HALLE — Researchers at the State Museum of Prehistory in the eastern German city of Halle have completed new DNA and archaeological analysis on a 9,000-year-old Mesolithic grave, overturning decades of Nazi-era propaganda that had characterized the remains as those of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Aryan man. The findings instead identify the skeleton as that of a dark-skinned, dark-haired, light-eyed woman whom archaeologists have interpreted as a shaman based on burial artifacts.

The grave was discovered in 1934 by a construction crew digging to build pipes for a spa garden. The crew contacted the museum, which sent an archaeologist to the site. Given only three hours to excavate, the archaeologist removed the skull first, breaking standard excavation procedures. The discovery came roughly one year into the Nazi Party's rule under Adolf Hitler, a period in which archaeologists were incorporated into the regime's nation-building propaganda program. Nazi-era archaeologists declared the remains to be those of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Aryan man from the Neolithic period, and the discovery was politicized to support Nazi propaganda.

In the years after World War II, archaeologists re-examined the remains and determined they belonged to a woman, not a man. In the 1970s, radiocarbon dating concluded the remains were approximately 9,000 years old and dated to the Mesolithic period rather than the Neolithic. A recent DNA test confirmed the remains belonged to a dark-skinned, dark-haired, light-eyed woman.

"She is not a white Aryan man. She's a dark-skinned colored woman," museum archaeologist Oliver Dietrich said. He added, "This is basically a complete skeleton, so we have had a lot of luck, and it's not least due to a very impressive grave construction."

Archaeologists interpreted the individual as a shaman based on burial artifacts, which included a skull cap made of deer antlers, boar tusks, and various animal teeth as part of what appeared to be a shaman's costume. The skeleton shows a notch at the base of the skull and two misformed vertebrae below it. Dietrich's team said the vertebrae deformities would pinch an artery when the head tilted back, causing nystagmus and possibly hallucinations.

Dietrich's team found offerings of deer skullcaps and elaborate arrangements of animal bones at the grave site along the Saale River dating to at least 600 years after the shaman's death. "She is a venerated ancestor, I would say," Dietrich said. "Maybe we are at the brink of an ancestor cult here."

Around that same period, humans in the region began roaming less and settling near reliable food sources. Only a small number of Mesolithic graves of this type have been discovered in Europe. The museum's exhibit includes 200-year-old shaman costumes from Siberia with elements similar to the Mesolithic shaman's burial costume.