Editing Ancient history (section)

===Religion and philosophy===
{{Main|Axial Age|History of philosophy|History of religion}}
{{Further||Religions of the ancient Near East|Ancient Egyptian religion|Historical Vedic religion|Ancient Greek religion|Hellenistic philosophy|Roman imperial cult|Early Christianity|Decline of Greco-Roman polytheism}}
[[File:Museo Barracco - Giove Ammone 1010637.JPG|alt=Jupiter Ammon|thumb|Roman cast [[terracotta]] of ram-horned ''Jupiter Ammon'', a form of [[Zeus]], 1st century AD. Gods were sometimes borrowed between civilisations and adapted to local conditions.]]

The rise of civilisation corresponded with the institutional sponsorship of belief in gods, supernatural forces and the afterlife.{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=40-41}} During the Bronze Age, many civilisations adopted their own form of polytheism. Usually, polytheistic Gods manifested human personalities, strengths and failings. Early religion was often based on location, with cities or entire countries selecting a deity, that would grant them preferences and advantages over their competitors. Worship involved the construction of representation of deities, and the granting of sacrifices. Sacrifices could be material goods, food, or in extreme cases human sacrifice to please a deity.{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=142–143}} New philosophies and religions arose in both east and west, particularly about the 6th century BC. Over time, a great variety of religions developed around the world, with some of the earliest major ones being Hinduism (around 2000 BC), [[Buddhism]] (5th century BC), and [[Jainism]] (6th century BC) in [[India]], and [[Zoroastrianism]] in [[Achaemenid Empire|Persia]]. The [[Abrahamic religion]]s trace their origin to [[Judaism]], around 1700 BC.{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=144–147}}

In the east, three schools of thought were to dominate Chinese thinking until the modern day. These were [[Taoism]], [[Legalism (Chinese philosophy)|Legalism]] and [[Confucianism]]. The Confucian tradition, which would attain dominance, looked for political [[morality]] not to the force of law but to the power and example of tradition.{{sfn|Bentley|Ziegler|2006|pp=182–189}} Confucianism would later spread into the [[Korean peninsula]]{{sfn|Bentley|Ziegler|2006|p=396}} and [[Japan]].{{sfn|Bentley|Ziegler|2006|p=397}}

In the west, the Greek philosophical tradition, represented by [[Socrates]], [[Plato]], and [[Aristotle]], was diffused throughout Europe and the Middle East in the 4th century BC by the conquests of Alexander the Great.{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=130–131}} After the [[Bronze and Iron Age religion]]s formed, Christianity spread through the Roman world.{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=144-147}}