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30,000-10,000 BC
Upper Palaeolithic
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Earliest evidence of burials and ritual activity
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10,000-3,500 BC
Mesolithic
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Small items of portable art appear, possibly relating to early religious practice
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3,500-2,000 BC
Neolithic
2,000–600 BC
Bronze Age
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Monuments built for burial, boundary marking and measuring time
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A plethora of gods, beliefs and rituals. Recorded for history by Julius Caesar in his Conquest of Gaul 58-50 BC, where he also writes about the Druids
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Many native practices and beliefs become Romanised and incorporated into Roman religion. Christianity also becomes popular around the late 3rd century
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440-1066
Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods
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Resurgence of pagan beliefs, including Norse gods, described in traditional tales or sagas
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Christianity becomes the dominant religion in Britain
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The recording of the Canon Episcopi documenting occurrences of witchcraft
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Joan of Arc burned at the stake for heresy amid other accusations that she is a sorceress and witch
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Pope Innocent VIII unleashes the Inquisition against heresy and witchcraft
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German monks, Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Cramer, publish the Malleus Maleficarum, which provides detailed instructions for the prosecution of witches
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Henry VIII’s Parliament passes laws against the practice of witchcraft
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Under the reign of Elizabeth I, the death penalty is introduced for following the ancient religion
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Birth of John Toland who later becomes the first Chosen Chief of the Ancient Druid Order and coins the term ‘pantheism’ for worshiping multiple gods
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The infamous witch trials take place in Salem, Massachusetts, USA. Nineteen men and women are hanged for witchcraft, one is crushed and a further 17 die in prison
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Druid Circle of the Universal Bond founded by John Toland
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Madame Helena Blavatsky establishes the Theosophical Society, heralding the New Age way of thinking
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Birth of Gerald Brosseau Gardner, who is to develop the Wicca religion
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Late 19th and early 20th century
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New interest in a romanticised version of paganism
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Anti-witchcraft laws are repealed in the UK
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Gerald Brosseau Gardner publishes Witchcraft Today and sparks the new religion of Wicca
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