Were Stone Age people religious’?

Answer 1

Stone Age People ARE religious, except these days we call them things like Catholics, Muslims, Jews, even scientologists.

They're still thick as sh1t, though.

Answer 2

I believe that they were Religious. As the Ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, were classed as Stone-age Peoples & they had religions. The Stone age covers from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, 8000 - 800 BC, The Ancient Egypians were about from 3150 BC up until just before the year 0, by which time they had, been split into two kindoms and had been invaded by Assyrians (in 671 BC),Persians (in 525 BC), & the Greeks .

Below is a link that may help you its for the British Museum and show the timeline of Egypt.
Also the BBC Web link showing the Stone age time line

Answer 3

My guess is you've never seen Stonehenge. Chisseling those huge stones and transporting them over a hundred miles with neither metal tools nor modern transport has to show pretty huge faith.

We also have recent documentation of stone age religion. Remember that the iron age didn't reach the Americas and Australasia until the historical period. From the earliest contact of these civilisations with Europeans the Europeans noted their religious beliefs and practices: the Australasian "dream" religion, the North American relgions, the Aztecs (the less said about the Aztec religion the better!).

As modern stoneage peoples were religious and ancient stoneage peoples left religious artifacts behind (Stonehenge just being the largest) its seems a pretty safe bet to say that Stoneage peoples were just as, if not more, religious than people today.

Answer 4

Based on what they left behind, yes.

Burials were ritualized in both position, grave goods and the presence of red ochre, signifying the blood of rebirth.

They apparently not only believed in a life after this one, but believed that it would be similar to this one and prepared the dear departed accordingly.

Their other religious values seem to have centered on totemism. The idea that certain creatures possessed powers of the spirit that could infuse their follower with said powers, thus rendering them braver, fiercer, craftier, etc.

They were very aware of the seasonal changes of their world. Not surprising as even hunter-gatherers needed to know when the prey would migrate and where they'd go. Foraging out of season for certain foods would be an awful waste of time and energy so they would be aware of the growing times. This neither necessitates nor precludes the worship of the major signs of seasonal change, ie, the sun and moon.

Even Homo Neanderthalensis appears to have had a sense of the spirit and a great reverence for those whom they thought could communicate with the unseen world. Witness the way in which they buried their elderly males.

Did they have ritual worship services? That, we do not know as a certitude as there has to date been no archaeological evidence for or against such activities. The closest appears to be small caves with ritual totemic objects in carefully orchestrated designs. Indicative of the presence of some kind of ritual activity pertaining to the aforementioned totemic spirits. These objects are usually the skulls of various large carnivores or the thigh bones of various swift-footed herbivores. Carved bone and shell objects have also been found in proximity to these skulls and bones. Perhaps as offerings? We don't know.

Answer 5

Yes, and they still are. In fact, anyone who is religious in this day and age can be considered a living fossil from the stone age.

Answer 6

Modern studies and the in-depth analysis of finds dating from the Stone Age indicate certain rituals and beliefs of the people in those prehistoric times. It is now believed that activities of the Stone Age humans went beyond the immediate requirements of procuring food, body coverings, and shelters. Specific rites relating to death and burial were practiced, though certainly differing in style and execution between cultures. Other rituals included birth, puberty, and marriage. Several Stone Age-dated sites in different parts of the world indicate traces of dancing, dancing in files, and initiation rites.

Answer 7

Yes in a manner of speaking, they were polytheists and animists.

There's not too many Gods around these days that date back to the Stone Age.

Answer 8

This is something that nobody knows for sure, although if you look at Stonehenge it was built most probably built for some religious ceremony. They also had burial chambers, and it seems that people were buried with some ceremony I would believe myself that if they did worship anything, it was most probably the sun because it was the giver of life to them. this might sound daft to us, but when you think about it, without the sun nothing could survive on this planet. It is a giver of life.

Answer 9

Science, Art and Religion had not 'crytallized out' or separated then.Their 'Art' for example served not merely an aesthetic purpose but as a means of communion with their 'spiritual realm'. Their technology was accompanied with 'ritual' and the tools they made served more than functional purposes.They understood birth, life and death and dreams in a way which would be incomprehensible to modern humans.

Answer 10

No one knows for sure. Religion and belief in deities are separate concepts, where religion tends to be the ritualisation of theistic belief. In France there are cave drawings of animals and people that indicate some-kind of ritualistic behaviour, however it is not really known whether they indicate the invocation of theism.

Answer 11

They were animists, however they also believed in a Mother Goddess figure. Many Venus statues were discovered at various archaeological sites in Europe, especially around France, Spain, Austria, and Serbo-Croatia. The figures were of faceless women with enormous breasts, wide hips and rotund, pregnant abdomens, symbolic of the abundance of the Mother godess.