The Earliest Prehistoric Practices (Before Writing): Long before humans wrote down holy texts, they engaged in rituals that archaeologists consider the earliest forms of religious behavior. • Animism (100,000+ years ago): Anthropological models suggest that the earliest universal human belief was Animism—the belief that spiritual forces or souls inhabit animals, plants, rocks, and natural phenomena. • Intentional Burials (100,000 to 50,000 years ago): The earliest physical evidence of spirituality comes from Neanderthal and early Homo sapiens burial sites. Bodies were positioned carefully, covered in symbolic red ochre, and buried with tools and animal bones. This strongly indicates a belief in an afterlife. • The "Lion Man" (c. 40,000 years ago): Discovered in a German cave, this half-human, half-lion ivory sculpture is considered the oldest known evidence of religious/mythological belief and abstract spiritual thought. • Göbekli Tepe (c. 10,000 BCE): Located in modern-day Turkey, this is widely recognized as the world's oldest known religious temple, built by hunter-gatherers before agriculture even began. The First Recorded Religions (With Writing) When writing was invented in the Bronze Age, humans began documenting their gods: - **Sumerian and Egyptian Religions (c. 3500–3000 BCE):** The earliest _written_ records of religion come from polytheistic cuneiform tablets in **Mesopotamia (Sumer)** and hieroglyphs in **Ancient Egypt**. These were highly organized state religions with pantheons of gods (like Ra or Enlil), massive temples, and complex mythologies