- [UNTITLED]
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: Ritual and Religion in Archaeological Perspective
- Monumentality
- Landscape
- Water
- Fire
- Myth and Folklore
- Cosmogony
- Death
- Taboo
- The Many Dimensions of Ritual
- Personhood and the Body
- Sacrifice
- Ideology
- Feasting and Fasting
- Gender and Religion in Archaeology
- Archaeologies of the Senses
- Syncretism and Religious Fusion
- Technology
- Rites of Passage
- The Archaeology of Contemporary Conflict
- Rock Art, Religion, and Ritual
- Religion and Ritual in the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic
- Religion and Ritual in the Upper Palaeolithic
- The Mesolithic
- Ritual and Religion in the Neolithic
- Fire, Earth, Water: An Elemental Cosmography of the European Bronze Age
- The Iron Age
- Sub‐Saharan Africa
- The Prehistory of Religion in China
- The Archaeology of Religion and Ritual in the Prehistoric Japanese Archipelago
- Ritual and Religion in South‐East Asia
- Historicizing Cosmologies in Australia and Papua New Guinea
- Pacific and New Zealand
- Walking Upside‐Down and Backwards: Art and Religion In The Ancient Caribbean
- Recognizing Religion in Mesoamerican Archaeology: Maya
- Aztecs
- Inca
- Moche Religion
- North America: Pueblos
- North America: Eastern Woodlands
- The Religious System of the Northwest Coast of North America
- Ritual and Archaeological Visibility in the Far Northeast of North America
- Prehistoric Religions in the Aegean
- Ancient Greece
- Etruscan Ritual and Religion
- Egypt
- Rome: Imperial and Local Religions
- Maltese Prehistoric Religion
- Mesopotamia
- Retrieving the Supernatural: Ritual and Religion in the Prehistoric Levant
- Iran
- Anatolia
- Old Norse and Germanic Religion
- Pre‐Christian Practices in the Anglo‐Saxon World
- The Archaeology of Baltic Religions
- The Archaeology of Ritual and Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, and the Origins of Judaism
- The Archaeology of Judaism From the Persian Period to the Sixth Century ad
- Archaeology of Hinduism
- Buddhism
- Christianity
- Islam
- Shamanism
- Animism and Totemism
- Neo‐Shamanism: Pagan and ‘Neo‐Shamanic’ Interactions With Archaeology
- Druidism and Neo‐Paganism
- Ancestor Cults
- Divine Kings
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This article discusses the archaeology of religion and ritual in the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, focusing on the pre-modern hominins of the genera Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Homo. The history of current world religions carries two major observations for the emergence of extant religions over the course of human evolution. First, these ‘truths’ were ‘revealed’ only to Homo sapiens; and secondly, from the perspective of the longevity of humans on the planet they were revealed suddenly, and very late. The lesson is that religions will, over deep time, come and go, contextualized in specific societal constructs. All of the direct information we have pertaining to religion relates solely to one human species, and it may therefore not be justifiable to draw any specific conclusions from this that has relevance to cognitively pre-modern hominins.
Keywords: archaeology, pre-modern hominins, Australopithecus, Paranthropus, Homo, humans
Paul Pettitt is Professor of Archaeology at Durham University.
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- [UNTITLED]
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: Ritual and Religion in Archaeological Perspective
- Monumentality
- Landscape
- Water
- Fire
- Myth and Folklore
- Cosmogony
- Death
- Taboo
- The Many Dimensions of Ritual
- Personhood and the Body
- Sacrifice
- Ideology
- Feasting and Fasting
- Gender and Religion in Archaeology
- Archaeologies of the Senses
- Syncretism and Religious Fusion
- Technology
- Rites of Passage
- The Archaeology of Contemporary Conflict
- Rock Art, Religion, and Ritual
- Religion and Ritual in the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic
- Religion and Ritual in the Upper Palaeolithic
- The Mesolithic
- Ritual and Religion in the Neolithic
- Fire, Earth, Water: An Elemental Cosmography of the European Bronze Age
- The Iron Age
- Sub‐Saharan Africa
- The Prehistory of Religion in China
- The Archaeology of Religion and Ritual in the Prehistoric Japanese Archipelago
- Ritual and Religion in South‐East Asia
- Historicizing Cosmologies in Australia and Papua New Guinea
- Pacific and New Zealand
- Walking Upside‐Down and Backwards: Art and Religion In The Ancient Caribbean
- Recognizing Religion in Mesoamerican Archaeology: Maya
- Aztecs
- Inca
- Moche Religion
- North America: Pueblos
- North America: Eastern Woodlands
- The Religious System of the Northwest Coast of North America
- Ritual and Archaeological Visibility in the Far Northeast of North America
- Prehistoric Religions in the Aegean
- Ancient Greece
- Etruscan Ritual and Religion
- Egypt
- Rome: Imperial and Local Religions
- Maltese Prehistoric Religion
- Mesopotamia
- Retrieving the Supernatural: Ritual and Religion in the Prehistoric Levant
- Iran
- Anatolia
- Old Norse and Germanic Religion
- Pre‐Christian Practices in the Anglo‐Saxon World
- The Archaeology of Baltic Religions
- The Archaeology of Ritual and Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, and the Origins of Judaism
- The Archaeology of Judaism From the Persian Period to the Sixth Century ad
- Archaeology of Hinduism
- Buddhism
- Christianity
- Islam
- Shamanism
- Animism and Totemism
- Neo‐Shamanism: Pagan and ‘Neo‐Shamanic’ Interactions With Archaeology
- Druidism and Neo‐Paganism
- Ancestor Cults
- Divine Kings
- Index