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I'm not obviously talking about small groups or individuals but about an actual civilization that never believed about the existence of a supreme essence. Is atheism just a modern concept?

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Define "civilization" and "supreme essence". – Yannis Rizos Jan 22 at 20:51
I once asked one the defunct Atheism Stack Exchange, and the consensus was that there weren't any that we were aware of. – Andrew Grimm Jan 23 at 7:26
@AndrewGrimm But we are History, we can do better! – astabada Jan 23 at 11:36
Many Romans didn't actually believe in their own gods either – Sam I am Mar 19 at 20:32

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From Wiki:

Will Durant explains that certain pygmy tribes found in Africa were observed to have no identifiable cults or rites. There were no totems, no deities, and no spirits. Their dead were buried without special ceremonies or accompanying items and received no further attention. They even appeared to lack simple superstitions, according to travelers' reports

Also, Jainism seems to be a kind of a "no "supreme essence" type of religion, but I'm not an expert.

A pretty good set of sources on the history of atheism and some analysis can be found here: Investigating Atheism (affiliated with University of Cambridge)

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Yes, you're right. Jains don't believe in creator.Accoding to the Jains universe never had any beginning. – user774025 Jan 28 at 14:52
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I'd say most primitive groups, practicing nature worship in its simplest forms, have no concept of "god". They revere nature itself, its processes and phenomena, but don't usually personify them. That comes later, when society grows.

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That'd be open to lots of interpretation. – Felix Goldberg Jan 24 at 11:27
of course. As is everything related to religions. Define "god" for example. If a tribe makes offerings to the sun in order to get it to rise again in the morning, is the sun a god or not to them? Now they make offerings to their ancestors, are they now gods? – jwenting Jan 24 at 11:30
There's a very blurry line here. For instance, most of us would classify Lucas' "The Force" as a belief in some kind of supreme essence, but not personified in any way. Traditional Siouxan religons believed in Wa-Kon-Da, which is a very similar concept. However, it was easily Christianized as "God" (or often "Great Maker"), and many modern Christians (Siouxan and non) think of the concepts as equivalent. So how different is it really? – T.E.D.♦ Jan 24 at 20:10

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