Early religions, such as those practiced in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece or by the Aztecs, are a source of fascination and wonder for our modern world. We hear stories of sacrifice — even human sacrifice; we see depictions of complex and colourful Gods; we read the stories

of the Gods’ rich lives. With our own eyes we wonder at the pyramids at Giza in Egypt, the Parthenon in Athens, or the ruins of the Mayan temples at Chichen Itza in Central America.

We probably feel that these religions were very different from our own, just as cultures from which they sprang from are very far removed from ours. It can be difficult to obtain a complete picture, using the limited sources, which are often all that are available

to us. Much of what we know about very oldest

religions is guesswork, based on careful archaeology but nevertheless open to interpretation. Even in the cases where sources are more abundant, a forgotten belief system can be difficult to analyse. It is rather like a jigsaw with some of the pieces missing and no picture to work from.

Between 30,000 and 10,000 years before the birth of Christ, in the very earliest days of agriculture, fertility cults may have sprung up — phallic statuettes and what seem to be fertility figurines have been found all across Europe.

Animal cults evolved alongside, with the worship of such powerful symbols as snakes and bulls, and so did priesthood, complete with temples. — Religions Of The World