> The Sima site dates to sometime greater than 300,000 years old. (J.L.
> Arsuaga et al, "Three New Human Skulls from the Sima de los Huesos Middle
> Pleistocene site in Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain," Nature April 8, 1993, p 534.
>
> While some apologists like Hugh Ross and David Wilcox prefer to exclude
> these men from humanity preferring to have a young Adam, their behavior,
> certainly suggests a recognition that death must be dealt with. This is the
> same issue each of us must face as sinful beings before an almighty God. If
> they were struggling with these issues, as we do, why is this not evidence
> of spirituality, more than 300,000 years ago, among the pre-Neanderthal
> populations, like the Sima people?
A book with the title "Fairweather Eden" by Michael Pitts and Mark
Roberts has been published mid-June 1997 by Century. Mark Roberts
leads the archaeological investigation of the Boxgrove site, home
of Boxgrove Man (Britain's oldest man). To mark the occasion,
Michael Pitts wrote a piece in the Daily Telegraph entitled "Not just
pawns on the evolutionary board". Several of the emphases in the
article have relevance to the exchanges between Glenn and Jim.
After reviewing the evidence that Boxgrove Man used bone hammers to
make stone tools, and that he made spears to hunt for food, Pitts
alludes to a possible link with the Atapuerca community. I quote the
last third of the article:
"Atapuerca has similar animals to Boxgrove. Which is why Mark
Roberts and I believe Atapuerca and Boxgrove may yet prove to be
contemporary - as the Spanish archaeologists said when they first
described their finds.
While in popular speech "neanderthal" is still a term of abuse,
archaeologists have started to challenge the traditional view that
the early Europeans were stupid and technically incompetent.
Evidence of their technical skills is provided by objects that
archaeologists have long known about - stone handaxes. For expert
flint knapper Francis Wenban-Smith, making a handaxe is an art. With
every blow as you shape with your axe, you need to visualise what the
effect will be on future blows. Sometimes you need to think five or
six moves ahead. "It's like playing chess," Wenban-Smith once told
me.
Once dismissed as brutish failures on the ladder to modern human
supremacy, early hominid species are now individuals in their own
right, each with a distinctive type of intelligence. We need an
expanded vocabulary, to advance on images of blood thirsty hunters or
brainless scavengers. The chess player seems a good start."
I think the time has come for students of early man to change their
perspective. Instead of being slowly dragged to the conclusion that
they were actually far more brainy, skilled and resourceful than our
evolutionary presuppositions expect, let us start with the postulate
that these people were capable of being good chess players, and ask
"Why did they not build cities, plant fields and live a more
sedentary life?" That seems to me to be a far more interesting, and
potentially far more fruitful avenue of enquiry.
I would just like to add a personal comment on the words of Wenban-
Smith. It was probably about 15 years ago when I enrolled on a 1 day
course to take a "hands-on" look at palaeolithic stone tools. The
group was taught the principles of making the various types of tool,
and then we were given the opportunity of actually working with
flint: to produce our own implements. I got to work with great
enthusiasm and tried to put into practice the "theory" heard earlier
in the day. However, I had to conclude that I was not achieving what
I'd hoped. I could produce chips and fractured edges - but they were
appearing at random, without any signs of intelligent control! After
much perseverance, I wandered around the group, to see what the
others had produced. To my surprise (and consolation!) no one had
succeeded any better than I. There were plenty of splinters and
fractured nodules - but no stone tools. It was a salutory lesson for
me. Ever since then, I've had no hesitation in ascribing a high
degree of cognitive and manual skill to any early man who could
produce anything more than a chipped nodule with a sharp edge.
Since I believe that abstract thought and the ability to plan ahead
are aspects of our being made in the image of God, I have no
difficulty sharing Glenn's view that these hominids were
descendants of Adam and Eve. As I suggested above, the real puzzle
is why these peoples did not do more with their abilities than is
evident from the archaeological record.
Best wishes,
David J. Tyler.