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12,000-YEAR-OLD GRAVE: A SHAMAN WITH ANIMAL TOTEMS

rendering of the shaman from the Bad Dürrenberg burial described below

Eliza Strickland wrote in Discover News: “In a dusty cave in Israel, archaeologists have unearthed a 12,000-year-old grave that they say may be the resting spot of one of the earliest known shamans. The grave contains the artfully arranged bones of a roughly 45-year-old woman as well as a collection of animal and human body parts, including a complete human foot, 50 tortoise shells, and bones from a wild boar, an eagle, and a leopard. [Source: Eliza Strickland, Discover News, November 4, 2008 ==]

““What was unusual here was there were so many different parts of different animals that were unusual, that were clearly put there on purpose,” said researcher Natalie Munro…. This care along with the animal parts point to the grave belonging to both an important member of the society and possibly a healer called a shaman…. Such healers mediate between the human and spirit worlds, often summoning the help of animal spirits along their quests, according to the researchers [LiveScience]. ==

“In the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [subscription required], researchers describe the cemetery of a prehistoric Natufian settlement. The Natufian culture, which lasted from roughly 15,000 to 11,500 years ago, played a central role in the transition from foraging to farming and was the first known society to live in year-round settlements. Burials of the dead increased dramatically in number among the Natufians, indicating that these people assigned much symbolic importance to treatment of the dead [Science News]. ==

“The woman’s skeleton was separated from the other 26 burial sites found in the cave, and her grave was the only one lined with slabs of limestone. Ten large stones had been placed on her head, arms, and pelvis, perhaps to hold her body in a particular position, or because the community was trying to keep the shaman and her spirit inside the grave, [study coauthor Leore] Grosman said. It is likely that the 50 tortoises were brought live to the site and were eaten as part of a feast surrounding the burial, according to the researchers [Bloomberg].” ==

Feast of Turtles and Steak for 12,000-Year-Old Female Shaman

The world's first known organized feast — or food event of any kind — appears to have been a meal for 35 people that included the meat 71 tortoises and at least three wild cattle held around 12,000 years ago at a burial site in Israel. Jennifer Viegas wrote in Discovery News: “The discovery additionally provides the earliest known compelling evidence for a shaman burial, the apparent reason for the feasting. A shaman is an individual who performs rituals and engages in other practices for healing or divination. In this case, the shaman was a woman. "I wasn't surprised that the shaman was a woman, because women have often taken on shamanistic roles as healers, magicians and spiritual leaders in societies across the globe," lead author Natalie Munro told Discovery News. [Source: Discovery News, Jennifer Viegas, August 30, 2010 ||~||]

“Munro, a University of Connecticut anthropologist, and colleague Leore Grosman of Hebrew University in Jerusalem excavated and studied the shaman's skeleton and associated feasting remains. These were found at the burial site, Hilazon Tachtit cave, located about nine miles west of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. According to the study, published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the grave consisted of an oval-shaped basin that was intentionally cut into the cave's floor. "After the oval was excavated, the sides and bottom of the floor were lined with stone slabs lined and plastered with clay brought into the cave from outside," said Munro. ||~||

Cast for the funeral of a child at Qafzeh Cave in Israel

“The 71 tortoise shells, previously butchered for meat removal, were found situated under, around and on top of the remains of the woman. The woman's skeleton indicates she suffered from deformities that would have possibly made her limp and "given her an unnatural, asymmetrical appearance." A large triangular stone slab was placed over the grave to seal it. Bones from at least three butchered aurochs — large ancestors of today's domestic cattle — were unearthed in a nearby hollow. An auroch's tail, a wild boar forearm, a leopard pelvis and two marten skulls were also found. ||~||

“The total amount of meat could have fed 35 people, but it is possible that many more attended the event. "These remains attest to the unique position of this individual within her community and to her special relationship with the animal world," Munro said. Before this discovery, other anthropologists had correctly predicted that early feasting might have occurred just prior to the dawn of agriculture. ||~||

Harvard's Ofer Bar-Yosef, for example, found that fig trees were being domesticated in the Near East about 11,400 years ago, making them the first known domesticated crop. Staples such as wheat, barley and legumes were domesticated in the region roughly a thousand years later. Full-scale agriculture occurred later, about 10,000 years ago. As agriculture began, however, "there was a critical switch in the human mind: from exploiting the earth as it is to actively changing the environment to suit our needs," Bar-Yosef said. Munro agrees and thinks the change could help to explain the advent of communal feasting. "People were coming into contact with each other a lot, and that can create friction," she said. "Before, they could get up and leave when they had problems with the neighbors. Now, these public events served as community-building opportunities, which helped to relieve tensions and solidify social relationships."” ||~||

12,000-Year-Old 'Shaman' Funeral Held at Mysterious Burial in Israel

In 2016, Hebrew University archaeologists announced that they had uncovered a 12,000-year old-grave inside a cave in northern Israel where it appeared a sham funeral was held. Rob Verger of FoxNews.com wrote: “Eighty-six tortoise shells, an eagle’s wing, and the pelvis of a leopard are some of the bizarre objects placed under, around, or on the body of a petite woman, likely a shaman, buried 12,000 years ago in Israel.The woman’s body was placed on materials like clay and the cores of gazelle horns, and in addition to the other items, sea shells, a wild boar’s forearm, and a human foot were put on her body. [Source: Rob Verger, FoxNews.com, July 7, 2016 /*]

“These details about the intricate burial of an unknown woman come from a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, archaeologist Leore Grosman, who, along with a professor from the University of Connecticut, Natalie Munro, have carried out an analysis of the fascinating funeral of a mysterious woman who was just under five feet tall. Together, the clues they discovered point to a six-stage funeral for a special woman, whose grave was sealed by a large rock. "The high quality of preservation and recovery of a well-preserved grave of an unusual woman, probably a shaman, enabled the identification of six stages of a funerary ritual,” Grosman said, in a statement. /*\

“The small grave, first discovered in 2008, is located in northern Israel near the Hilazon river. The researchers report that there was a great deal of preparation for the burial. Not only did the ancient people have to dig a pit to place the body in, but they had to procure 86 tortoises for their shells. Other objects and materials laid to rest with the woman include, flint, red ochre, and animal bones. "The significant pre-planning implies that there was a defined 'to do' list, and a working plan of ritual actions and their order," Grosman added. /*\

“This burial, which took place about 12,000 years ago, happened during the Natufian period, an era that spanned 15,000 to 11,500 years ago. This archeological find, the researchers say, demonstrated that funeral rituals were becoming more important events to people during this time period. The original discovery of this ancient grave was reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008, which describes the woman as both elderly and disabled. The analysis of the multiple stages of this complex burial was recently published in the journal Current Anthropology.” /*\

skeleton of a woman from Qafzeh Cave in Israel

9000-Year-Old Female Shaman in Germany

Andrew Curry wrote in Archaeology Magazine: Bad Dürrenberg is a modest spa town in eastern Germany, perched on a bluff overlooking the Saale River. In 1934, workers were laying pipe to supply the spa’s fountain with water when they came across red-tinted earth. A local teacher was quickly called to come to the trench. He began to dig and alerted an archaeologist named Wilhelm Henning based in the nearby city of Halle. By the time Henning arrived, the teacher had uncovered flint blades, mussel shells, roe deer remains, and wild boar tusks. Given just a few hours to work before the trench had to be filled in, Henning salvaged what he could, pulling human bones from the earth and trying to recover as many as possible. A rough sketch made during the dig..[Source: Andrew Curry, Archaeology Magazine, March/April 2023]

Among the finds that emerged from the grave that afternoon was a second, tiny skull belonging to an infant of less than a year old, found between the thighs of the adult burial. Other unusual items included the delicate antlers of a roe deer, still attached to part of the skull, that could have been worn as a headdress. Henning also unearthed a polished stone ax similar to a type known from other sites in the area and 31 microliths, small flint blades barely an inch long. These artifacts led archaeologists to conclude that the grave belonged to a Neolithic farmer. Their opinion would later turn out to be entirely wrong — the first, but far from the last, time that archaeologists’ interpretation of the skeleton’s identity was mistaken.

Over the decades, generations of scholars would revisit the Bad Dürrenberg remains in the museum and advance new theories. In the 1950s, researchers reexamined the skeleton and, based on the shape of the pelvis and other bones, suggested that they belonged to a woman. The copious grave goods — in addition to the antler headdress, blades, mussel shells, and boar tusks there were hundreds of other artifacts, including boars’ teeth, turtle shells, and bird bones — clearly marked the burial as special. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that radiocarbon dating showed that the bones were 9,000 years old. In the 2010s, archaeologist Judith Grünberg of the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt went through the boxes of artifacts from the grave. She reexamined the boars’ teeth and concluded that they had been drilled through so they could be attached to an animal skin, which, in combination with the antler headdress, led her to suggest that the grave belonged to a shaman.

Harald Meller, director of the State Museum of Prehistory in Germany, believes that the Bad Dürrenberg burial is proof that human spirituality became more specialized at this time, too, with specific people in the community delegated to interact with the spirit world, often with the help of trances or psychoactive substances. Combined with the earlier analysis of the woman’s grave, the team’s new finds and meticulous look at her bones painted a more complete picture of the shaman. They conjectured that, from an early age, she had been singled out as different from other members of her community. Even in death, her unusually rich grave marked her as exceptional. Earlier scholars, including Grünberg, had speculated that she was a shaman who served as an intermediary between her community and the spirit world, and Meller says that the new finds prove it beyond a doubt.

In her role as a shaman, the woman would have interceded with supernatural powers on behalf of the sick and injured or to ensure success in the hunt. “You travel in other worlds on behalf of your people with the help of your spirit animal,” says Meller. Just as some people in the Mesolithic specialized in fishing or carving, the Bad Dürrenberg woman specialized in accessing the spirit world. “She must have had talents or skills that were highly esteemed in society,” Jöris says.

New Details About 9000-Year-Old Female Shaman in Germany

antler headdress from Eilsleben in the Halle State Museum of Prehistory

Andrew Curry wrote in Archaeology Magazine: As part of the new archaeological project that started with the reexcavation of the grave in 2019, researchers took yet another look at the woman’s skeleton. A closer examination of her teeth showed that they had been deliberately filed down, exposing the pulp inside. This would have been extremely painful and would have produced a steady flow of blood as the pulp died. The woman would have had to keep the now hollow teeth scrupulously clean to avoid deadly infections. This excruciating procedure, Meller says, might have been a pain ritual to establish her as an interlocutor with the spirit world. Upon close inspection, the woman’s spine revealed a deformity that may have further enhanced her mystical aura. According to Orschiedt and Walter Wohlgemuth, head of radiology at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, the woman had an unusual nub of bone on the inside of her second cervical vertebra that would have compressed a vital artery when she tilted her head back and to the left, cutting off blood flow to her brain. The result was likely an extremely rare condition called nystagmus, a rhythmic twitch of the eyeball that is impossible to deliberately reproduce and would have appeared uncanny to the people in her community. She would have been able to switch it off by angling her head forward to relieve pressure on the artery. “She could deliberately put her head back and induce nystagmus,” Meller says. “It must have added greatly to her credibility as a shaman.” [Source: Andrew Curry, Archaeology Magazine, March/April 2023]

Bioarchaeological analysis of the woman’s bones further helped researchers piece together how she lived. Compared with other known Mesolithic skeletons, the woman’s bones showed little sign of stress or injury, suggesting she spent more time sitting than working. The places where muscle attached to the bone, and her bones themselves, were more robust and denser than those of most people living today, but not as well developed as those of her contemporaries. And though her bones suggest she was only in her 30s when she died, the shaman’s back was gently curved, suggesting she spent much of her time bent forward, possibly in an effort to stop her eye from twitching. “She was a lot more athletic than any of us, but compared to people at the time her bones were delicate,” Meller says. “She moved less and was probably seen as particularly special because of the nystagmus.”

The woman's skeleton and the remains of the baby she cradled also contain invisible clues to their identities. Techniques of ancient DNA analysis unavailable just a decade ago have made it possible to answer other questions. Among the finds recovered from the soil by Meller’s team was an inner ear bone belonging to the baby. Not much bigger than a fingernail, this pyramid-shaped bone, which protects fragile parts of the ear, is unusually dense and preserves genetic material particularly well. The shaman’s inner ear bone, too, was preserved along with her skull, which was found during the original excavation. DNA analysis conducted by geneticist Wolfgang Haak of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology added color to her portrait. Genes for skin pigmentation and hair and eye color showed she was probably dark-skinned, dark-haired, and light-eyed. The baby, the researchers found, was a boy.

DNA extracted from the inner ear bones of the woman and the baby also helped establish their relationship to each other, which was more complex than supposed. They were not, in fact, mother and child, as archaeologists had expected. “It was always assumed the baby was hers,” says Haak. “And it turns out that he’s not.” Instead, the two were distantly related on the mother’s side, second cousins, perhaps, or the woman may have been the baby’s great-great grandmother. Because she was only in her 30s when she died, the latter would mean the baby was placed inside the grave long after her death.

The grave itself, along with the objects deposited inside, provided the final clues to understanding the power of the shaman’s mystical abilities. Researchers believe that the animal remains placed in the burial might have had symbolic meaning. Prey species such as deer and bison or aurochs may have been meant to evoke shamanic rituals intended to provide luck in the hunt. Marsh birds such as cranes, whose bones were also found in the grave, were the ultimate boundary-crossers, capable of flying in the heavens, nesting on the ground, and swimming underwater — a power the shaman might have called upon in her efforts to cross into the spirit world. The birds’ annual migration might also have had mystical significance, as they disappeared in winter and returned each spring. Turtles, whose shells were found by the dozen among the grave offerings, also cross from land to water. “It’s mind-boggling the spectrum of animal remains there are,” Haak says. “It’s a bit of a zoo.”

9,000-Year-Old Cave Rituals on Sweden’s ‘Witchcraft' Island

Bad Dürrenberg burial

Archaeologists say they have discovered evidence of Stone Age rituals on an island off Sweden, which has long been linked with tales of witchcraft, supernatural powers and curses. Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: “A Stone Age site where cave rituals may have been performed some 9,000 years ago has been discovered on Blå Jungfrun, an island off the east coast of Sweden. Blå Jungfrun's "huge boulders and steep cliffs provide a dramatic landscape, and for centuries the uninhabited island has been associated with supernatural powers," wrote a team of archaeologists in the summary of a presentation given recently at the European Association of Archaeologists annual meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.[Source: Owen Jarus, Live Science, September 22, 2015 \=]

“According to a centuries-old legend, witches gather every Easter on the island to worship the devil himself. Curses have also been associated with the island. For instance, those who remove a rock from the site are said to endure a lifetime of bad luck. How far back these beliefs and stories go is unknown. "The time depth of these stories is shrouded in mist but could be considerable," the archaeologists say. \=\

“The team began archaeological fieldwork on the island in the spring of 2014. "The results are astonishing and reveal extensive human activities on the island in the Mesolithic Stone Age," the archaeologists wrote. People who travelled to the island may have practiced various rituals inside the two caves, archaeologists say. One cave contains what may be an altar where offerings could have been made to deities. Meanwhile another cave has an area that could have been used like a "theater" or "stage." "In two caves, distinct ritual features were identified," wrote the team members, who hail from Kalmar County Museum and Linnaeus University, both in Sweden. \=\

“One cave has a massive hollow, about 2.3 feet (0.7 meters) in diameter, which was hammered into a vertical wall. A fireplace lies underneath the hollow. "We believe the hollow is man-made and that the fireplace has been used in connection to hammering out the hollow, probably [on] several occasions," said Ludvig Papmehl-Dufay, an archaeologist with Kalmar County Museum. Archaeologists said they are not certain what took place here; however, one clue comes from the cave's layout. "The entrance to the cave is very narrow, and you have to squeeze your way in. [However,] once you're inside, only half of the cave is covered and you can actually stand above the cave and look down into it, almost like a theater or a stage below," said Papmehl-Dufay. The "act of producing the hollow could have been the important part [of the ritual], perhaps even the sound created while doing so," he said. The noise from the hammering and the sight of the fire burning, as viewed from above, may have created an interesting effect for Stone Age audiences, the researchers said.” \=\

“The second cave yielded yet more strange clues. Archaeologists found a hammerstone and an area that was used for grinding up material. This area "could have been used to place something in, perhaps as part of some form of offering, like an altar," Papmehl-Dufay said. In between the two caves, the archaeologists discovered a small rock shelter, just 20 by 26 feet (6 by 8 meters), that contained stone tools and seal remains. Radiocarbon dating indicates people consumed the seals around 9,000 years ago. "A few people could have been sitting or standing, perhaps just resting or spending the night during sporadic stays on the island," Papmehl-Dufay said. "However, more-specific activities with ritual elements to [them] cannot be ruled out, such as feasting in connection to the rituals performed in the nearby caves." \=\

artifacts from the Teviec burial

4,400-Year-Old Shaman's 'Snake Staff' Discovered in Finland

A 4,400-year-old life-size wooden snake unearthed in Finland may have been a staff used in “magical” rituals by a Stone Age shaman, according to a study published in in June 2021 published in the journal Antiquity. Tom Metcalfe wrote for NBC News: “The lifelike figurine, which was carved from a single piece of wood, is 53 centimeters (21 inches) long and about 2.5 centimeters (an inch) thick at its widest, with what seems to be a very snake-like head with its mouth open. It was found perfectly preserved in a buried layer of peat near the town of Järvensuo, about 130 kilometers (75 miles) northwest of Helsinki, at a prehistoric wetland site that archaeologists think was occupied by Neolithic (late Stone Age) peoples 4,000 to 6,000 years ago. [Source:Tom Metcalfe, NBC News, June 29, 2021]

“It’s unlike anything else ever found in Finland, although a few stylized snake figurines have been found at Neolithic archaeological sites elsewhere in the eastern Baltic region and Russia. “They don’t resemble a real snake, like this one,” University of Turku archaeologist Satu Koivisto said. “My colleague found it in one of our trenches last summer. … I thought she was joking, but when I saw the snake’s head it gave me the shivers.” “Personally I do not like living snakes, but after this discovery I have started to like them,” she added.

Koivisto and her colleague Antti Lahelma, an archaeologist at the University of Helsinki, are the co-authors of the study They think it may have been a staff used in supposedly magical rituals by a shaman. Ancient rock art from Finland and northern Russia shows human figures with what look like snakes in their hands, which are thought to be portrayals of shamans wielding ritual staffs of wood carved to look like snakes. Lahelma said snakes were regarded as especially sacred in the region. “There seems to be a certain connection between snakes and people,” Lahelma told Antiquity. “This brings to mind northern shamanism of the historical period, where snakes had a special role as spirit-helper animals of the shaman … Even though the time gap is immense, the possibility of some kind of continuity is tantalizing: Do we have a Stone Age shaman's staff?”

The figurine from Järvensuo certainly looks like a real snake. Its slender body is formed by two sinuously carved bends that continue to a tapered tail. The flat, angular head with its open mouth is especially realistic. Koivisto and Lahelma suggest it resembles a grass snake or European adder in the act of slithering or swimming away. The place where it was found was probably a lush water meadow at the time when it was “lost, discarded or intentionally deposited,” the researchers wrote. Wood usually rots away when exposed to oxygen in the air or water, but sediments at the bottoms of swamps, rivers and lakes can cover some organic objects and preserve them for thousands of years.

“The site near Järvensuo is thought to have been on the shores of a shallow lake when it was inhabited by groups of people in the late Stone Age. Recent excavations have yielded a trove of organic remains that have enabled archaeologists to create a more complete record of the site, Koivisto said. The finds have included a wooden tool with a handle shaped like a bear, wooden paddles and fishnet floats made of pine and birch bark. “What a remarkable thing,” said Peter Rowley-Conwy, an archaeologist and professor emeritus of Durham University “The ‘head’ appears definitely to have been carved to shape.” “But he was cautious about ascribing greater meaning to it: “A skeptic might wonder whether the sinuous shape was deliberate, or an accidental result of four millennia of waterlogging,” he said. “I have worked on various bog sites with preserved wood, and wood fragments can be considerably distorted.”

Hair Found in Spanish Cave Reveals People Took Psychedelics 3,000 Years Ago

Three-thousand-year-old hair found in Es Càrritx cave on the Spanish island of Menorca has revealed the first direct evidence of drug use in prehistory according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports in April 2023. Sarah Kuta wrote in Smithsonian.org: The hair contained psychoactive alkaloids, which are found naturally in some plants and can induce altered states of consciousness. Archaeologists think that ancient humans may have ingested them during ritual ceremonies. [Source: Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian,org, April 10, 2023]

Humans first began inhabiting Es Càrritx around 3,600 years ago, the researchers said in a statement. Spelunkers stumbled the cave in 1995. Once archaeologists started excavating the site, they discovered the remains of roughly 210 individuals, as well as sealed, decorative containers full of strands of hair that had been dyed red. Using high-resolution mass spectroscopy and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography, researchers carefully tested the hairs. They found atropine and scopolamine, two alkaloid substances that can cause hallucinations, delirium and altered sensory perceptions. They also discovered ephedrine, a stimulant that can cause increased alertness and excitement. Our Bronze Age ancestors likely consumed those compounds by eating certain plants, including mandrake, henbane, horn apple and joint pine. Scientists concluded that these individuals had been ingesting the drugs over the span of at least a year.

Why these communities were consuming the substances isn’t entirely clear, though the team suspects shamans may have used them while performing religious ceremonies. The containers that held the hair were decorated with concentric circles, which the researchers say could have symbolized the “inner vision” gained by ingesting the plants. “This was not a profane purpose of ‘searching for a high’ but more generally the search for existential meaning that has been largely lost to time,” says Giorgio Samorini, an independent ethnobotanist who was not involved in the new research, to the New York Times’ Andrew Jacobs.

The researchers write that while mind-altering drugs are “usually invisible in the archaeological record,” their existence “used to be inferred from indirect evidence,” such as residue on pieces of pottery. The hairs, however, provide the first direct proof of drug consumption among Europeans. Few hairs are still in existence from this period and this region. As study co-author Elisa Guerra Doce, a prehistorian at the University of Valladolid, tells National Geographic’s Tom Metcalfe, “We are very, very lucky.”

3000-Year-Old Wishing Well Used for Rituals Found in Bavaria

In January 2023, archaeologists in the Bavarian town of Germering in Germany announced that they had unearthed a 3,000-year-old wooden wishing well filled more than 100 artifacts that appeared to indicate was used for ritualistic purposes. The artifacts included more than 70 well-preserved clay vessels, including numerous decorative bowls, cups and pots that were used for special occasions and not "simple everyday crockery," according to statement. [Source: Jennifer Nalewicki, Live Science, January 13, 2023]

Archaeologists also found more than two dozen bronze robe pins, a bracelet, four amber beads, two metal spirals, a mounted animal tooth and a wooden scoop. "It is extremely rare for a well to survive more than 3,000 years so well," Jochen Haberstroh, an archaeologist with the Bavarian State Office for Monument Conservation, said in the statement. "Its wooden walls are completely preserved on the ground and partly still moistened by groundwater. That also explains the good condition of the finds made of organic materials, which are now being examined more closely. We hope that this will provide us with more information about the everyday life of the settlers at the time."

Based on the excellent preservation of the artifacts alone, researchers think villagers likely offered the items for "cult rituals" and that they "were lowered into the well," as opposed to the modern-day act of tossing coins into the water, according to the statement. "They were intended as sacrifices for a good harvest," Mathias Pfeil, general conservator for the Bavarian State Office for Monument Conservation, said in the statement. The December archaeological dig was conducted prior to the construction of a distribution center in the area. Since 2021, archaeologists have unearthed more than 13,500 artifacts dating to the Bronze Age and the early Middle Ages where the construction project is taking place.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons except Bad Dürrenberg burial and shaman from Saxony-Anhalt tourism

Text Sources: National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. Live Science, Discover magazine, Discovery News, Ancient Foods ancientfoods.wordpress.com ; Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated May 2024