This paper looks in detail at the evidence for cult practices during the Neolithic in Italy, especially cave sites in southern Italy. The problems of recognising cult activities are highlighted; whether the simple borrowing of ethnographic parallels or the application of ethnographically derived models such as initiation rites, rites of passage, or hunting magic. Careful contextual archaeology is used to isolate phenomena best seen as special rites rather than variation of general practice, for example the rare cremations at Grotta Continenza alongside normal inhumations. The presence of pits or stone circles, imitative creations, art, the use of ochre or clay, human remains, intentional breakage of artefacts, the deposition of animal or vegetable’ offerings’, these are just some of the elements that need special investigation when suggesting cult practices in the Neolithic. The paper argues strongly against drawing hasty conclusions or proposing appealing but speculative interpretations of supposed agricultural fertility rites, child sacrifices, or male initiation rituals, for the truth is we still know much too little about Neolithic cults or even Neolithic society.