Since prehistory, material evidence linked to religious practices or doctrines has conveyed the relationship between humans and higher beings or deities. In the classical world, acts associated with public religion, which also required the commitment of citizens to participate in civic ceremonies, were carried out in public spaces intended for that purpose, such as sanctuaries or temples which, at the same time, were defining elements of the collective identity.
We have evidence of other practices relating to the more personal and family spheres and the moral and ethical values through which society sought to achieve individual well-being. Both aspects, public and private, were linked to deeper concepts and yearnings for fullness and self-improvement related to art and artistic expression.
Artistic expressions
The creative process responds to the human need to express an emotion or an idea, based on its capacity for abstraction and its formal or material representation. Through different artistic expressions (painting, sculpture, pottery, etc.), humans have left evidence of the features of the various cultures they have moulded.
Beliefs
Mythology, religion and superstition: seeking explanations for the great mysteries of life and death; public and private expression of beliefs; propitiation of good luck to confront the most intimate and personal fears.
