by Hugh Ross
Several new archeological finds push back the dates for art, fabric, and "advanced" tools by a few thousand years. These discoveries and bold implications about them have made the pages of Time magazine and other news media worldwide.
The famous prehistoric cave painting (17,000 years old) of Lascaux, France, were upstaged last year by paintings discovered in other French caves dated as 20,000 and 27,000 years old, respectively. In June 1995, another set of cave paintings was found and dated as 30,000 years old.(1) What has been most surprising to the French Ministry of Culture is that the quality of the artwork is roughly the same. The experts expected to see progression from more primitive paining to more sophisticated in that time period, but no such development is seen.
A more controversial find comes out of Australia. At two sites, fragments of stone tools and chunks of hematite were discovered and dated at 53,000 to 60,000 years old.(2) Since hematite was ground into a powder by some early humans for use as a paint, the anthropologists who dated the finds concluded that early Australians "were probably painting rock walls" that long ago. Their claim has been disputed, however, by Stanford anthropologist Richard Klein. He argues, "Similar hematite fragments have been found in many Neanderthal sites and sites of comparable age in Africa without evidence for art."(3)
Weaving has often been cited as the earliest evidence of civilization. Until recently, the most ancient evidence for weaving and basketry dated to about 12,000 or 13,000 years ago in Asia and the Americas, and the most ancient evidence for twisted cord dated to about 17,000 years ago in France and about 19,000 years ago in Israel. In May of this year, however, fabric-type impressions on pieces of pottery ranging from 25,000 to 27,000 years old were found in the Czech Republic.(4)
At about the same time, two American archeologists announced their discovery in Africa of barbed bone tools that date back to 89,000 years ago-75,000 years older than similar bone implements found in Europe a few years ago.(5-7)
How does this archeological data square with the biblical record of humankind? As I discuss in my book, Creation and Time, the design and use of tools is a function of intelligence, perhaps emotions and will, too, but not necessarily of the spiritual dimension of a creature.(8) Therefore, tool design and use is something all the birds and mammals could exhibit, given adequate intelligence. What do we find in nature today? Some of the most intelligent of bird and mammal species use tools. Thus, the discovery of tools dating back 53,000 to 60,000 and even 89,000 years simply establishes that fairly intelligent bipedal primates, not necessarily humans, inhabited the earth.
Neither are the painting and fabric discoveries conclusive evidence of the human spirit. Certain bird species are capable of weaving. Some create elaborate nests. Some even adorn their nests with colorful objects that serve no apparent purpose but decoration.
In the case of the cave drawings and pottery fragments, the degree of abstractness suggests the expression of something more than just intelligence. Certainly no animal species other than human beings has ever exhibited the capacity for such sophisticated expression. However, the dates for these finds are well within the biblically acceptable range for the appearance of Adam and Eve-somewhere between 10,000 and 60,000 years ago according to Bible scholars who have carefully analyzed the genealogies. Since the oldest art and fabrics date between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago, no contradiction exists between anthropology and Scripture on this issue.
References
| 1. | Michael D. Lemonick, "Stone-Age Bombshell," Time, June 19, 1995, p. 49. |
| 2. | Virginia Morell, "The Earliest Art Becomes Older-and More Common," Science, 267 (1995), pp. 1908-1909. |
| 3. | Morell, p. 1909. |
| 4. | Bruce Bower, "Stone Age Fabric Leaves Swatch Marks," Science News, 147 (1995), p. 276. |
| 5. | Alison S. Brooks, et al., "Dating and Context of Three Middle Stone Age Sites with Bone Points in the Upper Semliki Valley, Zaire," Science, 268 (1995), pp. 548-553. |
| 6. | John E. Yellen, et al., "A Middle Stone Age Worked Bone Industry from Katanda, Upper Semliki Valley, Zaire," Science, 268 (1995), pp. 553-556. |
| 7. | Ann Gibbons, "Old Dates for Modern Behavior," Science, 268 (1995), pp. 495-496. |
| 8. | Hugh Ross, Creation and Time, Colorado Springs, NavPress, 1994), pp. 140-141. |