Of the 18 traditions charted, eleven are still practiced; the oldest still practiced have texts or founders dated to the second and first millennia BCE
Source. “Ancient Egyptian religion”; “Mesopotamian religion: stages of religious development”; “Rigveda”; “Stela of Merneptah”; “Homer”; “Zarathustra”; “Mahavira”; “Laozi” (summary); “Confucius”; “Buddha”; “Jesus”; “Mithraism”; “Manichaeism”; “Muhammad” (summary); “Tenochtitlán”; “Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui”; “Nanak”; “Baha’ Allah”; BMCR 2009.06.43 (review of Dijkstra); Digital Corpus of Cuneiform Mathematical Texts; “The End of Paganism”; “Battle of Tenochtitlán”; “Vilcabamba”
Method and data
Method. Bars start at the earliest date the cited reference work gives for the tradition’s founder, text or first evidence; a dashed start marks a date the source gives as approximate or disputed. Bars end at the last dated practice in the cited source.
| Tradition | Start as stated | End as stated | Bar note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egyptian religion | 4th millennium BCE | 535–537 CE | to 535–537 CE |
| Mesopotamian religion | 4th millennium BCE and even earlier | 75 CE | to 75 CE |
| Vedic religion and Hinduism | about 1500 BCE | ||
| Judaism (first mention of Israel) | about 1208 BCE | ||
| Greek and Roman religion | 9th or 8th century BCE | 392 CE | to 392 CE |
| Zoroastrianism | traditionally c. 628–c. 551 BCE | ||
| Jainism | about 599 BCE (traditional) | ||
| Taoism | 6th century BCE (traditional) | ||
| Confucianism | 551–479 BCE | ||
| Buddhism | c. 6th–4th century BCE | ||
| Christianity | c. 30 CE | ||
| Mithras cult | 2nd and 3rd centuries CE | 2nd and 3rd centuries CE | flourished 2nd–3rd centuries CE |
| Manichaeism | about 240 CE | 843; continued at least until the 14th century | in China to at least the 14th century |
| Islam | 610 | ||
| Aztec state religion | c. 1325 | August 13, 1521 | to 1521 |
| Inca state religion | 1438–71 (reign of Pachacuti) | until 1572 | to 1572 (Vilcabamba) |
| Sikhism | 1469–1539 | ||
| Baha’i Faith | 1863 |
