Though the interpretation of spiritual matters in other societies is hard because of differences in culture and context, the facility for reflective thought and emotion is one of the features that distinguishes humans from animals, and shows every sign of having been an influential factor in all past societies. While it is impossible to enter into the psyche of prehistoric peoples or chart the psychological processes that led them to undertake particular spiritual journeys, one is justified in supposing that the processes existed, and that many aspects of material culture reflect these preoccupations.

It is common to refer these various processes and preoccupations to the catch-all terms ‘religion’ and ‘ritual’. What is certain is that particular mental and psychological states can produce particular effects in terms of material behaviour – for instance the building of churches, synagogues or mosques, or artefacts bearing symbols of known significance such as the cross. These effects are visible among the material records available to Bronze Age archaeology as much as in any other period.

What appear to be symbolic manifestations are widely found in Bronze Age Europe, in portable objects, in decorative motifs and in the art carved on to rock outcrops. The locations for activities that may loosely be described as cultic or ritual are harder to identify. Such activities may have taken place almost anywhere; certainly they did not require a built construction, and could have utilised natural features such as hilltops, areas with curious rock formations, groves, marshes and bogs, pools and lakes, caves or rock fissures, and rivers or streams.