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Which Came First--the Spear or its Thrower? (article)
Institute for Creation Research ^ | Dec. 6, 2013 | Brian Thomas

Posted on 12/06/2013 11:23:06 AM PST by fishtank

Which Came First--the Spear or its Thrower?

by Brian Thomas, M.S. *

Scientists age-dated a cache of stone-tipped throwing spears unearthed from Ethiopia's Gademotta Formation at 280,000 years old. This find appears to pierce the conventional story of human evolution—a narrative about modern man evolving from some pre-human type only 200,000 years ago. How will this date discrepancy be resolved?

According to their technical report in the online journal PLoS ONE researchers found "composite projectile weapons," among the 226 artifacts they examined.1 Ancients sculpted spear tips from nearby obsidian deposits, shaped sticks into throwing spears, then affixed the obsidian tips onto them.

Lead author of the report told Discovery News the enterprising Africans "perhaps even created a prehistoric spear-making assembly line of sorts."2 Apes don't form assembly lines or engineer tools—humans do—and yet no humans were supposed to have existed at that supposed time.

Discovery News offered two options to explain this new find, "and both are mind-blowing."2

One possibility is that pre-human ape-like ancestors were smart enough to mass-produce spears. In Discovery's words, "The intelligence needed to create such tools could therefore have predated our present body type." This option leaves the currently accepted timing of the supposed emergence of man intact, but also generates two new problems.

First, if some kind of pre-human was smart enough and able enough to manufacture and successfully use these projectiles, then what is left to intellectually distinguish these supposed pre-humans from true humans—descendants of Adam and Noah?

Second, the researchers found microfracture signatures of impact in some of the obsidian spear tips. The PLoS ONE study authors were able to estimate the force with which the spears were thrown from the impact force required to produce tell-tale crack shapes in obsidian. Apes don't throw spears, and this kind of elegant throwing—the same basic action as pitching a baseball—requires a distinctly human anatomy.3 What then is left to physically distinguish these ancient spear throwers from being grouped within the category of fully real people?

These problems eliminate the idea that the spear makers were somehow human in mind but not body. The other option would require an embarrassing wholesale rewrite of the story of human evolution found in textbooks throughout the world. Fully modern man—as human-like in intelligence and frame as anyone alive today—might have evolved 80,000 years before evolutionary dogma's 200,000-year mark of man's supposed emergence.

In the past, secular researchers resolved similar dating discrepancies simply by re-dating the discovery site either repeating the same or using a different dating method to end up with new dates that agree with the evolutionary narrative.4 Thus, some future report stating that the Gademotta Formation is actually younger than 280,000 years old would come as no surprise.

So, either ape-like creatures made man-like spears, or real men evolved well before their designated time. Both of these options hinge on the accuracy of these artifacts' age assignments. The PLoS ONE authors used Argon-Argon dating of nearby volcanic tephra, a dating technique refuted in other research.5

These discrepancies open a third option, not mentioned in PLoS ONE or Discovery: Toss out the evolutionary age assignment. One is then left with fully human spear-making hunters who were doing their best to equip themselves after the great Flood and migrated from the ark's Middle Eastern landing site south to Africa.

References

Sahle, Y. et al. Earliest Stone-Tipped Projectiles from the Ethiopian Rift Date to >279,000 Years Ago. PLoS ONE. 8 (11): e78092.

Viegas, J. Who Was Throwing Spears Before Humans? Discovery News. Posted on news.discovery.com November 13, 2013, accessed November 15, 2013.

Thomas, B. Why High-Speed Throwing Is Uniquely Human. Creation Science Update. Posted on icr.org July 19, 2013, accessed November 15, 2013.

Thomas, B., contributor. 2013. Creation Basics & Beyond. Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research, 285-292. Snelling, A. A. 1999. "Excess Argon": The "Archilles' Heel" of Potassium-Argon and Argon-Argon "Dating" of Volcanic Rocks. Acts & Facts. 28 (1).

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on December 6, 2013.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: creation; spear
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To: fishtank

Heh. You just THOUGHT you were posting a serious thread.

Hijack has begun. Only a matter of time before the “Pulled”


21 posted on 12/06/2013 11:52:32 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: fishtank

The making of a spear is rather complicated and requires a whole lotta thinking.

You would have to conjure up putting holes into your target to end it’s life or threat.

You might initially think “Hey, what if a put a point on this thing. That outta make it easier to puncture it”.

Which would mean you understand that injuring something enough times will end its life or hitting an organ will end its life even faster.

Then you have to think “Well, that’s a great idea but, the hide, sinew, muscles and bones have to be compromised enough that my point stick will do the job”

“Hmmmm, the object I have isn’t going to be particularly effective. How could I improve it?”

So then you would find some harder than wood pointy object and understand that it fits the bill but, being found in a natural state it likely won’t just fit on the end of your stick and your not quite sure how to affix the two objects together.

“Hey, Maybe I make some cordage from sinew, vines, etc and tie this thing on there”.

So you do all this and learn that the pointy piece doesn’t stay on the pointy stick and is only somewhat effective.

“Fk! I’m starving”.

New idea “Hey maybe I put a slit on the end of my pointy stick, place the hard pointy object into the slit and tie it on there again”.

Still, it works somewhat better than the previous “somewhat better” project.

“What to do? What to do?”

So you says to your self “Self. You need to create a foolproof way of affixing this pointy object to the pointy stick, so it doesn’t come off and can be used over and over again”.

So you experiment with many ways of wrapping the pointy object to the pointy stick and learn what seems to be the most effective method.

You go hunting because McDonalds isn’t any where near you and discover that indeed you have improved your ability to kill dinner.

But, “Where am I going to find more pointy objects to attach to my pointy stick, so I can hunt all the day long?”

“Maybe I this obsidian shiny thing can be crafted to a perfect shape and made scalpel sharp?”

So you experiment for a hunting season with various ways of improving this black piece of rock before discovering that if you take a particular type of rock that is harder than the obsidian and place it on a flat surface with this nice piece of leather underneath and to hold it while you work on your arts and craft project, maybe that will be easier.

Heck, you might even think using an antler you had mounted above your campfire will make just the right tool to maybe “Knap” this rock into just the right shape and chip it just so, leaving a razor sharp edge that will slice through “Mr. Deer” fairly easy if you can throw it accurately.

Sooooohhhhhh, man came first and discovered how to put “the other white meat” on the dinner table.


22 posted on 12/06/2013 11:58:26 AM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Vendome

Maybe he didn’t go through that learning process at all, though.

Think about a modern man dumped out in the wilds to fend for himself. He’d already know that he needed to make a spear because it had all been done before... with metal, but that’s not available now so I’ll use this sharp flint...


23 posted on 12/06/2013 12:06:23 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: fishtank

Should we be talking about spear chuckers in a time of racial turmoil?


24 posted on 12/06/2013 12:09:51 PM PST by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: MrB

That too...


25 posted on 12/06/2013 12:32:06 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Zhang Fei
It's called an Atlatl... and fat old white guys can use it, too:

26 posted on 12/06/2013 12:37:33 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: fishtank

Physical and mental capacity for making and using spears likely has been around in hominids for at least 1.8 my. We have no live comparison for the intellectual ability of Homo Erectus but it’s pretty well accepted they mastered fire. Why not a spear for both thrusting and throwing ( a logical follow through ).


27 posted on 12/06/2013 1:23:32 PM PST by JimSEA
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To: trisham

An Obsidian point like that,(that one is beautiful and
not the easiest to make) when new would be razor sharp!


28 posted on 12/06/2013 1:32:53 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: varmintman

The requested document does not exist on this server.


29 posted on 12/06/2013 1:41:22 PM PST by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: fishtank

The catcher?


30 posted on 12/06/2013 1:47:54 PM PST by Dr. Ursus
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To: tet68

I can imagine!


31 posted on 12/06/2013 1:49:19 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: JimRed

http://cosmosincollision.com


32 posted on 12/06/2013 3:31:16 PM PST by varmintman
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To: Autonomous User

But how could a spearchucker exist if the spear wasn’t there to be chucked?


33 posted on 12/06/2013 5:21:02 PM PST by Svartalfiar
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