The earliest historical religions in Europe were those of the Bronze Age Aegean.
Although “historical” in the sense that there are texts, the administrative texts which are preserved refer only incidentally to religion and do not throw much light on larger issues; myths, hymns and rituals were not recorded in the material preserved.
It is thus hardly surprising that this era is frequently understood as being “prehistoric”: our evidence consists for the most part of archaeological materials, mostly figurines, seals, votive objects, offerings, paintings and so forth, from shrines, tombs and palaces. These are, however, complemented by a few details that can be gleaned from the contemporary texts, offering information that would otherwise be unavailable in the mute world of prehistoric archaeology.We distinguish these civilizations of the second millennium BCE as the “Minoans” and the “Mycenaeans”. Although the terms are misleading (in the sense that the Ancients will never have understood them as we use them), both are retained here as they are widely recognized. By (a) “Minoan”, we understand the culture of the Middle and early Late Bronze Age Aegean islands (effectively Middle Minoan IB-Late Minoan IB, ca. 1900-1500 BCE), most particularly Crete, before and partially overlapping with (b) the Mycenaeans of the Greek mainland in the Late Bronze Age (Middle Helladic III/Late Helladic I-Late Helladic III, ca. 1700/1600-1050 BCE). Obviously, Mycenaean materials are prominent on Crete, and Minoan materials appear on the mainland, but the division is as clear as are the links.
Both cultures shared traditions of funerary architecture, particularly the tholos tombs (steep domed structures of stone erected with corbelled vaulting) with a drdnws-path leading to an entry allowing passage into the tomb. Although they shared a few gods, neither culture seems to have practised temple worship of the deities in a monumental urban or rural fashion. Both would appear to have been societies dominated by palaces, but not under central control - so the palaces pursued their interests and the people pursued theirs. However, the ideology and what documentation there is comes from the elite (and suggests that ordinary people were following elite practices).
In this chapter, I will begin with a brief summary, in two parts, of what can be viewed as something approaching “facts” drawn from the evidence, first concerning the Minoan world, and then that of the Mycenaeans. This presentation is followed by a necessarily longer third part in which I discuss the debates about history and evidence. An epilogue on the later religion of the Greeks has been appended to these discussions in order to link the context of the Bronze Age religion discussed in this chapter to the forms of religion known from classical antiquity and the West discussed in the rest of the book.