By 7000 BC, the Chinese were farming millet, giving rise to the Jiahu culture. 

At Damaidi in Ningxia, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000-5000 BC have been discovered "featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing."  These pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese. 

BUT (Wikipedia Ancient History - Prehistory) if you take controlled use of fire as the origin of technology then that goes back to around 800,000 years ago. 

The oldest civilisations that I know of is Mesopotamia (links here and here), where the practice of farming dates back to an incredible 8000 B.C. It predates Babylon, ancient Egypt and is considered by most scholars to be the 'cradle of civilisation'. 

As for religion ... well, that's harder to say.  At what point in human history did we become intelligent enough to understand gods and an afterlife?  Burial and cave paintings might provide and answer but it's not concrete evidence. 

By 7000 BC, the Chinese were farming millet, giving rise to the Jiahu culture. 

At Damaidi in Ningxia, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000-5000 BC have been discovered "featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing."  These pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese. 

BUT (Wikipedia Ancient History - Prehistory) if you take controlled use of fire as the origin of technology then that goes back to around 800,000 years ago. 

Click to expand...

Thanks.  But wouldn't that but other species of great ape as having civilization?  They use technology (tools) as well. 

The oldest civilisations that I know of is Mesopotamia (links here and here), where the practice of farming dates back to an incredible 8000 B.C. It predates Babylon, ancient Egypt and is considered by most scholars to be the 'cradle of civilisation'. 

As for religion ... well, that's harder to say.  At what point in human history did we become intelligent enough to understand gods and an afterlife?  Burial and cave paintings might provide and answer but it's not concrete evidence. 

At what point in human history did we become intelligent enough to understand gods and an afterlife? 

Click to expand...

Not sure that's ever going to happen.  It is easy to elaborate on the concept of a god and a Valhalla but not easy to make one that is logically consistent.  One question might be whether those in an afterlife can learn.  If so then if the afterlife lasts an infinite time then the amount of information will become infinite.  If not then there is no perception of passage of time and there might as well not be an afterlife. 

Bit of a late reply but I thought this might be interesting: the oldest sign of civilisation dates back to 11,600 years ago (9,600 B.C.) making it over a thousand years older than the earliest known civilisation, Mesopotamia.  It's a religious temple in Turkey known as Göbekli Tepe.  Strangely there seemed to be no other signs of civilisation - no farms, no houses, not even any graves ...