Ritual: Did you mean...?

Mo Ti (l. 470-391 BCE, also known as Mot Tzu, Mozi, and Micius) was a Chinese philosopher of the Warring States Period (c. 481-221 BCE) associated with the Hundred Schools of Thought (different philosophical schools which established themselves...

The Areni Cave is a multicomponent cave site with artifacts dating from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age. In Armenia, the Areni Cave complex is also known as "Birds' Cave" ("Trchuneri" in Armenian). Located near the town of Areni, which...

Block XLIV of the South Frieze of the Parthenon Sculptures. Attributed to Pheidias 438BC-432 BCE. Detail of a cow being led to sacrifice by four youths. The cow does not seem to be too happy about this. The two youths at right look back to...

Festivals in ancient Mesopotamia honored the patron deity of a city-state or the primary god of the city that controlled a region or empire. The earliest, the Akitu festival, was first observed in Sumer in the Early Dynastic period (circa...

The Bronze Age frescoes from Akrotiri on the Aegean island of Thera (modern-day Santorini) provide some of the most famous images from the ancient Greek world. Sometime between 1650 and 1550 BCE Thera suffered a devastating earthquake which...

In the religion of the ancient Celts who lived in Iron Age Europe from 700 BCE to 400 CE, certain natural sites like springs, river sources, and groves were held as sacred. These places, as well as some urban sites, often had purpose-built...

Prostitution in the ancient world usually referred to a classification of women and men who offered their sexual services outside the parameters of law codes for ancient society. The word 'prostitute' derives from the Latin prostituere ("to...

Göbekli Tepe is the world's oldest example of monumental architecture; a 'temple' built at the end of the last Ice Age, 12,000 years ago. It was discovered in 1995 CE when, just a short distance from the city of Şanliurfa in Southeast Turkey...

Sacred cakes in ancient Greece were baked loaves, biscuits, pastries, and sponges sweetened with honey (meli) and prepared as unburnt offerings to the gods and goddesses and other divine beings. Unburnt offerings were substitutes for or a...

The Rites of Eleusis, or the Eleusinian Mysteries, were the secret rituals of the mystery school of Eleusis and were observed regularly from c. 1600 BCE - 392 CE. Exactly what this mystic ritual was no one knows; but why the ancient Greeks...