Deity

==Prehistoric==
[[File:Museum of Anatolian Civilizations 1320259 nevit.jpg|thumb|upright|Statuette of a [[Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük|nude, corpulent, seated woman]] flanked by two [[Felidae|felines]] from [[Çatalhöyük]], dating to {{circa}} 6000 BCE, thought by most archaeologists to represent a goddess of some kind<ref name=mellart181>{{cite book | first = James | last = Mellaart |year = 1967 | title = Catal Huyuk: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia | publisher = [[McGraw-Hill]] | pages = 181}}</ref><ref>A typical assessment: "A terracotta statuette of a seated (mother) goddess giving birth with each hand on the head of a leopard or panther from Çatalhöyük (dated around 6000 B.C.E.)" (Sarolta A. Takács, "Cybele and Catullus' ''Attis''", in Eugene N. Lane, ''Cybele, Attis and related cults: essays in memory of M.J. Vermaseren'' 1996:376.</ref>]]
{{Further|Prehistoric religion}}
Scholars infer the probable existence of deities in the prehistoric period from inscriptions and prehistoric arts such as [[Cave painting|cave drawings]], but it is unclear what these sketches and paintings are and why they were made.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Brooks|first1=Philip|title=The Story of Prehistoric Peoples|date=2012|publisher=Rosen Central|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4488-4790-7|pages=22–23|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=exY3ViA3sSQC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}</ref> Some engravings or sketches show animals, hunters or rituals.<ref name="Ruether">{{cite book|last1=Ruether|first1=Rosemary Radford|title=Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History|date=2006|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, CA|isbn=978-0-520-25005-5|page=3|edition=1st|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=mb_her-hd9YC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}</ref> It was once common for archaeologists to interpret virtually every prehistoric female figurine as a representation of a single, primordial goddess, the ancestor of historically attested goddesses such as [[Inanna]], [[Ishtar]], [[Astarte]], [[Cybele]], and [[Aphrodite]];<ref name="Lesure">{{cite book|last1=Lesure|first1=Richard G.|title=The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines|date=2017|editor-last=Insoll|editor-first=Timothy|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-967561-6|pages=54–58|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TdKdDgAAQBAJ&q=prehistoric+deities&pg=PA55|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=31 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831002220/https://books.google.com/books?id=TdKdDgAAQBAJ&q=prehistoric+deities&pg=PA55|url-status=live}}</ref> this approach has now generally been discredited.<ref name="Lesure"/> Modern archaeologists now generally recognize that it is impossible to conclusively identify any prehistoric figurines as representations of any kind of deities, let alone goddesses.<ref name="Lesure"/> Nonetheless, it is possible to evaluate ancient representations on a case-by-case basis and rate them on how likely they are to represent deities.<ref name="Lesure"/> The [[Venus of Willendorf]], a female figurine found in Europe and dated to about 25,000 BCE has been interpreted by some as an exemplar of a prehistoric female deity.<ref name="Ruether"/> A number of probable representations of deities have been discovered at [['Ain Ghazal]]<ref name="Lesure"/> and the works of art uncovered at [[Çatalhöyük]] reveal references to what is probably a complex mythology.<ref name="Lesure"/>
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