Aborigines Originated Religion 6,000 Years Ago, Scientists Say

LONDON —  Australian aborigines invented religion more than 6,000 years ago, Australian and British archeologists have asserted. Their early religion was based on a cousin of the sea horse, the archeologists told New Scientist magazine.

Paul Tacon of the Australian Museum in Sydney and Christopher Chippindale of the University of Cambridge based their findings on studies of ancient rock drawings of the aboriginal religious icon, the Rainbow Serpent.

They examined paintings dating back more than 6,000 years and decided the Rainbow Serpent--still a religious symbol today--was based on the ribboned pipefish.

The pipefish, a relative of sea horses, could have been washed onto Australian shores when the seas rose at the end of the last ice age and flooded up to a fifth of the island continent, they said. They speculated that the appearance of the strange fish, combined with a vast flood, could have had a strong impact on the aborigines.

Even now, the Rainbow Serpent is a symbol of unity, creation and destruction to aborigines.

“The major components of this spiritual belief system are much older than the major components of religions and spiritual belief systems found elsewhere in the world,” Tacon told New Scientist.