Glenn Morton wrote, as forwarded by Carol Ann Hill, on 19 March 2001 in
small part:
"Sheep and goats, whose role would become essential in the peopling of
the
middle Mediterranean area, were domesticated in the Near East. The sheep
is, at first, a victim of a selective hunting process, for example, at
Zawi
Chemi at the foot of the Zagros, where a possible domestication as early
as
9000 B. C. is postulated. " ~ Jean Guilaine, "The First Farmers of the
Old
World," in Jean Guilaine, editor, Prehistory: The World of Early Man,
(New
York: Facts on File, 1986), p. 82
Sheep herding was very widespread prior to the time that you say that
Jabal
is really the father. Also, you ignore the statement that Jabal is the
father of those who live in tents. Mankind has been living in tents for
over 400,000 years and maybe as long ago as 1.6 million years. If so, in
what sense can Jabal be the father of tent-livers? Several examples:
You also make the statement that betrays your lack of study in
archaeology
when you write:
"And could prehistoric humans--barely out of the Stone Age--have
constructed
a boat the size of the ark? With what--stone tools? Boy, do you need to
study ancient boatmaking. First off, the stone age Hawaiians, who NEVER
left
the stone age because they had NO metals at all, built ocean going
vessels
that were actually larger than the iron-tool-built boats of Captain Cook.
"The boats used by Polynesians when James Cook encountered them were
marvels
of craftsmanship. The Polynesians manufactured multi-hulled, multi-plank
boats, propelled by paddles and sails and they were extremely fast.
Some
Tahitian canoes were 65 feet long, longer than many power cruisers. One
canoe that Captain Cook saw was longer than his own ship. Polynesian
ships
were all made with stone-age tools." G. R. Morton Adam, Apes and
Anthropology, DMD publishing 1997, p. 139 reference: John R.
Whiting,"Boat
and Boating" The Software Toolworks Encyclopedia, 1992 Ed. version 1.5.
Text Copyright Grolier Inc. 1992
The earliest planed and polished piece of wood is dated between
240-780,000
years (a time of Homo erectus) who obviously had skill with woodworking.
(S.
Belitszky et al, "A Middle Pleistocene Wooden Plank with man?made
Polish,"
Journal of Human Evolution, 1991, 20:349?353.)
There is microscopic wear evidence on stone tools of woodworking going
back
1.6 million years. Homo erectus manufactured a javelin balanced just like
a
modern olympic javelin and he did it with stone tools. What is the
problem
with building a boat with stone tools, which many primitive cultures
still
do today_-ocean going vessels made of wood!
* * * * * * * * * *
These statements leave me with several questions. Jabal was a descendant
of Cain (Genesis 4:20). If the domestication of sheep was about 9000
years ago, and the use of tents perhaps 1.6 million years ago, did
Cainites survive the Flood? The distinction between clean and unclean
animals was observed by Noah (7:2). This surely requires domestication.
Why did it have to be rediscovered some 5 million years later?
Tubal-Cain was a half brother of Jabal. He worked with brass or copper
(bronze ?) and iron (4:22). Since the Bronze Age began less than 6000
years ago and the Iron age about 3000 years ago, did the brothers span a
wide period after the Flood? Alternatively, why suggest that Noah built
with stone tools? Though stone tools can be used for sophisticated
projects, it takes a lot longer than using metal tools. A saw in
competent hands will produce a relatively smooth dimensioned plank fairly
quickly, while splitting a trunk and smoothing the irregular slabs with
stone scrapers will be slow work. As with herding, why was so valuable a
technology lost? Can it be that the interpretation of the biblical
chronology is in error? Further, how does a 0.8-1.6 million year old
technology demonstrate a more sophisticated one 4 million years earlier?
You are obviously right that a vessel of whatever size cannot sail
upstream and land in the mountains. But it seems to me that your
alternative has its own problems.
Dave
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