A Glimpse into the Invisible Worlds of Shamanism. Using Ancient DNA Analysis of Ritual Objects

In the last two decades, the material culture of indigenous peoples has been the focus of a vigorous debate on the theme of reuse and valorization of cultural heritage, in the broader attempt to rethink new approaches to musealization. This innovative ideology has emerged from a simple approach to object conservation, and developed into disparate initiatives of “critical tutelage,” resulting in the more conscious manipulation of transformable or perishable objects and thematic juxtapositions, and adding semantic meanings to their original symbols and functions. This paper is an attempt to synthesize the historical dimension and contemporary analysis of shamanic ritual objects included in the exhibition “Shamans: Communicating with the Invisible” held at the Science Museum Trento (MUSE), Italy, in 2023–4. We propose that an innovative investigation, involving the ancient DNA analyses of a number of finds used by shamans in Mongolia and Siberia to communicate with the spirit world, makes “visible” some epistemological connections between indigenous ontologies and the traditional knowledge of native peoples of the Asian steppes.