This neolithic burial on the Kolyma tributary Panteleikha, whose age was 3600 years, turned out to be the northernmost in the world.
The archaeologist Sergei Kistenyov, who discovered it, was amazed by another circumstance - the remains of a woman rested in an ancient grave, which journalists hastened to christen "the Amazon from Panteleikha", since next to her a whole arsenal of all kinds of weapons was preserved: bow, stone and bone knives, daggers, axes, arrowheads spears and arrows. But many objects from the excavation site indicated that not just a warrior appeared in the eyes of scientists …
The "Amazon", lying in a symbolic birch bark boat, was literally strewn with beads (there were more than 18 thousand of them) from shells and egg shells, along with necklaces of animal fangs, ornamented amulets, pendants, sculptural and stylized images of birds of prey, apparently part of the ritual costume. Some of the finds bore crosses and other mysterious symbols. And on one of the oval bone plates, lying on the chest of the "Amazon", there were depicted sharp-headed men, in the form of which in the old days in the traditional beliefs of the northerners the masters of the lower world, or "shadows of the dead" were represented.
So there was no doubt: the most ancient shaman of Yakutia rests on the bank of Panteleikha. The richness of the burial, the huge number of items in it that are very valuable for people of the late Stone Age, suggests that the buried woman was highly respected among her fellow tribesmen, although she was relatively young, no older than 25 years. It is interesting that among her "personal items", the purpose of which scientists to one degree or another represent, there was a strange, still causing scientific controversy "slide rule" made of a deer rib with notches and some signs - or a bone "computer "For some kind of calculations, or something sacred and completely unknown to us.
So, a stone age shaman. Why not a shaman? Let's try to figure it out.
As you know, any religion in its embryonic state is associated with belief in some supernatural forces and subjects - powerful and all-pervading. Let's call them spirits. At an early stage, each person tries to independently build his own relationship with them - he performs some primitive rituals of coaxing or asking for help. But soon enough it turns out that some of these actions are better, and some spirits do not want to hear at all. It was then that from among the more successful, a primitive sorcerer was born, and most often a sorceress. It is she who takes on the responsibilities of communicating with the spirits on behalf of the entire tribe, gradually becoming a professional.
Why is this place occupied by a woman? Yes, because, firstly, in some places matriarchy has not yet ended; secondly, the sacrament of the birth of a new life is associated with a woman; and thirdly, she, unlike a man, does not run all day in search of prey with a stone ax, but rather “communicates” with the world of herbs and plants, directly serves the great and saving power of fire and generally feels the world more subtly.
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But a witch is not a shaman yet. The first can communicate with spirits, control some of them, make sacrifices, even human ones, and even "let" spirits into their own body, temporarily transforming into them. But with all her power, the sorceress is not able to personally go on a journey into the world of the dead, go down to the underworld to the rulers of evil, or soar to the upper tiers of heaven to the main deities. And not just to move there in space and time, but to fulfill a certain active mission. As soon as the sorceress learns to do this, she moves up a notch in the occult hierarchy and becomes a shaman.
In the Yakut and Tungus languages, the shaman is called “udagan”, although in the Russian pronunciation “udaganka” sounds more familiar. They are similar in sound (utgan, odegon) and a similar meaning of the word in other Siberian and Asian languages. This happened because “ut” or “ot” means “fire”, and “gan” is a feminine suffix. That is, we are talking about a servant, a priestess of fire. The fact that the Udagan women began to explore the heavenly and underground spaces earlier than male shamans is evidenced by many plots of the ancient Yakut epic olonkho.
In these plots, the udagans of the lower or upper worlds interfere with the magical adventures, battles and exploits of the main mythical heroes-heroes, often completely changing the situation and its final results. Shamans are omnipotent, brave and decisive, they turn into beautiful snow-white cranes, then into huge eight-legged spotted bulls, then they raise the dead and free the captives, then they make judgments and predict the future.
Moreover, their quantitative composition is about ten times more than male shamans, and only the Udagan women fly across the sky, leaving the middle and lower worlds to the oyun shamans. All this once again suggests that in the distant past, a woman with a tambourine dominated a man. This is also evidenced by the fact that the clothes and headdresses of male shamans among the Buryats, Yakuts, Altaians, Evenks today are similar to women in some details, they wear long hair and let it loose when rituals. And Chukchi shamans not only braid their braids, but also become real transvestites. Therefore, in our opinion, we can assume that all this is a “long echo” of the heyday of the Udagan women.
True, in closer historical periods, men managed to noticeably press the fair sex and practically remove it, say, from the "white" shamans, since the latter acquired a high social status and clan power. And the power has already passed to the men.
Pagan Anna Pavlova
Nevertheless, stories about some famous Udagans still live among the people. For example, about Anna Pavlova, who was as famous in Yakutia at the beginning of the last century as her legendary namesake ballerina in Russia.
Anna was very tall for Yakut women (over one meter ninety) and at the same time was distinguished by an excellent build. She had fair skin, regular and expressive features, large, penetrating eyes, a deep, low voice that "causes coldness on the back," long, lush hair. In her youth, the Udagan was known as a rare beauty, especially since she always dressed richly and gracefully - in furs and silk, and especially loved to wear a long white dress with silver national decorations.
Apparently, having the external data of the current top models, she was also distinguished by a decent mind, manners, since the governor himself, despite Anna's “pagan” path, considered it a pleasure to receive her in his home. Moreover, in the presence of distinguished guests from St. Petersburg, such as Count Ignatiev, who visited Yakutsk in 1883. Anna Pavlova sat next to him at a dinner party among the seven first beauties of the Northern capital.
There are many stories about the various miracles shown by Anna Pavlova. The main feature of the famous udaganka was that it possessed a healing method similar to the famous operations of the Filipino healers. She only removed foreign objects and "roots of diseases" from her patients not with the help of her fingers, but by sucking the crane through the hollow bone. Thus, more than once she removed bone fragments stuck in the esophagus directly through the chest or back, without leaving any marks on the body.
Often in the summer, together with her friend, also a shaman, Anna amused herself by crossing the lake on its water surface, competing. At the same time, Vera's soles turned out to be at least a little, but wet, while Anna's they were always dry.
The famous udagan could point out exactly where the bodies of the drowned lie at the bottom of a river or lake, with the help of her son, a crow, she led the lost out of the forest, caused rain in case of strong fires, knew how to read other people's thoughts, and, if necessary, punish those who went too far.
Once Anna, still young and not too famous, decided to go around her ulus. The road was difficult, she was tired, hungry, and then just on the way she met someone's estate. Unfortunately, the owners turned out to be greedy people and from the doorway declared that they had nothing to treat, except for the remnants of an old cake and a cup of sleeping tea. Anna thanked for that too, and then asked for a knife - and suddenly … she cut off a solid layer of meat from her own leg. Placing it on the table, she invited the shocked hosts to join the meal. Of course, they didn't want to eat human flesh. After waiting for the guest to leave, the owners decided to finally have supper and sent the servant to the barn for the ham hanging there. When he returned, he brought … almost naked bones, from which all the flesh was carefully cut with a knife. Having looked at each other, the curmudgeons understood everything without words and began to cross themselves in fear.
On another occasion, Anna, on the contrary, helped a Yakut, whose pawn had disappeared somewhere - either it was stolen, or simply lost. Iron things were expensive at that time, the poor man did not have extra money to order an ice-pick, and without it he could neither fish nor maintain an open hole for watering cattle. In despair, the poor man came to udagan. She did not answer his plea, but literally in a moment she shouted: "Well, step aside, the peshna is flying!" And then the disappearance whistled in the air and stuck into the snow right at the feet of the shocked supplicant.
The last story is more like an anecdote. It happened already in the thirties, when the NKVD officers traveled to the villages and forcibly took away their suits and tambourines from the shamans.
Arriving at Anna Pavlova, the police, representatives of the ulus authorities and attesting witnesses turned to her with irony:
- They say you are a great udagan. Show us some miracle, maybe we will believe.
- This, kids, is not difficult to do, - Anna answered peacefully, - haven't you noticed that the yurt is filling with water?
Indeed, water began to rise rapidly from under the floor. The authorities were clearly frightened.
- Do not be afraid, children, - Anna grinned, - she will rise only to her knees. You see, pikes are swimming in it, catch them, but only one at a time, otherwise it will be bad.
Fish did appear in the water, and militiamen and officials grabbed a pike. And then they heard the old udagan laugh and the caustic words:
- They say a new government, a new government, and she's so shameless! Although I am an old woman, I am still a woman. How can men stand in front of a woman in such an obscene manner!..
And then the authorities suddenly saw that there was neither water nor pikes in the yurt, but they themselves were standing with their pants down and clutching … their genital organs. After such a scene, they had no time for confiscation.
Anna cured her last patient while lying in bed, three days before her own death, the date of which she had named in advance. She warned all her fellow villagers to stock up on firewood, food, water and hay for livestock ahead of time and not go far away, because nature will definitely mark her death with bad weather. Indeed, as eyewitnesses recalled, “the storm began with a strong east wind. For three days people could not take the cattle to the watering place and go out on their own …"
The Restless Amazon Spirit
Once an archaeologist came to me, who discovered the burial of the "Amazon with Panteleikha", and Sergei Kistenyov and I got to know better, he told me that behind the official scientific history of the discovery there is another one, from among those that are not accepted to be voiced by serious scientists in monographs. It turned out that ten years later, in a deserted excavation site, which is 18 kilometers from the regional center of Chersky, several families who did not know anything about the find decided to build summer cottages for themselves, founding a small summer cottage village Rodinka. Moreover, they turned the pit that remained from the excavation into … a garbage pit.
Almost immediately, the pioneers of the dacha business, despite all the beauties of nature, began to feel some kind of oppressive, heavy atmosphere, ailments and troubles fell on them. And then a strange unfamiliar woman began to appear at night at one of the summer residents. It ended with the fact that the summer residents tried to find out the origins of everything that was happening and only then did they find out in which place they settled. As a result, they contacted Kistenyov himself and received comprehensive information. The excavation was cleared, a plate was placed over it with the relevant information, apparently, more than once inwardly forgiveness was mentally asked, and maybe some kind of ceremony was performed. But whether after that it became better in the Mole - I don't know.
As expected, after the end of the excavations in Kolyma, all the finds were handed over to the institute's repository, and the bones of the shaman woman were sent to St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), where some of them were burned in a special installation, having determined their age by the radiocarbon method. The remains of the bones did not consider it necessary to return to Yakutia - they were simply thrown away. Nothing remained of the shaman woman in her native mole. Except, apparently, that disturbed, orphaned and offended by the waste of a restless spirit.
Several of the most interesting and valuable exhibits, including three carved from the bone of a bird-talisman, were exhibited in the archaeological museum of the scientific center in Yakutsk. Approximately at the moment of the beginning of the “dacha development” of the Mole, one bird first disappeared from the sealed hermetic showcase, and then the other two. Without a trace. From a guarded room, where strangers can only get in the presence of a guide. The policemen summoned by Kistenyov only threw up their hands. In despair, he tried to turn even to psychics whom he did not really believe, and one of them said that “the birds were taken by some woman who appeared in the museum”. Which one?..
And soon Kistenyov, who was still a young man, called me and sadly told me that he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor in an inoperable stage. “Probably, this is payback,” he sadly expressed his assumption. Sergey died literally a couple of months later - on March 8, a women's holiday.