The Religious Impulse Among Archaic Populations

6500 year shard found at elevated site in Bellinzona, Switzerland.

Alice C. Linsley

There is a common misconception that religious practices first emerged when humans became more sedentary and began to farm. The prehistoric images painted on the walls of rock shelters suggests that this is not the case. These have a religious quality and many anthropologists believe them rock shelters to be have been places of religious ritual.

There are 10,000 year temples at high elevations like Gobekli Tepe and Çatalhöyük. At Çatalhöyük the priests wore leopard skins as did the priests of the ancient Upper Nile. These archaic sites indicate organized religion with priests and rituals involving astronomy and the cycle of the seasons. In the Bible these mountain shrines and temples are called "the high places." 

7000-6000 years settlements in the Alps were contemporaneous with settlements in the Carpathian mountains and with Europe's oldest city in Bulgaria. At the same time, Galilee received immigrants from the Zagros mountains.

This is a photo of a mountain fortification in Bellinzona, Switzerland where 6500 year artifacts have been found. 

Around 70,000 years ago people living in Southern Africa carved a python out of the side of a cliff and conducted religious ceremonies there. At the back of the Botswana cave was a chamber believed to be a sacred site because there were no signs of animal bones, tools or cooking fires such as those found in South Africa's Blombos Cave of a similar age.

Another phenomena that indicates religious impulse is the 90,000+ years of burial in red ochre, a symbol of blood. This appears to express the hope of life after death. As it says in the Bible: "Life is in the blood."

From the perspective of anthropology, the deep time record of human activity is evident in the vast number of objects made and used by humans. The religious nature of ritual burial is another example of the depth of human existence. Consider these examples:

100,000 years ago - Burial of humans in red ochre at Qafzeh Cave in what is today Israel. Evidence of human habitation in the area of Bethlehem between 100,000-10,000 BC) is well-attested along the north side of Wadi Khareitun where there are three caves: Iraq al-Ahmar, Umm Qal’a, and Umm Qatafa. These caves were homes in a wooded landscape overlooking a river. At Umm Qatafa archaeologists have found the earliest evidence of the domestic use of fire in Palestine.

50,000 years ago - A small boy buried with a seashell pendant and covered in red ochre

45,000 years ago - A man buried at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in southern France in red ochre

35,000 years ago - Male buried in red ochre in Paviland Cave, Wales

32,000 years ago - Four bodies buried in red ochre at Sungir in Russia.

23,000 years ago - The "Fox Lady" of Doini Vestonice, Czechoslovakia, buried in red ochre

20,000 years ago - A thirty-year-old man buried in Bavaria surrounded by mammoth tusks and submerged in red ochre.

Australian burial sites dating to about 20,000 years reveal pink staining of the soil around the skeleton, indicating that red ochre had been sprinkled over the body. The remains of an adult male found at Lake Mungo in southeastern Australia were copiously sprinkled with red ochre.

19,000 years ago - Lady of El Mirón cave in northern Spain was buried in red ochre. She died around the age of 35.

11,000 years ago - A man and woman were buried with a dog in the area of Bonn-Oberkassel, Germany. The corpses were covered with red ochre.

7000 years ago -Two skeletons buried in red ochre found at La Braña-Arintero cave in the Cantabrian Mountains of Spain

6800 years ago - The Lake Nitchie male was buried with red ochre and was missed two front teeth (ritual removal?).

5000 years ago - Two flexed burials were found in Mehrgarh, Pakistan with a covering of red ochre on the bodies

There is no doubt that humans have had a religious impulse from the beginning. It appears to express an awareness of our mortality and a hope for life after death.

Related reading: The High Places; The Ancient Antecedents of Ash Wednesday; Çatalhöyük Research Project 2005; The T-Shape Pillars of Gobekli Tepe; "Red Paint" by C. Peabody, Journal de la société des américanistes Année 1927 19 pp. 207-244; Alpine Melt Reveals Ancient Human Occupation

Religious Tradition

Alice C. Linsley

The oldest expressions of religious tradition are those that are found most universally among indigenous peoples and ancient castes. These religions value the traditions received from their ancestors and seek to preserve the received tradition. Even modern religions are based on older traditions. In fact, religion, whether organic or synthetic, requires some received tradition.

Study of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion indicates common linguistics roots for some of the most fundamental concepts found in primitive religion, such as blood, water, sun, ruler, river, valley and mountain or rock shelter. The antiquity of communication about these is evident in the pre-alphabetic symbols V, T, X, O and Y.

Anthropological study has identified certain traits common to indigenous religions. These include ancestor veneration, henotheism, and divine appointment of rulers.


Veneration of Ancestors

Slovakian ancestor mask
The ancestors of this community 
were said to be red and hairy, like Esau.

Indigenous expressions of religion include stories about the first parents or founders of the community. In the Bible, Adam and Eve are an example of the first parents venerated among Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors. Adam was a red man and the people living in the land where Abraham established his territory were known by the ancient Greeks to have a distinctive red skin tone. Therefore the land was called Edom, a reference to the color of blood (dm in Hebrew). The Bible describes at least two of Abraham's descendants has red: Esau and David. (The rulers of Edom are listed in Genesis 36.)

Tradition is respected in the religions of indigenous peoples. The tradition received from the ancestors is regarded as sacred and to be preserved and passed from generation to generation. Additionally, those from whom the tradition was received, the ancestors, are also respected, even venerated. This is especially true in the case of rulers and founders. The universality of this phenomena indicates its extreme antiquity.

In the image above, the wearer carries a knob stick as a symbol of the ruler's authority. This mask is also considered to be that of the shepherd and the stick might also have the shape of a shepherd crook. The crook and the flail were symbols of the Pharaoh's authority in ancient Egypt. Today bishops and archbishops carry the shepherd's crook as they process in and out of the churches.

Kushite chiefs and their bodyguards carried knob sticks. Here is a photo of a Kushite chief in Mindanao (the Philippines). Note the knob sticks held by the chief and his bodyguards.

Mindanao Sultan Jamal ul-Kiram (seated at center), with his counselors

Also shown US Army officers and some visiting Muslims 

Photo taken c. 1899-1901

The traditional mask from Slovakia (below) is called Dedo (Grandfather, Ancestor) or Stari (Old man, Ancestor). This mask is worn during Faste or Fašiangy celebrations which take place between the last Sunday before Lent until Tuesday night or the morning of Ash Wednesday. The mask is made from sheep skin and is decorated with wheat. Wheat threshing was associated with the sun, the emblem of the Creator.

The words Starac, Stari, Djed, Did mean old ones, grandfather, or ancestor. They can also indicate a spiritually wise elder, a priest, and even an ancestral spirit that protects the home or a local shrine.


Henotheism and the Binary Worldview

Most indigenous religions are henotheistic. Henotheistic religions honor one supreme creator God who is assisted by lesser supernatural powers. The angels as supernatural messengers represent an element of henotheism in Judaism and Christianity. In many religions, the lesser assisting deities or powers are related to nature. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans believed that each of the great rivers had a deity. The Celts and Vikings venerated deities of the sky and thunder.

Even in religions which honor complementary gods (a binary set), as do the BaKuta of central Africa, one of the gods is regarded as superior or victorious over the other. In the BaKuta stories Nzambi-above rules over all the earth and Nzambi-below goes away. This binary feature is common in African traditional religions and also characterizes the Hebrew worldview: heaven is greater than earth; the male is larger and stronger than the female, and the sun is the "greater light," being superior to the moon which merely reflects the sun's light.

The binary worldview is distinct from the dualistic worldview of most Asian religions. In a dualistic worldview the entities of the binary set are regarded as complementary and equal. This is symbolized by the ying-yang. In dualism, reality is comprised of opposite and equal principles (male-female, night-day, spirit-matter, Creator-creature). One entity in the binary set is not seen as greater than the other. In this worldview the idea that humans need a higher power is meaningless. There is no need for divine condescension; no reason for God in Christ to take on flesh and enter time and space.


Deified Rulers

In the Hebrew Scriptures we read about gods - elohiym. The term is used two ways. In Genesis 1, we read: "In the beginning Elohiym (the gods) created the heavens and the earth." This speaks of the Supreme Creator as a plurality. Some see the doctrine of the Trinity here, and indeed, there was an ancient reference to the Three-God among the peoples of Palestine - Baal Shalisha. This may be what stands behind the narrative of the Lord God visiting Abraham at Mamre as three persons (Gen. 18).

Genesis 6:2 speaks of the "sons of the Elohiym" who took wives from the daughters of men. This refers to the Creator's divinely appointed rulers on earth. They are also called the Anakim or Anakites (Numbers 13:33), "the mighty men of old" (Gen. ), and gibboriym, meaning powerful ones (Gen. 6).

This is a reference to powerful men of Palestine. The Anakim were the descendants of Anak, the son of Arba. Arba is another name for Hebron, where Abraham's wife Sarah resided. Joshua 15:14 speaks of how the descendants of Anak were uprooted by the Habiru/Hebrew warrior Caleb.

In Exodus 22:28, these deified rulers are called gods: "Thou shalt not revile the gods (elohiym), nor curse the ruler of thy people." 

Here the term elohyim refers to the ruler-priests, a caste which dispersed widely in service of their kingdom-building rulers. They were expected to reflect the divine image more than other people. Rulers were appointed by God's authority to restrain evil, to establish justice and to reward those who do what is good. They act not only on God's behalf; they act as “gods” on earth. Consider the following references in the Hebrew Scriptures:

Psalm 82:1-6 says that the rulers of Israel, the gods, have failed to reflect the divine image as God's earthly representatives.

Psalm 82:6 - "I said, 'You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.”

Psalm 82:1-2 - "God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the gods [rulers]. How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked?”

Here God judges the rulers in the midst of the rulers, the elohyim/gods who comprise the divine council. Verse 2 identifies the rulers as those to be judged. 

In Psalm 72 the deified rulers are called shaphat, a name associated with the Horites in Numbers 14:5. One of the spies sent into Canaan was Shaphat ben Hori.

Psalm 58:1,2 - "Do you indeed speak righteousness, O gods? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men? No, in heart you work unrighteousness; on earth you weigh out the violence of your hands."

The tradition of deified rulers as the "sons"of God is very ancient. It was found among the earliest Nilo-Saharan rulers even before the first Egyptian dynasties.

Divine Appointment

Among the cattle-herding Nilo-Saharans, the High God's appointment of a ruler was indicated by the sun's overshadowing. This was shown in ancient images as the sun resting in the cow's horns, as in this image of Hathor, the mother of Horus, who was called the "son" of the Creator.

The Y is a solar cradle that designates a divinely appointed "son" of God. That is why many of the biblical rulers have names that begin with Y: Yaqtan (Joktan), Yacob (Jacob), Yistzak (Isaac),Yosef (Joseph) Yetro (Jethro), Yishai (Jesse), and Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus).

The idea of divine appointment spread with the Kushite expansion out of the Nile Valley. In Mesopotamia, Sargon I claimed to have been born of a virgin who was overshadowed by the High God. Sargon was born in an O-piru, a Sun temple. His home city was called Azu-piranu, meaning Anu House of Azu. The Creator was called Azu in Akkadian; Asa in Chadic; Asha in Kushitic; Ashai in Hebrew, and a priest in Jerusalem carried the name Amashai (Neh. 11:13).

Related reading: Some Marks of Prehistoric Religion; Ancient Moral Codes; Ethics of Archaic Communities; The Religion of the Saka; A Tent for the Sun; Binary Sets and Gender Distinctions; Why Cows Were Sacred in the Ancient World; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y