Researched
Burial & Religion
Deliberate graves and rituals show ideas about death and an afterlife: a root of religion and shared morality.
Open in the interactive tree →The oldest burials of modern humans lie in Qafzeh and Skhul (Israel, ~100,000 years); in Africa the child grave of Panga ya Saidi (Kenya, ~78,000 years) is the oldest known. Shared sanctuaries such as Göbekli Tepe (Turkey, ~9500 BC) were built even before farming, which suggests rituals helped hold large groups together.
Prerequisites
- Spoken Languageat least ~135,000 years ago?
Unlocks
- Philosophy~585 BCEarly philosophy grew out of religious questions about the world, death and the gods
More in Foundations of Civilization · Prehistory
- Stone Tools~3.3 million years ago
- Mastering Fire~1.8 million-400,000 years ago
- Hunting Spears~300,000 years ago
- Spoken Languageat least ~135,000 years ago?
- Clothing & the Sewing Needle~120,000-40,000 years ago
- Art & Symbols~73,000 years ago
- Bow and Arrow~60,000 years ago
- Cordage & Weaving~30,000 years ago