Paleolithic rock art in southern France featuring a wide array of animals and geometric shapes dating back to at least 17,000 years ago.
What are the Lascaux cave images?
100
Hindu sacred texts composed between the eighth and fifth centuries that sought the inner meaning of the Vedic sacrifices and ultimately focused on the World Soul or the final reality.
What are the Upanishads?
100
The primarily masculine powerful and jealous deity of the Hebrew people.
Who is Yahweh?
100
A virtually indescribable state in which individual identity will be extinguished along with all greed, hatred, and delusion.
What is nirvana?
100
These iron-using agricultural people migrated from southeastern Nigeria and the Cameroons into southern Africa over the course of several millennia eventually bringing 400 distinct but closely related
Who are the Bantu?
200
Agricultural village societies that organized themselves around gift-giving primary leaders who rarely used force to coerce obedience but rather used personal charisma and an esteemed lineage to rule effectively.
What are chiefdoms?
200
Notion of rebirth or reincarnation.
What is samsara?
200
The highly personal and affectionate term Jesus used for “God.”
What is Abba?
200
Greater Vehicle of Buddhism that teaches that help is available for the strenuous voyage of life.
What is Mahayana Buddhism?
200
Giant planned city in the Valley of Mexico which reached the height of its estimated population of between 100,000 and 200,000 around 550 C.E.
What is Teotihuacán?
300
Female baked-clay figurine dating back to 5000 B.C.E. found at a site in south-central Turkey noted for her powerful seated position between two lionesses.
What is the Çatalhüyük “mother Goddess”?
300
Hindu priests who practiced elaborate ritual sacrifices as prescribed in the Vedas.
What are Brahmins?
300
Spokespersons for the Jewish God who demanded social justice and compassion for the poor.
Who are the Hebrew prophets?
300
Teaching of the Elders that stressed one’s personal responsibility to live by a rigorous moral standard in order to cross the river to nirvana.
What is Theravada Buddhism?
300
An African kingdom situated in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia that was based on plow-driven agriculture and developed around 50 C.E.
What is Axum?
400
The earliest evidence of human processing of this dye—from around 100,000 years ago—was excavated at the Blombos Cave in South Africa in 2008.
What is ochre?
400
Union with Brahman or liberation from the illusory perception of separate existence.
What is moksha?
400
A branch of Christianity which featured ascetic monasticism and a translation of the Bible into the Egyptian language.
What is Coptic Christianity?
400
Spiritually developed people who postpone their own entry in nirvana to assist those who are still suffering.
What are bodhisattvas?
400
An immense sixteen acre stone city in southern Africa built around 1200 C.E. by Shona-speaking agricultural and cattle herding people.
What is Great Zimbabwe?
500
Australian Aboriginal worldview that is expressed in endless stories, extended ceremonies, and evocative rock art featuring Creation Ancestor and Lightning Man.
What is Dreamtime?
500
Beginning in south India this devotional or worship movement stressed the intense adoration of a particular deity through songs, prayers, and rituals.
What is bhakti?
500
The first major church council that wrestled with the question of whether Jesus was human or divine or both.
What is the Council of Nicaea?
500
The Buddha of the future who appears as a “laughing Buddha” with a full belly and a smile on his face.
Who is the Maitreya Buddha?
500
Pan-Andean religious movement that synthesized the influences of the desert coastal regions and the rain forests, but whose major deities—jaguars, crocodiles, and snakes—all originated in the Amazon basin.