Burgy wrote:
>-----Original Message-----
>From: John W Burgeson [mailto:burgytwo@juno.com]
>Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2002 12:27 PM
>Next Saturday we will have a speaker here in Denver, L. Robert Keck, who
>is a scholar-in-residence at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.
>He is the author of Sacred Quest: The Evolution and Future of the Human
>Soul, as well as another book. His bio says he has an MDiv degree as well
>as a Ph.D..
>
>In the seminar, the blurb says he will show original research into issues
>of nonviolence.
>
>The claim that interests me is stated in two bullets:
>
>1. Humanity, worldwide, apparently lived nonviolently for 25,000 years.
>2. Human-human violence appeared suddenly about 8,500 years ago.
I have never heard of this guy but boy is he wrong. 8,500 years ago is 6,500
BC.
The earliest cities were built with a wall and defenses by 9000 BC. Why do
you want to go to that much work if your neighbors don't want to steal your
food and make you slaves to them?
"At Mallaha (Eynan) in Palestine, in the 10th millenium,
a cluster of round cabins -- 10 to 13 feet (three to four
meters) in diameter on the average and sometimes up to 30
feet (9 meters)-- was planned. These houses were dug in
pits, and their periphery was surrounded by stone walls.
At Mureybet (Syria), in the 10th millenium, circular
habitations dug into the ground were constructed, limited
by low walls of argil and wood, and covered by a thick
coating. The preference for circular houses would be
maintained even in the beginning of the Neolithic. In
the course of the ninth millennium, Jericho (in Jordan),
already occupied by the Natufian, enlarged the town in
association with a development beyond that which was
customary for stone architecture. A high wall, 10 feet
(3 meters) thick and 13 feet (4 meters) high, could
extend out to 26 feet (8 meters), while an imposing tower
(33 feet/10 meters wide at its base and 30 feet/9 meters
high) contained an interior staircase." ~ 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. 80-81
**
And there is evidence of murder going way back Tabun are anatomically modern
humans:
"Some human remains, such as
those of Tabun in Israel are said to show evidence of wounds
ascribed to spear thrusts.
"Although no traces remain, we may suspect that wood had many
other uses, apart from weapons. Wooden containers, and even wood
canoes were almost certainly used long ago. Small water-craft
probably provided the means for crossing the straits of Gibraltar
hundreds of thousand sof years ago, and were certainly a
prerequisite for the oclonization of Australia, perhaps 60,00
years ago." ~ John A. J. Gowlett, Ascent to Civilization, (New
York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1993), p. 94-95
At Ofnet cave in Bavaria modern human skulls show that head hunting was
going on between 10-20,000 years ago J. Jelinek, The Evolution of Man, p.
114-115
And such evidence goes further back.
"Second, the presence of stone-pointed spears in the
Mousterian is still a viable thesis. There is evidence for
projectile impact and hafting from use wear studies in the
Levantine Mousterian collections. Further proof is provided by
Neanderthal skeletal remains, specifically from the rib cage of
Shanidar Neanderthal III. The rib in question is the left ninth
rib, located in one of the most vital areas of the body. It
exhibits a slit, about 1.5 mm wide, evidence of a wound that had
begun to heal when the individual was killed in a rockfall.
Recently, I had the opportunity to study the cast of this rib in
the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. The
rib was also examined by R. W. Mann, a forensic anthropologist at
the museum, and a specialist in stab wounds. He concluded that
the direction of the wound was from back to front and from above
to below. A study of the slit itself, its shape, narrow width,
and complete penetration of the rib, indicate that only a thin
stone point set in some sort of haft and projected with much
force by another individual, could have produced such a result."
~ Rose L. Solecki, "More on Hafted Projectile Points in the
Mousterian," Journal of Field Archaeology, 19(1992):207-212, p.211
"Careful study of the hip region of one of the men buried at the
Mount Carmel cave of es-Skhul has shown that at death, or shortly
after, this individual had recieved a dreadful wound from what
must have been a wooden spear like those described from a
previous age; the weapon had been driven in with such force that
the head penetrated the head of femur and emerged into the pelvic
cavity." ~ Grahame Clark and Stuart Piggott, Prehistoric
Societies, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965), p. 60
glenn
see http://www.glenn.morton.btinternet.co.uk/dmd.htm
for lots of creation/evolution information
anthropology/geology/paleontology/theology\
personal stories of struggle
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