Many Christians have rejected Neanderthal as being human. Wilcox writes:
"In contrast, the Aurignacian evidence of the AMH CroMagnon people
shows rapid continuous change.
"The extended period of Neanderthal cultural stasis is not
true of any AMH population, including modern 'stone age' groups
such as the native people of Australia"~David L. Wilcox, "Adam,
Where Are You? Changing Paradigms in Paleoanthropology,"
Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith , 48:2( June 1996), p.
92
and
"In fact, one could speculate that the Neanderthal use of
Mousterian techniques was imitation rather than invention, for it
could have been invented by the Qafzeh people, and passed on (in
part) to their Neanderthal neighbors (and thence on into Europe) to
be used without change. Consider this inlight of Mellar's
evaluation of the Chatelperronian industries of Roc de Combe.
Modern man and Neanderthal alternated in residence at this location
for a few hundred years around 34,000 ago. Mellars suggests that
after modern humans arrived with their Aurignacian tool-making
techniques, the local Neanderthals picked up some of the
Aurignacian techniques and modified their Mousterian 'tool kit,'
producing the Chatelperronian industries....To Mellars, this
suggests an acculturation phenomenon, which implies Neanderthals
were capable imitators (like AMH) but not creative inventors
(unlike AMH).",~David L. Wilcox, "Adam, Where Are You? Changing
Paradigms in Paleoanthropology," Perspectives on Science and
Christian Faith , 48:2( June 1996), p. 93
"The evidence for artistic or religious expression among the
Neanderthals is almost nonexistent. There is debate over whether
(and for what reasons) they may have occasionally buried their
dead, over whether they used ochre as paint, and over their
hunting methods... However, there is no evidence of art, no
ornaments, no symbolism, no indication of graving tools or sewing,
and clear indication of permanent settlements or trade of raw
materials." ~David L. Wilcox, "Adam, Where Are You? Changing
Paradigms in Paleoanthropology," Perspectives on Science and
Christian Faith , 48:2( June 1996), p. 92
Wilcox is wrong on all counts and this has been known from 1995. In that
year, Neanderthal was found to have made fully Aurignacian tools, and art
33,000 years ago.
Robert Bednarik wrote:
"The widely perceived sharp separation between the Middle
and Upper Palaeolithic is coming under increased scrutiny. One
recently introduced factor is the discovery of Neanderthal
remains dated to less than 30,000 BP (in souther Spain). An even
more important catalyst is the report that apparent Neanderthal
remains have been found together with Aurignacian tools in a
Croatian Cave. The site in question is Vindija Cave, north of
Zagreb, which has yielded abundant archaeological and hominid
remains. The cave is over 50 m deep, and its 9 m of Rissian and
Wurmian sediments contained extensive occupation evidence from
the Middle and the Upper Palaeolithic. Excavations were begun in
1928 and continued to 1986.
Of particular importance is a stratigraphic complex of about
one metre, called complex G. It contains a series of occupation
deposits and Neanderthal remains, but the odd thing is that its
uppermost component, level G1, contains Aurignacian rather than
Mousterian tools. This stratum, a clayey sediment of 8-20 cm
thickness, has produced a radiocarbon date (from a cave bear long
bone, by AMS) of 33,000 +/- 400 BP (ETH-12714). It 56 stone
tools and bone points are clearly Aurignacian-like, and there is
a leaf-shaped bifacial point as found in the Szeletian. The
layer also yielded a pubic bone of a bear that was decorated with
a circular engraving, and there can be no doubt about its Upper
Palaeolithic character. The tools from the actual interface of
G1 with the overlying Fd/d layer are even more pronounced
Aurignacian, with typical endscrapers, keeled scrapers, burins
and more large bone points."~R. G. Bednarik, "Aurignacian
Neanderthals?" The Artefact, 18(1995):92
This means that Neanderthal produced stone tools exactly of the kind that
supposedly represents spiritual modern man. He also produced art which was
exactly like that produced by many, many modern peoples. Bednarik writes:
"We also know that, leaving aside the anomalous Franco-Cantabrian art, most of
the known Pleistocene art of the world is non-iconic, consisting of often
extremely sophisticated graphic systems of which we understand absolutely
nothing to this day, and which few researchers have even examined (one needs
to refer only to the impressive corpus of Russian and Siberian portable
engravings, which I shall discuss elsewhere)."~Robert G. Bednarik,"Who're We
Gonna Call? The Bias Busters!" in Michel Lorblanchet and Paul G. Bahn, Rock
Art Studies: The Post-Stylistic Era or Where do we go from here? (Oxbow
Monograph 35, 1993), pp.207-211, p. 210
When geometric art is found with modern man, no one questions its
intentionality, but when identical art is found with Neanderthal, everyone
ignores it. The circle was a popular symbol among the Australian aborigines.
Thus in the last two years archeology has discovered that Neanderthal made
musical flutes, made art, and made Upper Paleolithic tools. Yet Christians
reject the entire concept that man might have been on earth longer than
60-100 thousand years ago. Furthermore, I have found what appears to be a
representational religious idol (with eyes, nose and mouth) and a religious
sanctuary made by Neanderthal which I discuss in my upcoming manuscript.
This is clear evidence of Neanderthal religion.
Thus the claim made by Wilcox was wrong before it was published. He wrote in
1996:
"The evidence for artistic or religious expression among the
Neanderthals is almost nonexistent." ~David L. Wilcox, "Adam, Where Are You?
Changing Paradigms in Paleoanthropology," Perspectives on Science and
Christian Faith , 48:2( June 1996), p. 92
Concerning Homo erectus, Bednarik writes:
Wonderwork Cave, South Africa
"The arid deposits seem to indicate a fairly stable sedimentation
rate, and on the basis of the dated upper quarter of this
sequence it is estimated that the unique succession of occupation
layers spans about 800,000-900,000 years. Artefacts (mainly
'handaxes') occur down to the basal layer, and this site provides
the longest continuous human occupation evidence in the world.
"Peter Beaumont's work has for many years produced rich
evidence of early human capacities for instance through his work
on Middle Stone Age ochre mining. According to him, the ongoing
excavations in Wonderwork Cave have already yielded clear
evidence for a 'home base' form of organization, spatial
patterning of activities, the regular production of fire, the use
of grass bedding and other indicators. Perhaps most importantly,
each and every level of the site has produced an abundance of red
ochre fragments, and a variety of unmodified items that must have
been introduced into the cave intentionally: exotic quartz
crystals and small 'pretty', coloured pebbles, two of which bear
a natural pattern. These finds, along with those of other
African sites, as well as sites in Asia and Australia, render the
traditional claims that the advent of the Upper Palaeolithic in
Europe marks a major change in cognitive evolution highly
suspect. As Dr. H. J. Deacon (University of Stellenbosch) has
recently stated, the southern African evidence permits the
inference 'that the people in the earlier Late Pleistocene had
cognitive abilities that are comparable to those shown by their
Holocene and modern descendants' (Philosophical Transactions,
Royal Society London, Sept. 1992)"~Robert G. Bednarik, "Wonders
of Wonderwork Cave," The Artefact, 16(1993), p. 61
This is modern behavior on the part of erectus. Ochre's only known purpose
is for body painting and rock painting. Fire and bedding is modern behavior
Given these facts, one question comes to my mind: How long will Christians
continue to reject the evidence that is out there in anthropology, in order
to hold on to a preferred theological interpretation? God only knows. But
the evidence is clear. Neanderthal and Homo erectus were human in every
sense of the word. For Christians to teach otherwise, flies in the face of
the data.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm