Paleolithic religion

Picture of a half-animal half-human in a Paleolithic cave painting in Dordogne, France.
The Paleolithic
↑ Pliocene (before Homo)
Lower Paleolithic
 (c. 3.3 Ma – 300 ka)
Middle Paleolithic
 (c. 300–50 ka)
Upper Paleolithic
 (c. 50–12 ka)

Fertile Crescent:

Europe:

Africa:

Siberia:

↓ Mesolithic

Paleolithic religions are a set of spiritual beliefs and practices that are theorized to have appeared during the Paleolithic time period. Paleoanthropologists Andre Leroi-Gourhan and Annette Michelson believe unmistakably religious behavior emerged by the Upper Paleolithic, before 30,000 years ago at the latest,[1] but behavioral patterns such as burial rites[2] that one might characterize as religious — or as ancestral to religious behavior — reach back into the Middle Paleolithic, as early as 300,000 years ago, coinciding with the first appearance of Homo neanderthalensis and possibly Homo naledi.

Religious behavior is one of the hallmarks of behavioral modernity. There are several theories as to the moment this suite of behavioral characteristics fully coalesced. One theory links the germination of behavioral innovations to a cultural revolution among early modern humans, which coincided with their arrival to Europe 40,000 years ago. A variant of this model sees behavioral modernity as occurring gradually, beginning with the Middle Stone Age. According to a third theory, characteristics that define behavioral modernity are not unique to the Homo sapiens, but arose over a long period of time, among different human types, including Neanderthals.[3]

  1. ^ Andre Leroi-Gourhan and Annette Michelson, "The Religion of the Caves: Magic or Metaphysics?", The MIT Press, Vol, 37, October 1986, pp. 6–17. "cave art born 30,000 years before our era ... would appear to have developed simultaneously with the first explicit manifestations of concern with the supernatural." (p. 6)
  2. ^ Arenas del Amo, Sergio; Armentano Oller, Núria; Daura, Joan; Sanz, Montserrat (February 2024). "Overview of the European Upper Palaeolithic: The Homo sapiens bone record". Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 53: 104391. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104391. ISSN 2352-409X.
  3. ^ d'Errico, Francesco (August 2003). "The Invisible Frontier. A Multiple Species Model for the Origin of Behavioral Modernity". Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews. 12 (4): 188–189. doi:10.1002/evan.10113. S2CID 1904963. Retrieved 24 January 2021.