This cave, found in Thessaly, Greece, contains the oldest man-made structure still standing. It is a stone wall. It partially blocks the cave entrance.
Traditionally dated at 21,000 B.C., it is thought to have protected residents from the cold of the last ice age. It would also have protected them from enemies, human or animal, who penetrated the cave.
In the soft floor of the cave a trail of footprints was found indicating the presence of three or more children between the ages of two and four.
This is another limestone cave, so flood theorists would say the wall dates after the flood.
Buttermilk Creek
This area near Salado, Texas is by far the largest and most varied site of the First People in North America (called pre-Clovis).
The people would have been drawn to this place by a dependable water source, favorable climate, and abundant food, but also because it was a source of chert, which was used for weapons.
Hammer stones were used to chip chert to the general shape required, then smaller antlers pressure-flaked the weapon, fine tuning it.
The oldest manufactured weapons discovered in North America are three to four inch spear points traditionally dated at 15,500 B.C.
Altogether, 15,528 blades and tools have been found at Buttermilk Creek.
There are other probable pre-Clovis sites that have not yet been certified for various reasons. The sites are widespread: South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oregon.
This cave is located on the northern coast of Spain in the Cantabria region. It is part of the Caves of Cantabria UNESCO World Heritage Site.
There are many petrographs in the caves. Unlike a petroglyph, which is a carving, a petrograph is a “writing,” and before writing it was a drawing.
We are only interested in the oldest, because it is the oldest in the world!
This petrograph is a red stippled disc. Is it the sun? No one knows.
It is traditionally dated at 40,000 B.C.: about 100,000 years later than Murujuga.
Did it survive the flood? Normally paint would not survive. It would have had to exist in a hard rock cave that was thoroughly sealed.
These are limestone caves. Flood theorists expect that soft rock caves like these were caused by the scouring of the flood cataclysm. Therefore, even the oldest painting was drawn after the flood.
Cave of Altamira
The Cave of Altamira, which is close to the Cave of El Castillo, was formed by early karst formation. The topography was formed by dissolution of “soft” or carbonate rocks such as limestone. It includes a barren rocky top layer with no rivers or streams. Underneath is the water and drainage system: rivers, fountains, caves, and sinkholes.
Flood theorists think all “soft” caves were likely caused by the flood.
Let’s talk about the petrographs. They are traditionally dated at 36,000 B.C.
The art is amazing! It’s on the walls, yes, but also across the ceiling!
What a crick in the neck! How did they get up there? Did the artists build scaffolding? Wait. We don’t picture ancient people able to build and use scaffolding! Time to readjust our mindsets—again.
Animals and abstract shapes are painted in polychromic style using the natural color of the rock, charcoal, and ochre or hematite.
Ochre is a natural clay earth pigment. It consists of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand resulting in pigments from yellow to deep orange to brown.
Hermatite is a reddish-black mineral that can be crushed into pigment.
Animals in different poses were drawn with multiple colors from yellow to orange to reddish brown to black.
But the pigments were not only used in their natural state. Sometimes they were diluted. This variation in intensity produced a study in light and dark, and a sense of shadow.
As if that wasn’t enough, the artists used the cracks and shapes of the rock itself as part of their art. For instance, a bison could be drawn over a bulge in the rock in such a way that the bulge becomes the bison’s rounded ribcage!
Yes, the picture above is from Altimira, and you can see the rounded shoulder and ribcage. Look at the shading! The anatomical detail!
These people are way beyond my pay grade.
Later art included hand stencils. These were made by placing a hand on the rock and blowing pigment over them, possibly using a tube.
When calculations proved that these handprints were usually female, feminists rejoiced. The assumption that men were the artists because they were the shamans (and who says that’s true?) had been debunked!
Steady there. That could be true. Or perhaps male artists preferred female prints and used hand models.
This glorious art is no graffiti!
Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave (Chauvet Cave)
The cave is located near southeastern France. The soft, clay-like floor retains paw prints of cave bears and depressions thought to be “nests” where they slept. Skulls of cave bears and an ibex are present. There are also paw prints of a dog or wolf.
There are also the footprints of a child.
The art is traditionally dated at 30,000 B.C.
There are no complete human figures. A few panels of red ochre hand-prints exist. Abstract lines and dots are found throughout the cave. Hundreds of animal paintings fall into at least thirteen species. Frequently painted cave art animals include horses, aurochs (a large, wild Eurasian ox, predecessor of today’s cattle), and mammoths.
The above Chauvet Cave petroglyph is a horse.
But many predatory animals are also included: cave lions, leopards, bears, and cave hyenas. They also painted rhinoceroses! Rhinoceroses in France?
Three artistic techniques were used here that were rarely used elsewhere.
The first seems like common sense, but it wasn’t common: scraping the cave wall clear of debris before beginning to paint. This left a smooth, lighter surface.
Second, artists sometimes incised or etched around the outlines of certain figures, giving them a three-dimensional quality. These figures also seem to move. Because only some figures are chosen, the question rises whether this technique indicated these figures were more important.
The last technique is one of scenes. Animals are sometimes shown as interacting with each other. A pair may be butting heads in a mastery contest.
Why are we so excited about the scenes? There are scenes in the Australian petroglyphs.
Ah, but apparently in Europe that composition had been lost. At Chauvet it was rediscovered.
Until the geological ages are recalculated according to modern findings, we must struggle with dating inconsistencies between traditional geologic dating and Genesis dating. Perhaps they will never coincide.
There are very old skeletons, campsites, and tools scattered throughout the earth. Both human civilization theories acknowledge this evidence, although the dating will be different. The point is that flood theorists acknowledge there may have been items like these before the flood.
Some people have always been wanderers and adventurers, so the widespread geographical range of the items should not be a surprise, especially if there was only one continent.
By evolutionary theory and traditional understanding of ancient civilizations, humans at each site should progress from gatherers to hunter/fishers with campsites to primitive settlements for farmers of grains and livestock to towns of shared responsibilities to cities with established culture.
Flood theorists think that what is found at a particular site depends on when the people left the cradle of civilization. If they left before much was discovered, we can expect a hunter-fisher community. If they left later, we may see forms of architecture and artistry.
Murujuga: The Oldest Existing Art
Murujuga is the aboriginal name for Dampier Island, the Burrup peninsula, and the collection of islands around them in northwestern Australia.
This World Heritage Site is comprised of multiple sites and contains the only rock art with meaning for a living culture. This is stunning because we have people who know the meanings of the rocks and can explain their importance!
To the Ngurra-ra Ngarli, Murujuga is the place where everything is connected: plants and animals, land and sea, the Lore (rules of behavior) and the spiritual world.
All was made and is maintained by the Ancestor Beings called Marrga, who created it all during the Dreaming times (their term) when the world was soft. They were also the artists of the petroglyphs.
Traditional dating puts this art at more than 45,000 years B.C.
Flood theorists could easily accept this art as predating the flood. The rock is hard enough to have survived. But the original hard volcanic rock was shattered into pieces. How? Is this another result of the flood?
That brings up another question: Were the carvings created before the rock shattered (in which case the meaning could be quite different) or afterward?
Petroglyphs
Unfortunately, there are claims that as much as 24.4 per-cent of the rock art was destroyed by industry before the heritage site was protected.
There remains more than a million petroglyphs. These are carvings in rock made by a hammer stone and a chisel. This chips away the dark outer rock, exposing a lighter rock within. The act of carving gives depth to the art.
What did the artists carve? They carved the animals they knew including some that no longer exist such as the enormous flat-tailed kangaroo. The extinct Tasmanian tiger was much on their minds. It is seen everywhere. Nail-tailed wallabies and crocodiles still exist, but not in this part of Australia.
Geometric shapes were also carved.
There are carvings of human activity sometimes arranged in complex scenes of everyday living such as hunting, or special ceremonial activities
Hunting with an atlatl is depicted: a weapon with a sharp curve similar to the boomerang. It was better than the spear or arrow. Instead of using the arm’s strength alone, the atlatl extended the arm and enhanced the stroke power.
There is one odd petroglyph that defies explanation, according to a professional video of the site. The archaeologist describes it as a human like figure with horns and a forked tail. Not only is this reminiscent of European Middle Ages depictions of Satan, but this carving was done when there were no horned animals on Australia.
Artistry Not Graffiti
A variety of methods were used to create the art: abrading, pecking, pounding, rubbing, scoring, and scraping. Both naturalistic (clearly representing existing things in nature) and abstract styles were used. Static figures are abstract. Squatting, standing, and running persons are carved with serpentine arms. This could be additional indication of movement.
A person climbing is very unusual on petroglyphs. Face portraits are rare. Both exist at Murujuga!
What is awesome is not just the number of petroglyphs, but also that the volcanic rock into which they are carved is extremely hard! It is so inflexible that heat and cold crack it. It’s also why it could survive the flood.
What We Learn From Murujuga
With the help of the Ngurra-ra Ngarli, we know the meaning and purpose of many petroglyphs, things that will help us interpret later sites.
Image groupings were intentional. They recorded how to live, how to conduct ceremonies, and acted as a school poster board for education (kinds of animals).
The positioning of images were placed with intention. Very important petroglyphs were placed where they were easily seen.
The carvings denoted people arriving from throughout Pilbara for trade, marriage, kinship, and use of resources.
This happens to this day. Varying language groups can all use the petroglyphs to refresh their memories because the art conveys the information, words do not.
Stories of the Dreaming are maintained and told by “special curators” (UNESCO’s term) using petroglyphs. This is very important because if other cultures had petroglyphs or petrographs (paintings) for reference, the accuracy value of cultural legends would skyrocket.
The guardians are not given a priestly title indicating that they do not act as a pathway to the Ancestors, but as teachers who helps each person find the way.
Songs and ceremonies go with many of the images.
Because Murujuga is believed to be the center of all things, maintenance is critical because there is still spiritual power in the glyphs. The spiritual ceremonies connect today’s people to the spirit power of the petroglyphs and the Ancestors. The released power maintains the planet for all of us.
We can also make other observations.
Today’s people were found as a hunter-fisher culture despite the advanced past this art
suggests. The traditional civilization theory is debunked. Cultures can devolve.
Although the Ancestors did the work of gods, they are not addressed as such. Nor can I find a reference that indicates that they were worshipped.
There is no indication that they were aliens from another world or another dimension. It seems they were humans with an advanced civilization who shared secrets with the people. The people today do their part in maintaining the spiritual power.
Aliens or ancestors? Which is the most likely answer to worldwide puzzles of great architectural feats?
Remember the rule: the simplest answer is usually correct. That would be ancestors.
Flood theorists would point out that Noah lived a long life: long enough to learn all of his culture’s knowledge and skill. His sons and their wives would have learned much before entering the ark. These four men and their wives would have educated their children.
But people now lived shorter lives due to a hostile, dangerous world. They had less time to master all of the knowledge, so they began to specialize.
When the adventurers wandered away, specializing in survival, other skills were lost.
Mount Ararat has been the site of searches for Noah’s Ark especially during the last two hundred years.
The weather is hazardous there, making even scientific expeditions difficult, with snow and ice shifting over the suspected remains, and possibly shifting the remains downhill as well.
Dating wood proved unpredictable, with several different dates emerging, none of which tallied with Genesis.
All photographs of the remains show a ship, like the one pictured above. We have seen that the blueprints sketch an enclosed barge.
Some expedition results were later found to be hoaxes.
And, of course, the Bible never says the ark landed on Mount Ararat. It says the ark landed on the Mountains of Ararat.
In 2020, the Institute for Creation Research acknowledged that the ark had not been found, joining secular scientists who had reached that conclusion earlier.
Geological Changes
The story of the cataclysm fits with the shuffled and flipped and missing strata observed in many places. If there was only one continent, Pangea, which may be indicated in Genesis, a cataclysm of this enormity could explain the breaking off of smaller continents, in opposition to the theory of continental drift.
The highest of all peaks in nuclear decay (by a large margin), as well as other observations of RATE demand a recalibration of the geological table. It may even change to biblical proportions.
This, in turn, changes the dating of arts and cultures. After realizing what the cataclysm actually was, we are not surprised to find nothing of the actual first human civilization built by Cain’s descendants. It would have been near-miraculous to find identifiable remains!
When dating arts and cultures before the biblical time of the flood, one must consider if the specimen could have survived. It is so unlikely (especially cave paintings) that correct dating must be postdiluvian.
Humans After the Flood
Humans would not have dispersed as rapidly as before the flood if, as some cultural legends say, the earth’s geography was flat before the flood.
Whichever mountain the ark landed on, Noah and his family descended into the Turkey with which we are familiar. Eventually even all of Turkey would not be enough for them.
Genesis tells us that the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth wander away into different places. Japheth’s family is listed first. His descendants were mariners and therefore would have lived along the Mediterranean Sea.
Nimrod of Ham’s family was a great hunter. The sea held no interest for him. His kingdom centers were Babylonia, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh in Shinar. That wasn’t enough, so he went to Assyria where he built Ninevah and three lesser cities. His prodigy would become the many tribes of Canaanites.
Shem loved the hills. Meshech’s family stayed in the hills and plateau of Turkey. Assur settled in the upper Tigris-Euphrates basin. Elam, more adventurous, travelled east of the Persian Gulf. Joktan settled in the hills of the southern Saudi Arabian peninsula near Yemen.
Not surprisingly, these are the areas where the most ancient civilization remains have been discovered.
