specializes in micro-marks in archaeology - on
elk teeth found in ancient graves in the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov burial
site.
Girya found
that the markings in the teeth that were worn while dancing and those
from the Stone Age were strikingly similar, with the Stone Age markings
being deeper and more extensive, showing that the marks are "the result
of similar activity," according to the University of Helsinki.
An April study
conducted by Israeli researchers found that prehistoric humans sought
psychedelic experiences in deep and narrow caves, as penetrating several
hundred meters deep into the caverns represented a conscious choice
that allowed prehistoric humans to connect with their cosmos, with the
low concentration of oxygen found in those environments acting as a
drug.
This state of being is called hypoxia, and it officially occurs when the oxygen concentration is below 18%.
Its
symptoms, the researcher pointed out, include dizziness and headaches
but also euphoria and an increase in the release of dopamine - not
unlike the effect researchers believe that dancing with elk tooth
ornaments seems to have.
This
newest study was part of a larger project titled "The Animals Make
Identities: The Social Bioarchaeology of Late Mesolithic and Early
Neolithic Cemeteries in North-East Europe." It looks into the social
ties between humans and animals specifically in hunter-gatherer burial
sites in northeast Europe - such as the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov burial
site.
Rossella Tercatin contributed to this report.
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