Prehistoric Polish Shaman Made Talisman from Meteorite

If you’re trying to prove to your followers that you’re a true shaman, you can’t go wrong with a talisman that’s from someplace other than where you live. Outer space would be even better. That’s why a shaman who lived 9.000 years ago in what is now Poland made his out of remnants of a meteorite that he and his fellow humans probably watched fall from the sky.

Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology in Szczecin found the natural pyrite meteorite fragment while excavating a hut in Bolków by Lake Świdwie in Western Pomerania. The cylindrical stone is 8 by 5.3 by 3.5 centimeters and was found in a collection of objects that a shaman would possess, including an amulet, a bone spear tip with engravings and a wand made of antler carved with geometric patterns.

Tadeusz Galinski of the Institute says the placement of the meteorite in the hut shows it was an object of special significance to humans of the Mesolithic period, indicating they may have even seen it fall, found the crater it created and felt its heat. In addition, the meteorite is much heavier than rocks of similar size, making it even more mysterious to them

The research team from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology has been in Bolków for several years and found the object last year but only recently determined it was from a meteorite, according to the report in PAP – Science and Scholarship in Poland. The peat layer the talisman was found in also contained a second hut with evidence of a hearth and a nearly intact Mesolithic hunting bow.

According to Tadeusz Galinski, this is the first evidence that a primitive culture worshiped a meteorite.

The original finder millennia ago probably saw in it shapes of a mysterious world of spirits.

Sure beats using it in a slingshot.