What made our ancestors bury their dead with flowers and tools? Why did they paint animals on cave walls deep underground? When did humans first look at the stars and imagine gods?
This volume explores these questions through archaeological evidence, anthropological research, and the surviving traditions of indigenous peoples worldwide. We examine the goddess figurines of Neolithic Europe, the elaborate afterlife beliefs of ancient Egypt, the cosmic order envisioned by Mesopotamian priests, and the complex calendrical systems of Mesoamerican civilizations.
Rather than presenting religion as a set of quaint primitive beliefs, this work shows how our ancestors developed sophisticated ways of understanding their world – creation myths that explained existence, rituals that bound communities together, and concepts of the divine that would echo through millennia. From Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime to West African Vodun, from the oracle bones of Shang China to the ceremonial centers of the Andes, this volume reveals the extraordinary diversity and remarkable commonalities in how early humans approached the sacred.
