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

Burial

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]

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). A claim that evidence was found for Middle Paleolithic animal worship c 70,000 BC 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.

The archaeologist Marija Gimbutas put forward a notion of a "woman-centered" society surrounding goddess worship throughout Pre History (Paleolithic and Neolithic Europe) and ancient civilizations, by using the term matristic "exhibiting influence or domination by the mother figure".

However, these views are questioned by the majority of the scientific community. Archaeologist Sarah M. Nelson criticizes Gimbutas suggesting that she used the same techniques used in the past to disparage women but in this case to glorify them, and quotes another archaeologist, Pamela Russell as saying "The archaeological evidence is, in some cases, distorted enough to make a careful prehistorian shudder".^[5]

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  a detail from the Megalithic temple of Mnajdra ca. 2800 BC

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

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  According to Gimbutas Cucuteni culture Goddess representation; around 4900-4750BC BC

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  Goddess representation 3800-3600BC, Cucuteni Culture

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  goddess council around 4900-4750BC BC

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

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  Bull representation, having a ritualistic role according to Gimbutas

Bronze Age

Bronze Age This box: view · talk · edit
↑ Chalcolithic
Near East (3300-1200 BC) Caucasus, Anatolia, Levant, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Elam, Jiroft Bronze Age collapse Europe (3200-600 BC) Aegean (Minoan) Caucasus Catacomb culture Srubna culture Beaker culture Unetice culture Tumulus culture Urnfield culture Hallstatt culture Atlantic Bronze Age Bronze Age Britain Nordic Bronze Age Italian Bronze Age Indian Subcontinent (3300-1200 BC) China (3000-700 BC) Korea (800-300 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.

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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 BC 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)
• Altaic mythology

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

Sources

• Marija Gimbutas, The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe (1974)
• Marija Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess (1989)
• Marija Gimbutas, The Civilization of the Goddess (1991)