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Timeline of religion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Religion has been a factor of the human experience throughout history, from pre-historic to modern times. The bulk of the human religious experience pre-dates written history, which is roughly 70,000 years old.[1] A lack of written records results in most of the knowledge of pre-historic religion being derived from archaeological records and other indirect sources, and from suppositions. Much pre-historic religion is subject to continued debate.

Religious practices in prehistory

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Middle Paleolithic (200,000 BC – 50,000 BC)

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Despite claims by some researchers of bear worship, belief in an afterlife, and other rituals, current archaeological evidence does not support the presence of religious practices by modern humans or Neanderthals during this period.[2]

  • 100,000 BC: Earliest known human burial in the Middle East.
  • 78,000 BC – 74,000 BC: Earliest known Homo sapiens burial of a child in Panga ya Saidi, East Africa.
  • 70,000 BC – 35,000 BC: Neanderthal burials take place in areas of Europe and the Middle East.[3]

50th to 11th millennium BC

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  • 40,000 BC: The remains of one of the earliest known anatomically modern humans to be discovered cremated, was buried near Lake Mungo.[4][5][6][7][8]
  • 38,000 BC: The Aurignacian[9] Löwenmensch figurine, the oldest known zoomorphic (animal-shaped) sculpture in the world and one of the oldest known sculptures in general, was made. The sculpture has also been interpreted as anthropomorphic, giving human characteristics to an animal, although it may have represented a deity.[10]
  • 35,000 BC – 26,001 BC: Neanderthal burials are absent from the archaeological record. This roughly coincides with the appearance of Homo sapiens in Europe and decline of the Neanderthals;[3] individual skulls and/or long bones began appearing, heavily stained with red ochre and separately buried. This practice may be the origin of sacred relics.[3] The oldest discovered "Venus figurines" appeared in graves. Some were deliberately broken or repeatedly stabbed, possibly representing the murders of the men with whom they were buried,[3] or owing to some other unknown social dynamic.[citation needed]
  • 25,000 BC – 21,000 BC: Clear examples of burials are present in Iberia, Wales, and eastern Europe. These, too, incorporate the heavy use of red ochre. Additionally, various objects were included in the graves (e.g. periwinkle shells, weighted clothing, dolls, possible drumsticks, mammoth ivory beads, fox teeth pendants, panoply of ivory artifacts, "baton" antlers, flint blades etc.).[3]
  • 13,000 BC – 8,000 BC: Noticeable burial activity resumed. Prior mortuary activity had either taken a less obvious form or contemporaries retained some of their burial knowledge in the absence of such activity. Dozens of men, women, and children were being buried in the same caves which were used for burials 10,000 years beforehand. All these graves are delineated by the cave walls and large limestone blocks. The burials share a number of characteristics (such as use of ochre, and shell and mammoth ivory jewellery) that go back thousands of years. Some burials were double, comprising an adult male with a juvenile male buried by his side. They were now beginning to take on the form of modern cemeteries. Old burials were commonly re-dug and moved to make way for new ones, with the older bones often being gathered and cached together. Large stones may have acted as grave markers. Pairs of ochred antlers were sometimes mounted on poles within the cave; this is compared to the modern practice of leaving flowers at a grave.[3]

10th to 6th millennium BC

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  • 10,000 BC – 8,000 BC: The Baghor stone from presumably one of the oldest Shakti shrines in India, and one of the oldest sites of worship yet discovered in the world, is estimated to have been formed during this period (9000-8000 BC). However, it may predate 10,000 BC as samples were dated to 11,870 (± 120) YBP in a 1983 publication.[11] The living shrine at which it was found is currently used as a place for worshipping Devi by both Hindus and Indian Muslims. The triangular shape of the stone is that of the Kali Yantra which is also still in use across India. The Kol and Baiga tribes consider the triangular shape to symbolise the mother goddess 'Mai', variously named Kerai, Kari, Kali, Kalika or Karika.[12]
  • 9130 BC – 7370 BC: This was the apparent period of use of Göbekli Tepe, one of the oldest human-made sites of worship yet discovered; evidence of similar usage has also been found in another nearby site, Nevalı Çori.[13]
  • 7500 BC – 5700 BC: The settlements of Çatalhöyük developed as a likely spiritual center of Anatolia. Possibly practising worship in communal shrines, its inhabitants left behind numerous clay figurines and impressions of phallic, feminine, and hunting scenes.[citation needed]
  • 7250 BC – 6500 BC: The Ayn Ghazal statues were made in Jordan during the Neolithic.[14] These statues were argued to have been gods, legendary leaders, or other figures of power. They were suggested to have been a representation of a fusion of previously separate communities by Gary O. Rollefson.[15]

Before Christ (BC)

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Extent and major sites of the Indus Valley civilisation. The shaded area does not include recent excavations.

Anno Domini (AD)

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1st to 5th centuries

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  • 80 AD: The gospel of Mark is written, (85-90) Gospels of Luke and Mathew are written.

Middle Ages (5th–15th centuries)

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See also: History of religions § Middle Age

5th to 10th centuries

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11th to 15th centuries

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Early modern and Modern eras

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See also: History of religions § Modern period

16th century

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17th century

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18th century

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19th century

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20th century

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21st century

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ "Historic writing". British Museum. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  2. ^ Wunn, Ina (2000). "Beginning of Religion" (PDF). Numen. 47 (4): 417–452. doi:10.1163/156852700511612. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Pettitt, Paul (August 2002). "When Burial Begins". British Archaeology. No. 66. Archived from the original on 2 June 2007.
  4. ^ Bowler JM, Jones R, Allen H, Thorne AG (1970). "Pleistocene human remains from Australia: a living site and human cremation from Lake Mungo, Western New South Wales". World Archaeol. 2 (1): 39–60. doi:10.1080/00438243.1970.9979463. PMID 16468208.
  5. ^ Barbetti M, Allen H (1972). "Prehistoric man at Lake Mungo, Australia, by 32,000 years BP". Nature. 240 (5375): 46–8. Bibcode:1972Natur.240...46B. doi:10.1038/240046a0. PMID 4570638. S2CID 4298103.
  6. ^ Bowler, J.M. 1971. Pleistocene salinities and climatic change: Evidence from lakes and lunettes in southeastern Australia. In: Mulvaney, D.J. and Golson, J. (eds), Aboriginal Man and Environment in Australia. Canberra: Australian National University Press, pp. 47–65.
  7. ^ Bowler JM, Johnston H, Olley JM, Prescott JR, Roberts RG, Shawcross W, Spooner NA (2003). "New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia". Nature. 421 (6925): 837–40. Bibcode:2003Natur.421..837B. doi:10.1038/nature01383. PMID 12594511. S2CID 4365526.
  8. ^ Olleya JM, Roberts RG, Yoshida H, Bowler JM (2006). "Single-grain optical dating of grave-infill associated with human burials at Lake Mungo, Australia". Quaternary Science Reviews. 25 (19–20): 2469–2474. Bibcode:2006QSRv...25.2469O. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.07.022.
  9. ^ "Images for Chapter 20 Hominids". ucdavis.edu. Archived from the original on 19 May 2008.
  10. ^ Bailey, Martin (31 January 2013). "Ice Age Lion Man is the world's earliest figurative sculpture". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
  11. ^ Kenoyer, J. M.; Clark, J. D.; Pal, J. N.; Sharma, G. R. (1 July 1983). "An upper palaeolithic shrine in India?" (PDF). Antiquity. 57 (220): 88–94. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00055253. ISSN 0003-598X. S2CID 163969200.
  12. ^ Som, Adheer (2023). "Baghor Kali: The timeless roots of Sanatana Dharma". The Times of India. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  13. ^ "The World's First Temple", Archaeology magazine, Nov/Dec 2008 p 23.
  14. ^ "Material Worlds: Art and Agency in the Near East and Africa".
  15. ^ Rollefson, Gary O (January 2002). "Ritual and Social Structure at Neolithic 'Ain Ghazal". In Kujit, Ian (ed.). Life in Neolithic Farming Communities: Social Organization, Identity, and Differentiation. New York, New York: Springer. p. 185. ISBN 9780306471667.
  16. ^ "Beginning in the pottery-phase of the Neolithic, clay tokens are widely attested as a system of counting and identifying specific amounts of specified livestock or commodities. The tokens, enclosed in clay envelopes after being impressed on their rounded surface, were gradually replaced by impressions on flat or plano-convex tablets, and these in turn by more or less conventionalized pictures of the tokens incised on the clay with a reed stylus. The transition to writing was complete W. Hallo; W. Simpson (1971). The Ancient Near East. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. p. 25.
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  22. ^ Anthony, David W. (2007). The Horse The Wheel And Language. How Bronze-Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped The Modern World. Princeton University Press.
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  24. ^ Montserat, Dominic (2003). Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt (1st paperback ed.). London, UK; New York, NY: Routledge (published 2000). p. 36. ISBN 0415301866.
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  26. ^ The Epic of Gilgamesh. Translated by Andrew R. George (reprinted ed.). London: Penguin Books. 2003 [1999]. pp. ii, xxiv–v. ISBN 0-14-044919-1. The Babylonians believed this poem to have been the responsibility of a man called Sîn-liqe-unninni, a learned scholar of Uruk whom modern scholars consider to have lived some time between 1300–1000 BC.
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  32. ^ Martin, Thomas R., (October 3, 2019). "The Dark Ages of Ancient Greece" Archived 2020-10-26 at the Wayback Machine: "...The Near East recovered its strength much sooner than did Greece, ending its Dark Age by around 900 B.C...The end of the Greek Dark Age is traditionally placed some 150 years after that, at about 750 B.C..." Retrieved October 24, 2020
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  71. ^ Icelandic, "Hugmyndin að Ásatrúarfélaginu byggðist á trú á dulin öfl í landinu, í tengslum við mannfólkið sem skynjaði ekki þessa hluti til fulls nema einstöku menn. Það tengdist síðan þjóðlegum metnaði og löngun til að Íslendingar ættu sína trú, og ræktu hana ekki síður en innflutt trúarbrögð." Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson (1992:140).
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Bibliography

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