However, remains of a young goat were found in Cueva de la Dehesilla ( es), a cave in Spain, related to a funerary ritual from the Middle Neolithic period, dated to between 48 BCE. At the Minoan settlement of Phaistos in ancient Crete, excavations have revealed basins for animal sacrifice dating to the period 2000 to 1700 BCE. At the Monte d'Accoddi in Sardinia, one of the earliest known sacred centers in Europe, evidence of the sacrifice of sheep, cattle and swine has been uncovered by excavations, and it is indicated that ritual sacrifice may have been common across Italy around 3000 BCE and afterwards. ![]() At Gath, archeological evidence indicates that the Canaanites imported sacrificial sheep and goats from Egypt rather than selecting from their own livestock. īy the end of the Copper Age in 3000 BCE, animal sacrifice had become a common practice across many cultures, and appeared to have become more generally restricted to domestic livestock. According to Herodotus, later Dynastic Egyptian animal sacrifice became restricted to livestock – sheep, cattle, swine and geese – with sets of rituals and rules to describe each type of sacrifice. At a cemetery uncovered at Hierakonpolis and dated to 3000 BCE, the remains of a much wider variety of animals were found, including non-domestic species such as baboons and hippopotami, which may have been sacrificed in honor of powerful former citizens or buried near their former owners. Sheep and goats were found buried in their own graves at one site, while at another site gazelles were found at the feet of several human burials. The oldest Egyptian burial sites containing animal remains originate from the Badari culture of Upper Egypt, which flourished between 44 BCE. However, animal sacrifice was not a central practice of Egyptian religion, but was rather a peripherical occurrence that happened away from worshippers. Prehistory Īncient Egypt was at the forefront of domestication, and some of the earliest archeological evidence suggesting animal sacrifice comes from Egypt. In a theory presented in Homo Necans, mythologist Walter Burkert suggests that the ritual sacrifice of livestock may have developed as a continuation of ancient hunting rituals, as livestock replaced wild game in the food supply. One of the altars at the Monte d'Accoddi in Sardinia, where animal sacrifice may have occurred.ĭuring the Neolithic Revolution, early humans began to move from hunter-gatherer cultures toward agriculture, leading to the spread of animal domestication. Usually, the best animal or best share of the animal is the one presented for offering.Īnimal sacrifice should generally be distinguished from the religiously prescribed methods of ritual slaughter of animals for normal consumption as food. Others burnt the whole animal offering, called a holocaust. Human sacrifice, where it existed, was always much rarer.Īll or only part of a sacrificial animal may be offered some cultures, like the ancient and modern Greeks, eat most of the edible parts of the sacrifice in a feast, and burnt the rest as an offering. Animal sacrifices were common throughout Europe and the Ancient Near East until the spread of Christianity in Late Antiquity, and continue in some cultures or religions today. Ritual Sacrifice of a pig in ancient Greece ( tondo from an Attic red-figure cup, 510–500 BCE, by the Epidromos Painter, collections of the Louvre)Īnimal sacrifice is the ritual killing and offering of one or more animals, usually as part of a religious ritual or to appease or maintain favour with a deity.
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