A street in the Etruscan cemetery at Cerveteri An Etruscan cemetery The Etruscans (ee-TRUSS-cans) of Northern Italy believed that it was important to keep cemeteries well separated from where people lived. You [...]
Building at Gobekli Tepe (ca. 9000 BC) People have started a lot of different religions. Some of them are still practiced today; others are not. It is hard even to [...]
A demon torturing a sinful bishop and a king (Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, 1200s AD) In the early days of Christianity, people pretty much thought that at the Last Judgment you [...]
The Gnostics - Books of Roman Gnostic writings from Nag Hammadi in Egypt (300s AD) When were the Gnostics? About the time of Jesus, about 100 BC-100 AD, people living in the Eastern [...]
Wheel of Life (Konark Sun temple, Odisha, India, 1200s AD) About 300 BC, Hindu people in India began to feel that they didn't like the idea of being reincarnated over and over again forever. [...]
Hades and Persephone in the Greek underworld What happened when you died? Greek people didn't like to talk about what happened to you after you died. So we don't know [...]
Tantalus' crime and punishment: This Italian vase from the 300s BC shows a different version of the story where a spirit holds Tantalus back from a basket of bread and a jug of water [...]
Torchlight parade (this one is actually in India) Most Greek religious rituals were about sacrifice to the gods. But there was another form of religious activity also, which we call the mystery cults. [...]
A Viking religious sacrifice (ca. 900 AD, Sweden) Northern European religion From their first appearance in historical literature around 100 BC, the Germans were polytheistic. They believed in many gods, [...]
Anubis weighing the souls of the dead The Egyptians were among the first people to believe that if you were good during your life, you would have a good time [...]
