Religion has been the core of every society since the dawn of civilizations. They tell the dark secrets of the older times, inscribed in the yellow torn pages of history. While some major religions got carried forward in modern times, few were left behind as they died with the last person who had the beliefs in his heart, like the 5 listed below-
Olmec Religion-
This religion has been noted as one of the mysteries religions of ancient times. Archeologists never got hard proof of the religious scripts, so the relics were compared to the religions of Maya and Aztec. The Olmec people used to pray to a jaguar shaped almighty, who was believed to be the god of rain and fertility. Some theories also include an 8 god circle, sharing equal importance. What made the Olmec people disappear nobody knows.
The later Mesoamerican religion could have been originated from the Olmec religion, because of the astounding similarity between the two.
Time: 1400BC- 400BC
Vedism
The oldest of all religions i.e. Hinduism may have been originated from this religion. Vedism and Hinduism have many similarities which include the four Vedas (holy books). But the Vedas of the two differ from each other in meaning and writing styles. This religion was polytheistic. And god was divided into two categories The Devas (god of nature) and The Asuras (god of moral concepts). Animal sacrifice was practiced but on very rare occasions.
Time period: 1500- 500BC
Ashurism-
The older Babylonian religion is somewhat identical to this religious cult. This was the national cult of the Assyrian people. While the former used to pray to Marduk as the main deity, Assyrians devoted themselves to Ashur. Including Marduk and Ishtar, this religion consisted of 20 deities. Akitu was their 11 days long New Year's festival. The controversies say that even after demolishment, the cult used to practice in secret.
Time: 18th century BC to 5Th century BC
Tengriism
The people living in the Altai Mountains of central Asia gave birth to one of the oldest religions on earth, Tengriism. This religion could have originated during the Bronze Age. It was monotheistic and had no holy books as such. Tengriism is different from the others in this list because surprisingly few people still practice this religion in modern times especially in Kyrgyzstan.
Time: 3600 BC to 1200 BC
Mithraism
This religion gained its extreme popularity in the Roman soldiers and was brought to Europe by Alexander the Great. The root of this religion was mainly Persian. This also became one of the most ancient mystery cults of Rome. Mithras, the god of the sun, was a Persian god and though it became quite famous at that time, no surviving texts have been found. Archeologists have gathered most of the information from the temple ruins which used to be underground and poorly constructed.
The one thing that was different in the Persian and the Roman beliefs was the bull slaying statue of god prayed by the later. This raised various confusion in the minds of the archeologists.
Time: still not known
The second part is coming soon. Stay tuned………
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