REINDEER SACRIFICE

magico-religious practice observed by various Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic northern European and Asian peoples. The rite, which inaugurated their annual hunting season, consisted primarily of submerging a young doe in a lake or pond or burying it in the ground in sacrifice to their god of the hunt. The submerging or burial of these reindeer may indicate that prehistoric man believed that the god of the hunt resided underground. Other personal possessions often were found to have been thrown into the water or buried near the reindeer, probably the results of daily sacrificial acts. On special occasions, Mesolithic hunters set up the skull and antlers of an older reindeer on a ritual pole at the edge of the pool of sacrifice.