Prehistoric religion

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

Intentional burial, particularly with grave goods may be one of the earliest detectable forms of religious practice (the onset of burial itself being a canonical indicator of behavioral modernity) since, as Philip Lieberman suggests, it may signify a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life."^[1]

Picture of a half animal half human being in a Paleolithic cave painting in Dordogne, France which archeologists believe may be evidence for early shamanic practices.

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). A claim that evidence was found for Middle Paleolithic animal worship c 70,000 BCE originates from the Tsodilo Hills in the African Kalahari desert has been denied by the original investigators of the site.^[2][3] 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.^[4]

Animal worship during the Upper Paleolithic was intertwined with hunting rites.^[4] 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.^[4]

Neolithic

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.

Jacques Cauvin suggested that the Neolithic Revolution was influenced by an important theme he termed the "Revolution of the Symbols", suggesting the birth of "religion" in the Neolithic. He argued that Neolithic humans were influenced by a change in thinking as much as changes in the environment and noted a series of stages in this process.^[5] His work suggested important concepts in the evolution of human thinking, by examining figurines and early art depicting first women as goddesses and bulls as gods, he suggested several important ideas about the evolution of perception and duality.^[6]

The structures known as Circular Enclosures built in Central Europe during the 5th millennium BCE have been interpreted as serving a cultic function. In the case of the Goseck circle, remains of human sacrifice were found. Many of these structures had openings aligned with sunset and/or sunrise at the solstices, suggesting that they served as a means of maintaining a lunisolar calendar. The construction of Megalithic monuments in Europe also began to in the 5th millennium, and continued throughout the Neolithic and in some areas well into the early Bronze Age.

Marija Gimbutas, pioneer of feminist archaeology, put forward a notion of a "woman-centered" society surrounding "goddess worship" in Neolithic Europe. The Neolithic "matristic" cultures would have been replaced by patriarchy only with the arrival of the Bronze Age. Gimbutas' views do not have widespread support today. ^[7]

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  Remains of a fertility statue in the Tarxien Temples c. 2800 BCE

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  A detail from the Megalithic temple of Mnajdra c. 2800 BCE

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  According to Gimbutas: Hourglass Neolithic Goddess with Bird arm, from Cucuteni culture 5000-3500 BCE

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  According to Gimbutas, a Cucuteni culture Goddess representation; around 4900-4750 BCE

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  Goddess representation 3800-3600 BCE, Cucuteni Culture

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  Goddess council around 4900-4750 BCE

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  A clay model considered by some historians to be a sanctuary; Cucuteni Tripolie culture.

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  Bull representation, having a ritualistic role according to Gimbutas

Bronze 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.

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  The Avanton Gold Cone, c. 1500-1250 BCE.

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  "Fire dogs", dating to the 11th to 9th centuries BCE, found in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, kept at the Swiss National Museum.

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  "Wheel pendants", dating to the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE, found in Zürich, kept in the Swiss National Museum, showing the "sun cross" and variant shapes.

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  The Trundholm sun chariot, Nordic Bronze Age, c. 1400 BCE.

Iron Age

While the Iron Age religions of the Mediterranean, Near East, India and China are well attested, much of Iron Age Europe, from the period of about 700 BCE down to the Great Migrations falls within the prehistoric period. There are scarce accounts of non-Mediterranean religious customs in the records of Hellenistic and Roman era ethnography.

• Scythian mythology (Herodotus)
• Celtic polytheism (Posidonius)
• Paleo-Balkans mythology
• Germanic polytheism (Tacitus)
• Slavic polytheism (Procopius)
• Mythology of the Turkic and Mongolian peoples

In the case of Circumpolar religion (Shamanism in Siberia, Finnic mythology), traditional African religions, native American religions and Pacific religions, the prehistoric era mostly ends only with the Early Modern period and European colonialism. These traditions were often only first recorded in the context of Christianization.

See also

Notes

1. ^ Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, "Women in the Stone Age," in the essay "The Venus of Willendorf" (accessed March 13, 2008).

References