Animals and Ancient Religion: What Can Prehistoric Art Tell Us?

Prehistoric rock arts, some dating back over forty millennia, would appear to be evidence for some kind of ancient religion, with shamanism and animism prominent in recent interpretations. Animals are abundant in many ancient paintings, especially the famous painted caves of the European Paleolithic. However, the inherent ambiguity of visual images complicates scientific explorations of their significance and consideration of relationships between humans and animals at different times. This applies even to investigations of more recent corpora (such as hunter-gatherer rock art in southern Africa), where ethnographies permit some insights. Nevertheless, ancient images are enormously evocative and invite us to examine and interrogate changing attitudes to human–animal relationships in our time.