Contents
Prehistoric
Ancient Near East
· Ancient Egypt
· Semitic
Indo-European
· Vedic Hinduism
· Greco-Roman
· Celtic · Germanic
Axial Age
· Vedanta · Shramana
· Dharma · Tao
· Hellenism
· Monism · Dualism
· Monotheism
Christianization
Islamization
Renaissance · Reformation
Age of Reason
New religious movements
· Great Awakening
· Fundamentalism
· New Age
Postmodernism
Abrahamic
· Judaism
· Christianity
· Islam
· Bahá'í Faith
Indic
· Hinduism
· Buddhism
· Jainism
· Sikhism
· Ayyavazhi
· Taoism
Neopagan
· Wicca
Prehistoric religion is a general term for the religious beliefs and practices of prehistoric peoples. More specifically it encompasses Paleolithic religion, Mesolithic religion, Neolithic religion and Bronze Age religion.
Paleolithic
Burial
Intentional burial, particularly with grave goods may be one of the earliest detectable forms of religious practice since, as Philip Lieberman suggests, it may signify a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life."[1]
The earliest undisputed Homo sapiens burial dates back 60,000 years.[citation needed] Human skeletal remains stained with red ochre were discovered in the Skhul cave at Qafzeh, Israel.
Animal worship
A number of archeologists propose that Middle Paleolithic societies such as Neanderthal societies may also have practiced the earliest form of totemism or animal worship. Emil Bächler in particular suggests (based on archeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a widespread Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal bear cult existed (Wunn, 2000, p. 434-435). Additional evidence in support of Middle Paleolithic animal worship originates from the Tsodilo Hills (c 70,000BCE) in the African Kalahari desert where a giant rock resembling a python that is accompanied by large amounts of colored broken spear points and a secret chamber has been discovered inside a cave. The Broken spear points were most likely sacrificial offerings and the python is also important to and worshipped by contemporary Bushmen Hunter-gatherers who are the descendants of the people who devised the ritual at the Tsodilo Hills and may have inherited their worship of the python from their distant Middle Paleolithic ancestors.[2] Animal cults in the following Upper Paleolithic period, such as the bear cult, may have had their origins in these hypothetical Middle Paleolithic animal cults.[3]
Animal worship during the Upper Paleolithic was intertwined with hunting rites.[3] For instance, archeological evidence from art and bear remains reveals that the Bear cult apparently had a type of sacrificial bear ceremonialism in which a bear was shot with arrows and then was finished off by a shot in the lungs and ritualistically buried near a clay bear statue covered by a bear fur with the skull and the body of the bear buried separately.[3]
Neolithic
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The Neolithic
↑ Mesolithic
Europe Linear Pottery Vinča culture Varna culture Vučedol culture Malta Temples Boian culture Cucuteni-Trypillian culture China South Asia Mehrgarh Americas Uruk period Pit Grave culture Corded Ware Europe Mesoamerica
farming, animal husbandry
pottery, metallurgy, wheel
circular ditches, henges, megaliths
Neolithic religion
↓Bronze Age
There are no extant textual sources from the Neolithic era, the most recent available dating from the Bronze Age, and therefore all statements about any belief systems Neolithic societies may have possessed are glimpsed from archaeology.
The archaeologist Marija Gimbutas has notably put forward views which describe a matriarchal "Old Europe" set of societies dominated by goddess worship, in particular postulating a bird goddess and a bear goddess. Gimbutas considered the Bronze Age Minoan civilization a native continuation of Neolithic Europe, with the labrys and bull worship continuing symbols of matriarchal power. However, these views are questioned by the majority of the scientific community.
remains of a fertility statue in the Tarxien Temples ca. 2800 BC
a detail from the Megalithic temple of Mnajdra ca. 2800 BC
According to Gimbutas: Hourglass Neolithic Goddess with Bird arm, from Cucuteni culture 5000-3500 BC
According to Gimbutas Cucuteni culture Goddess representation; around 4900-4750BC BC
Goddess representation 3800-3600BC, Cucuteni Culture
goddess council around 4900-4750BC BC
A clay model considered by some historians sanctuary; Cucuteni Tripolie culture.
Bull representation, having a ritualistic role according to Gimbutas
Bronze Age
Bronze Age↑ Neolithic
Near East (3300-1200 BC)
Caucasus, Anatolia, Aegean, Levant, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Elam, Sistan Bronze Age collapseIndian Subcontinent (3000-1200 BC)
Europe (2300-600 BC)
Beaker culture Unetice culture Urnfield culture Hallstatt culture Atlantic Bronze Age Bronze Age Britain Nordic Bronze Age Italian Bronze AgeChina (2000-700 BC)
Korea (800-400 BC)
arsenical bronze
writing, literature
sword, chariot
↓Iron age
Reconstructions
The early Bronze Age Proto-Indo-European religion (itself reconstructed), and the attested early Semitic gods, are presumed continuations of certain traditions of the late Neolithic.
Archaeology
Bronze Age Europe
Hints to the religion of Bronze Age Europe include images of solar barges, frequent appearance of the Sun cross, deposits of bronze axes, and later sickles, so-called moon idols, the conical golden hats, the Nebra skydisk, and burial in tumuli, but also cremation as practised by the Urnfield culture.
