AEB_38 Prehistoric religions of Europe

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2008
Extent and Intensity
2/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
prof. PhDr. Vladimír Podborský, DrSc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Zdeněk Měřínský, CSc.
Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jitka Dobešová
Timetable
Wed 15:00–16:35 C43
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The lecture with the related seminar is supposed to inform the students about the contemporary knowledge of primeval and early historic religions of Europe, excluding ancient civilizations (Crete, Greece, Rome). The topic of a multi-disciplinary nature draws from the findings of philosophy, general study of religion, history, ethnology, history of art, and primarily archaeology. The course covers a very long period of time since the first manifestations of spiritual life of the Homo genus in the Palaeolithic to the adoption of Christianity by the early historic nations of Europe. The first part of the instruction clarifies various concepts of religion or religiousness, throws light on the basic notions of prehistoric study of religion, outlines the global periodizations of the primeval era, and formulates the theoretical development of natural religious concepts up to polytheism. The second – the main – part deals with the concrete manifestations of religiosity of the individual primeval stages and the religions of the main early historical ethnics of Europe. The instruction is completed by pictorial documentation of archaeological and historical evidence of the manifestations of religiosity, especially its cultic part. There is an adequate time left for an open discussion of the topic.
Syllabus
  • l. Introduction to the prehistoric study of religion. Main definitions of religion or religiousness with regard to primeval era. Development conceptions of primeval religiosity. 3 aspects of religion (doctrine, cult, organization). Basic vocabulary. 2. Religiosity of the Europeans in the lower Stone Age (Palaeolithic). The first layer of nature-related religious conceptions. Dynamism, manism, fetishism, totemism, cult of ancestors. Cultic manifestation: magic of hunting, magic of fertility, burials of the “shamans”. 3. Pictorial documentation to lesson No 2. Pleistocene creative art. Cave galleries (“sanctuaries”) of Western Europe. 4. Religious conceptions of Neolithic husbandmen. Second layer of nature-related religious ideas. Animism, animatism, demonism, prototheism. Cultic manifestations: sacral enclosures (“rondels”), anthropomorphic (female) plastic art, models of items, cultic vessels, human sacrifices, beginnings of burial rite. 5. Pictorial documentation to lesson No 4. Photos from archaeological excavations. 6. Eneolithic prototheism. Religion of the Neolithic autochthonous peoples (fall of primeval naturalism). Sacral enclosures (“rondels” and quadrangular sanctuaries). Cultic pottery (anthropomorphic and zoomorphic vessels, kernoses and pseudokernoses, models of items, decadent figural plastic art). Unstable burial rite. Religion of invaders. Barrow tombs. Megalithic structures of Western and Northern Europe. 7. Polytheism of the Bronze Age. Anonymous deities of “Barbaric” Europe? Sacral enclosures and cultic places. Cultic features. Votive hoards. “Meal offertories”. Cultic items. Human sacrifices. Testimony of a stable burial rite. Eschatology. 8. Pictorial documentation to lesson No 7. 9. Advanced polytheism of the Hallstatt period. Growth of the Pantheon. Mysterious Illyrians and their sanctuaries. Situla art. Religious and social significance of burial rite. Cave places of sacrifices. The Býčí skála cave near Adamov. 10. Religious particularism of the old Celts. Celtic Pantheon. Druids and druidism. Orphism. Pythagoreism. Celtic sanctuaries: “Viereckschanze”, “nemeton”, “drunemeton”, halls of heads. Celtic feasts. Testimony of burial rite. Penetration of Christianity into late Celtic society. 11. Pictorial documentation to lesson No 10. Celtic arts. 12. Religion of the old Thracians . The so-called Thracian Calendaria (Sarmizegetusa Regia etc.). Religion of the Scythians and the Sarmatians. Religion of the old Etruscans. 13. Religion of the old Germans. Germanic Pantheon. Priests and fortune-tellers. Germanic sanctuaries. Nordic bog and water places of sacrifices. Archaeological discoveries of mummies of sacrificed people. “Trial circles” (domareringar, kregi). Old Germanic things. Burial rite. Penetration of Christianity among German tribes. Arianism. 14. Old Slavic paganism. Slavic Pantheon: older generation of gods. New gods of the Elbe and Baltic Slavs. Old Slavic sanctuaries and pagan temples. Famous centres of pagan cult: Retra, Arkona, Wolin, Stargard, Bogit on Zbruč etc. Old Slavic “žreci” (pagan priests). Pagan sanctuaries in the territory of the CR. Slavic demonology. Relics of Slavic paganism in folk culture. Life and death of the old Slavs. Penetration of Christianity among Slavic tribes. 15. Pictorial documentation to lesson No 14. Summation of the subject matter. Completion of the course.
Literature
  • FRAZER, James George. Zlatá ratolest [Frazer, 1994] : The golden bough (Orig.). Vyd. 2. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1994, 632 s. ISBN 80-204-0488-0. info
Assessment methods
Requirements for the colloquium: - Adequate participation at the work in the seminar - Overview of general theory of primeval study of religion - Knowledge of the main features of religions of the early historic ethnics in Europe - Basic orientation in the specialist literature to the topic
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2000, Spring 2002, Spring 2004, Spring 2006, Spring 2010, Spring 2012, Autumn 2013.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2008, recent)
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