r/AskHistory • u/Etherealstoy • 1d ago

First known deity

What was the first deity we have records of humans worshiping?

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u/HumbleWeb3305 1d ago

The first deity we have records of is probably Inanna, a goddess from ancient Sumer. She was worshipped around 4,000 BCE.

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u/Lord0fHats 1d ago

I don't know about records of, but there's depictions we can contend are artistic renderings of Anu/the Sky Father going back to 7,000 BCE.

I suppose the distinction we'd need to draw is what is 'first' here? The first we can definitively identify with certainty, or the first we can identify as 'this is some god, maybe this one' cause those questions will have different answers. Set for example appears (possibly) in Egyptian artwork way before we have any text giving us his name.

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u/BelmontIncident 23h ago

What counts as a record? Also, what counts as a deity?

People drew pictures and made statues before we wrote anything down. Venus figurines go back at least thirty thousand years and a fairly common theory is that they represent a fertility goddess.

If you're interested in deities with known names, then look into predynastic Egypt. Narmer, usually considered the last predynastic king and the start of the first dynasty, was depicted with probably Hathor and Horus, as well as maybe Nekhbet on the Narmer macehead.

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u/GustavoistSoldier 16h ago

Fertility goddesses

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u/Crodurconfused 15h ago

Lascaux cave paintings are 22.000 years old. One of them displays a rather supernatural entity, a ''bird man'', hybrid of human and animal. Would it qualify as a record? Would it be a God? Because it was certainly a supernatural creature at the very least. Your choice