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At a cemetery uncovered at Hierakonpolis and dated to 3000 BCE, the remains of a much wider variety of animals were found, including non-domestic species such as baboons and hippopotami, which may have been sacrificed in honor of powerful former citizens or buried near their former owners. Sheep and goats were found buried in their own graves at one site, while at another site gazelles were found at the feet of several human burials. The oldest Egyptian burial sites containing animal remains originate from the Badari culture of Upper Egypt, which flourished between 44 BCE.

However, animal sacrifice was not a central practice of Egyptian religion, but was rather a peripherical occurrence that happened away from worshippers. Prehistory Īncient Egypt was at the forefront of domestication, and some of the earliest archeological evidence suggesting animal sacrifice comes from Egypt. In a theory presented in Homo Necans, mythologist Walter Burkert suggests that the ritual sacrifice of livestock may have developed as a continuation of ancient hunting rituals, as livestock replaced wild game in the food supply. One of the altars at the Monte d'Accoddi in Sardinia, where animal sacrifice may have occurred.ĭuring the Neolithic Revolution, early humans began to move from hunter-gatherer cultures toward agriculture, leading to the spread of animal domestication.

Usually, the best animal or best share of the animal is the one presented for offering.Īnimal sacrifice should generally be distinguished from the religiously prescribed methods of ritual slaughter of animals for normal consumption as food. Others burnt the whole animal offering, called a holocaust. Human sacrifice, where it existed, was always much rarer.Īll or only part of a sacrificial animal may be offered some cultures, like the ancient and modern Greeks, eat most of the edible parts of the sacrifice in a feast, and burnt the rest as an offering. Animal sacrifices were common throughout Europe and the Ancient Near East until the spread of Christianity in Late Antiquity, and continue in some cultures or religions today. Ritual Sacrifice of a pig in ancient Greece ( tondo from an Attic red-figure cup, 510–500 BCE, by the Epidromos Painter, collections of the Louvre)Īnimal sacrifice is the ritual killing and offering of one or more animals, usually as part of a religious ritual or to appease or maintain favour with a deity.

Prayers for wild game banquet at church.prayer for hearts