Get the look: late bronze Age priest

In our blogs about the Jamna nomad and the bronze Age warrior, we delve into the migration of the proto-Indo-European steppe peoples to Europe and how this influenced our Bronze Age and our European DNA.

In this blog, we focus on their religion, which would eventually develop into the Greek, Celtic, Slavic, and Germanic religions.

The Indo-European religion is at the basic of many other religions, both in Europe and Asia. The migration to Europe resulted in the European pagan religions such as those of the Romans, Greeks, Slavs, Vikings, Germans, and Celts. From the Indo-European migration towards Asia, among others, the Persian and Hindu religions emerged. As a result, many similarities can be found among all these religions.

If we look at European paganism of the late bronze Age, we base it on a hypothetical religion reconstructed from the subsequent later religions.

Indo-European peoples share similar gods such as the father of the sky, mother earth, the twins, the thunder god, goddess of the dawn.

In addition to the many gods, ancestors were central. Their power and Hamingja 'karma' were passed on to the next privileged person in the family.

Gallic and Old Norse burial mounds show that often generations after the death of an ancestor, offerings were made to this ancestor. The Roman Lares are another example of this.

Animism was also important. The Celtic god Cernunnos and the Old Norse belief in Fylgjur (a spirit animal that accompanies you on your path) are examples of this. Animism may have been adopted from Neolithic farmers, hunter-gatherer-fishers, or from Siberian neighbors. The tree of life was also central in Indo-European religion.

For more information about the Indo-European religion see this blog.

Nowadays, the terms priest and shaman are often used as synonyms in a pagan context, which is not entirely correct.

A shaman is a person who 'spiritually sees'. The shaman does not necessarily have an influential societal role, whereas the high priest was often the king, emperor, or tribal leader.

A shaman tried to learn from the forces by seeking direct contact with these forces. Shamanism has no mythological dogma, no book, and no consistent way of expression.

The shaman tries to help people by ensuring that humans live in harmony with the natural world around them. While a priest uses mythology as a frame of reference. Both sometimes fulfill the role of helping a person on their path of fate or life destiny. (Fate is fixed, even the gods cannot change fate. It is up to you how you walk that path).

Of course, the Neolithic farmers adopted traditions from the hunter-gatherers. And naturally, the Indo-European steppe herders adopted traditions from the Neolithic farmers. Neither people disappeared; they slowly transitioned into the Indo-European peoples. The question is to what extent the animistic religions of these peoples differed from each other due to their different social structures. 

Since the Paleolithic, humans have been making figurines of women with exaggerated sexual organs. All three of these peoples did this. And the worship of the father god who impregnates the mother goddess was known to all three as well. It is not surprising if all three had a similar creation story. All three made sacrifices. And probably in pure calamity, they even sacrificed humans. Especially children and women, which again centers the divine power of women. From the Indo-European society, we know that they attributed divine power especially to women. (both Neolithic farmers and Indo-European peoples were patriarchal) 

There is no definitive answer to the question of whether Indo-European paganism is shamanistic. 

All three discussed peoples originally practiced animistic nature religions, and traces of this were visible into modern times. Also, in the comparative linguistics of Indo-European language studies, it is evident that words for gods and goddesses have origins in an animistic nature religion. Indo-European gods such as the Norse god Odin and the Greek god Prometheus perform shamanistic acts in their mythology. The Indo-European religion has an equivalent of the tree of life. Priests made predictions, practiced magic, and worshiped the gods in ways that can be seen as shamanistic. 

The complex pantheon and the Indo-European mythology differ so strongly from their original pragmatic, animistic nature religion, that one can no longer speak of shamanism, but of a priestly class.

In the hierarchical Neolithic and Indo-European societies, a priestly class emerged, making religion an institution. Often the tribal chief, king, or leader was central, or he functioned as the highest priest. This creates such a significant difference from what modern peoples with a long shamanistic tradition consider shamanistic, that it is more appropriate to speak of a priestly class.

Whether European paganism can or cannot be considered shamanistic, we leave to you.

It is likely that Indo-European cultures had a clear class system. This can be traced, among other things, from burial rituals and for whom they were or were not used. The Yamnaya culture, Hallstatt culture, and Viking culture all buried their dead in burial mounds, but this was by no means the case for all the dead. Burial mounds were only used for a specific part of the population. It took a lot of effort to create a burial mound. This makes it plausible that burial mounds were only built for men and women who held a very important role in their community, such as warriors and priests.

In this hierarchical system, priestesses or priests were at the top. Among the gods, a distinction was also made between the great (such as Olympian gods) and smaller gods, spirits (such as Roman Lares), and animism. While the latter must have played a significant role in the daily life of the ordinary person.

In the late bronze Age, both warriors and priests were part of the highest class. This means there will be many similarities between our late bronze Age priest and our late bronze Age warrior.

For this composition, we have placed our priest in the Hallstatt B period, just like our late bronze Age warrior. In this blog, our priest is also named Esugenos, to draw a parallel between the Indo-European aristocracy and their priest class.

Both priests and warriors belonged to a high class in society, meaning they were likely wealthy. This is also reflected in what they wear. 

The footwear that Esugenos wears is possibly the oldest type of footwear that ever existed. This footwear was used until the 16th century AD! Remnants of these shoes have been found all over Europe. 

Few clothing fragments from the Late Bronze Age have been recovered, as textiles deteriorate quickly. Therefore, artistic freedom has been taken regarding clothing. When we look at Mediterranean cultures, the tunic was widely used. Later, up to the Middle Ages, tunics continued to be worn. Therefore, we assume Esugenos also wore tunics. Naturally, the primary purpose of clothing was not to depict status, but to stay warm. Therefore, Esugenos wears an undertunic.

The cultures of the late bronze Age were very advanced. In the later Hallstatt periods, people were buried with precious grave goods. In the mountains of Hallstatt, near Salzburg, salt was extracted from the stone Age. Salt was indispensable for preserving food. As a result, the population of Hallstatt was very wealthy. Esugenos therefore wears a blue tunic. Blue was a dye that was expensive to produce.

We assume that Esugenos did not wear a trousers, because this was also not the case with neighboring peoples. If Esugenos were to have worn a trousers, we expect it would have been in a similar style to the Thorsberg trousers.

The cloak and the antler have ritual purposes. Just like in Shamanism, the Indo-European society sometimes used ceremonial shape-shifting. The transition of the Berserker into the bear in battle or adjacent other cultures are the most well-known examples of this. In this way, gods such as Cernunnos, who wear antlers, can also be interpreted as half human, half animal. 

Esugenos wears a ceremonial staff featuring parts of animals that held a special role in Celtic religion due to their unique properties. The staff was a common item worn by priests and Völva in the Indo-European community. They were often buried with the staff. It is likely that the concept of the magic wand also originated from the staff. 

Geese likely represented aggression in Celtic culture

We have given Esugenos a textile belt in this setup. But leather belts were also used. 

Bronze jewelry has been found in the graves from the Hallstatt period. This gives us a good understanding of what jewelry was worn. Traditionally, it was thought that women were buried with jewelry and men with weapons. It has now been shown that this is not entirely accurate. Therefore, we estimate that jewelry was worn by both genders.