Mykenische Opfergaben Nach Aussage Der Linear B-TextePaperback, 15 July 2005

Offerings in the Greek Bronze Age: bringing of offerings in ancient Greece was such a normal, daily and ever-present custom that it became the quintessence of religious acts, defined simply as "doing something (holy)". Based on their historical tradition, the Greeks believed that originally animals were not sacrificed, but rather only bloodless offerings were given, but indeed it seems that the ritual butchering of animals and the following meal of meat can be traced back historically to the human condition before the development of agriculture. As can be seen from Palaeolithic finds of deposited bones and sculls at sacred sites, the practice was based on feelings of guilt in relation to killing animals, already sensed by early Stone Age hunters. In order to avoid harming the order of nature by breaking the taboo against killing animals, the butchering was performed in a ritual, i.e. as an offering, and the collection of the bones after the meal was carried out as a form of restitution. Thus "the sacrifice, as a meeting with death, an act of death that confirms the continuation of life, has stemmed from the Palaeolithic way of subsistence".