Why do ancient civilizations seem so advanced?
Application: The concept of "primitive man" is an evolutionary concept that has no foundation in Biblical history.
In this L.I.F.E. Lesson, Dr. Bob visits Clovis, New Mexico and discusses the fallacy of primitive man, and the circular reasoning of the dating methods used to create a false historical timeline that ignores Biblical truth.
Supplemental Information
Clovis, New Mexico provides a good example of the impact evolutionary theories have had on two fields of scientific study; geology/paleontology and anthropology. The discovery of Clovis spear points with mammoth bones disrupted the non-Biblical worldview of man's arrival in the Americas. Prior to Edward B. Howard's discovery in 1932, the idea that humans coexisted with mammoths was discarded. Mammoth bones were considered Indicator Fossils for a pre-human period of time.
When Howard first visited the site he described the “matted masses of bones of mammoth.” Mixed in with the bones were the unique, slender, finger-long spear points. These are now called Clovis points, in honor of the location they were first found, here at Blackwater Draw near Clovis, New Mexico.
Now more than 10,000 Clovis points have been discovered, from 1,500 locations throughout most of North America; Clovis points, or something similar, have turned up as far south as Venezuela. They seem to have materialized suddenly, by archaeological standards, and spread fast.
Most researchers believe that the rapid dissemination of Clovis points is evidence that a single way of life, the Clovis culture, swept across the continent in a flash. No other culture has dominated so much of the Americas.
Indicator Fossils
Indicator Fossils, or Index Fossils, are fossils used to define and identify geologic periods. Index fossils are the basis for defining boundaries in the geologic time scale and for the correlation of strata.
The basic assumptions associated with Indicator Fossils is that they exist for a short period of geological time, and are widely distributed. Integral to their usefulness is the evolutionary assumption that the geological column represents a timeline for the earth's existence. Based on uniformitarian concepts of sediment deposition, it is assumed that current processes can be extrapolated into the past. Rather than accepting the Bible's description of a catastrophic past, they assume a uniformitarian one, and the geological column is the result.
Rather than recognizing that fossils that exist in close proximity to one another were likely the result of coming from the same ecosystem, independent of time, they assume millions of years between deposits. Selecting indicator fossils that occur rarely (in only specific layers) they disregard the reality that many other fossils appear in multiple sediment layers due to their broad ecological reach, or due to the turbulent nature of the global flood. The assumptions made allow the idea of indicator fossils to seem scientific, though it is far from that. The global ‘stack’ of index fossils exists nowhere on earth, and most index fossils do not usually overlie each other at the same location. So, the column is still hypothetical.
Twenty years ago, fossilized wood found near indicator fossils (belemnites and ammonites) in Southern England was radiocarbon dated to between 20,000-25,000 years old. The indicator fossils located with the wood placed the age of the deposit at 142–205.7 million years old. The challenges of radiocarbon dating negate the specific dates that were indicated, but the fact that any Carbon-14 existed in the sample at all precludes it being over 25,000 years old, let alone over 140 million years old. In this case, indicator fossils are clearly not the reliable feature they claim to be.
"Primitive Man"
How did such a "primitive" culture come to dominate a continent, and with such advanced technology (as exhibited in the skills required to fashion a Clovis point)? This seeming mystery is due to the overwhelming belief in evolution, and mankind’s slow rise from an alleged Stone Age culture. In contrast, the Bible implies that people were intelligent from the very beginning of creation. The mention of Tubal-Cain in Genesis 4:22 indicates that people were forging metals within several generations after Adam. It is a mistake to assume that because people in the past had less technology, they must have been less intelligent. Technology is developed by trial and error, and builds upon former discoveries.
Ancient Egypt
Some even suggest that since the great pyramids are beyond the capabilities of ancient people, advanced extraterrestrials must have constructed them. Or at least, they imparted sophisticated technological knowledge to the "primitive Egyptians." With such theories there is often an overlay of misinformation coupled with a deliberate half truths. For example, it has often been argued that ancient Egyptians could not have possessed the technology to carve perfectly square blocks by using simple hand chisels made of copper (the most commonly used metal of the