Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- A note on Greek and Latin sources
- Abbreviations and short titles
- 1 Introduction
- PART I PREHISTORIC RELIGIONS
- 2 Studying prehistoric religions
- 3 Prehistoric material and religion: a personal odyssey
- 4 Francesco d'Errico and the origins of religion
- 5 On Palaeolithic religion
- 6 Ian Hodder and the Neolithic
- 7 Neolithic cult images? The testimony of figurines for Neolithic religion
- 8 Religious practices in northern Europe 4000–2000 BCE
- 9 Mythological aspects of Nordic Bronze Age religion
- 10 Religion and society in the Bronze Age
- 11 The religions of prehistoric Europe and the study of prehistoric religion
- PART II ANCIENT EUROPE IN THE HISTORICAL PERIOD
- Timeline of key dates
- Contributors
- References
- Index
2 - Studying prehistoric religions
from PART I - PREHISTORIC RELIGIONS
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- A note on Greek and Latin sources
- Abbreviations and short titles
- 1 Introduction
- PART I PREHISTORIC RELIGIONS
- 2 Studying prehistoric religions
- 3 Prehistoric material and religion: a personal odyssey
- 4 Francesco d'Errico and the origins of religion
- 5 On Palaeolithic religion
- 6 Ian Hodder and the Neolithic
- 7 Neolithic cult images? The testimony of figurines for Neolithic religion
- 8 Religious practices in northern Europe 4000–2000 BCE
- 9 Mythological aspects of Nordic Bronze Age religion
- 10 Religion and society in the Bronze Age
- 11 The religions of prehistoric Europe and the study of prehistoric religion
- PART II ANCIENT EUROPE IN THE HISTORICAL PERIOD
- Timeline of key dates
- Contributors
- References
- Index
Summary
PREHISTORY: A QUICK GUIDE
The origins of humanity lie in the depths of the Palaeolithic. Our earliest immediate and direct ancestors, that is, those comparable to ourselves in brain size and erect posture, emerged in Africa around 200,000 years ago. Yet the earliest regular use of tools by hominids – creatures with a slightly erect posture who had developed brains about a third or so the size of our own and those of our immediate ancestors (i.e., less than ca. 500 cubic cm [cc] against 1500–1600 cc) – dates to sometime during the four million or so years before our appearance. At this time, there was little to distinguish our ancestors from chimpanzees, who also use tools. Although the oldest traces of sophisticated tool manufacture and the creation of figurines date to less than half a million years ago this was still a period when the ancestors of our ancestors had developed brains with a cranial capacity only about half the size of our own (ca. 800 cc). This was still hundreds of thousands of years before the appearance of our direct ancestors.
Significantly, our oldest real, immediate and direct ancestors, the Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH, i.e. like ourselves) who appeared sometime around 200,000 years ago in Africa, used the same tools as their slightly older contemporaries, the Neanderthals (who had a larger brain than ours and that of our ancestors, but belonged to a parallel line which broke off from our own around a half million or more years ago).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Handbook of Religions in Ancient Europe , pp. 15 - 19Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2013