Music and Neanderthals: An Alternative Point of View

The Divje Babe I Neanderthal bone flute has been a “bone of contention” ever since its discovery in Slovenia in 1995. At the heart of the controversy as to whether this object is a flute or not have been two opposing views of Neanderthals: the belief that these ancient people were primitive and dimwitted, based on the theory of evolution; or, alternatively, that they were far more culturally and intellectually superior than first thought, based on a biblical creationist worldview. Creationists believe that Neanderthals could have made and played flutes, among many other achievements. It is also shown that skull growth science points to the Neanderthals as the early long-lived people in the biblical genealogies.
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Dating Prehistoric Musical Instruments: The Two Timelines

Published dates for ancient musical instruments are based on the standard historical timeline. But there is an alternative timeline calculated from historical information in the Bible that gives much younger dates. In this paper I will develop the two timelines, show common historical points that form bridges between them, and determine both dates for various ancient musical instruments. The two timelines have implications for the creation/evolution debate because evolution of the universe requires extremely long periods of time to have elapsed, while literal creationists accept that God created the entire universe in only six days. This also involves the question of whether musical instruments evolved over long periods of time, or whether they were part of the earliest cultures after Creation and Noah's Flood.
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Archaeoacoustics and the Fall of Jericho

The conquest of the Canaanite city of Jericho by Joshua's forces, as famously narrated in the Hebrew Bible, was a fascinating archaeoacoustic event. There were horns blowing, feet marching, shouts, the sounds of the wall falling, a fierce battle, and a great fire. Bible believers do not doubt that the conquest of Jericho took place as described in the historical account, and that the wall fell by Divine action. Skeptics say that archaeology proves there was no destruction of Jericho at the time in history when it should have occurred. Discussion of these issues shows that one's worldview will ultimately determine acceptance or rejection of the Jericho event as real history.
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Those enigmatic Neanderthals: What are they saying? Are we listening?

Young-earth creationists rightly consider that Neanderthals were human, but are divided on various issues, mainly because of the opposing views of Jack Cuozzo, author of Buried Alive! and Marvin Lubenow, author of Bones of Contention. These differences include Neanderthal lifespan, causes of the Neanderthal distinctive morphology, why the Neanderthals disappeared, length of Neanderthal children’s maturation time, whether we can place Neanderthals in biblical history, and the related issue of whether Homo erectus was human. In addition, Neanderthals are implicated in matters that include the Babel dispersion, earth’s breakup, DNA, patterns of world population, the Ice Age, archaeology, and historical timeline.
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Where in the World Is the Tower of Babel?

The biblical story of the Tower of Babel is believed by many to be the record of a real historical event that took place after the worldwide Flood, at a time when the earth's population still lived together in one place. The enduring archaeological question, therefore, is where the Tower of Babel was built. It is widely considered that Shinar, where the Bible says the Babel event took place, was a territory in south Mesopotamia; and that Babel was located at Babylon. However, an analysis of history, geography, and geology, shows that Shinar cannot have been in the south, but rather was a territory in what is northeastern Syria today; and that the remnants of the Tower must be located in the Upper Khabur River triangle, not far from Tell Brak, which is the missing city of Akkad.
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A creationist view of Gӧbekli Tepe: Timeline and other considerations

Gӧbekli Tepe is a prehistoric archaeological site in SE Turkey that has captured the attention of the world by how advanced it is for its age, an astounding 12,000 years old on the conventional timeline. This has required conventional scholars to readjust their thinking about the capabilities of ancient people because, according to their worldview, humans should not have been able to produce carved stone monuments like these that far back in time. Creationists
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Ancient Egypt, the Ice Age, and Biblical Chronology

The history, archaeology, geography, and geology of ancient Egypt are examined with respect to the post-Flood Ice Age. It is shown that the Ice Age must have ended before the formation of the Nile Delta, and therefore well before the beginnings of Egyptian civilization and Abraham’s visit to Egypt. It is shown that more time for events between the Flood and Abraham is needed than the Masoretic timeline allows; the longer chronology of the Septuagint is therefore most likely correct.
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Revising the Egyptian Chronology: Joseph as Imhotep, and Amenemhat IV as Pharaoh of the Exodus

The necessity of revising the standard secular chronology of Egypt is widely accepted, but efforts to achieve this so far have been inadequate. By recognizing Joseph of the Bible as the famous Imhotep of Egyptian history, and 12th-Dynasty Amenemhat IV as the pharaoh of the Exodus, a drastic shortening and rearranging of the 3 rd to 12 th Dynasties is indicated, making the chronology of Egypt accord with that of the Bible.
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The Ipuwer Papyrus and the Exodus

Controversy surrounds the Ipuwer Papyrus, an Egyptian manuscript residing in the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Netherlands. On the one side are those who claim that this manuscript describes chaotic conditions in Egypt at the time of the biblical Exodus. On the other side are those who deny this on the basis of disbelief that the Exodus ever took place, or who claim that the date of the events described in the manuscript is wrong for the Exodus. In this paper we show that this ancient document most likely describes Exodus conditions; and that the Ipuwer Papyrus therefore offers strong extra-biblical evidence for a historical Exodus. With respect to dating the events in this papyrus, it needs to be understood that the secular historical timeline diverges from the biblical timeline, and furthermore, that the Old Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom of Egypt ended at the same time (contrary to the standard history). This puts the manuscript’s original date (as determined by scholars) exactly where it should be. The question of divergence of the secular and biblical timelines is a matter of enormous importance for biblical apologetics. Often secular scholars declare that biblical events like the Exodus cannot have taken place because there are no evidences of these at the time in history where the Bible places them. The Ipuwer papyrus therefore supports a divergence of several hundred years between the biblical and secular timelines at the time of the Exodus.
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Chronology and the Gezer connection-- Solomon, Thutmose III, Shishak and Hatshepsut

Solomon's father-in-law is shown to have been 18 th-Dynasty Thutmose III, who captured and burned Gezer and presented it to his daughter, Solomon's bride, as a wedding present. The reign of Hatshepsut, aunt/stepmother to Thutmose III, possibly overlapped with Solomon's early reign for a few years (although she was not the Queen of Sheba). Arguments that Shishak was Rameses II are shown to be flawed. A difference of about 470 years between the biblical and secular chronologies at the time of Solomon is therefore postulated. This moves all post-Thutmose III history forward into the first millennium bc.
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Job-Part 1: Did He Really Live During the Ice Age?

It is believed by many that Job lived during the Ice Age and that The Book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible. However, it is shown in this first installment of a three-part series that these traditional beliefs about Job most likely are not true. It is shown that Job lived some centuries after Abraham, long after the end of the Ice Age. We will look at who Job was, as he appears in the Masoretic Bible; how his friends fit into the story; and in what language The Book of Job may have been originally written. The role of the LXX will be examined in Part 2 of this series.
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Job-Part 2: The Septuagint Coda and Other Sources

In this second part on Job, we look at additional information from ancient sources. The Septuagint coda to The Book of Job is shown to be historical, telling us details of Job's lineage from Abraham and when Job lived. Job also appears in Egyptian and Near Eastern sources. Arguments from the concept of probability show that Job must have been Jobab, the second king of Edom, and a descendant of Abraham.
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Job─Part 3: Job's Land of Edom

In this third part of our series on Job, we look at Job's country of Edom: its name, its geographical extent, its connection to Seir, who the King of Edom might have been when Moses wanted to cross his territory, where Teman (home of Eliphaz) was, and whether there really was a country of Edom as early as the third millennium BC on the secular timeline.
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A Review of the Search for Noah's Ark

There have been many alleged sightings of the Ark and numerous attempts to find it, mainly on Mount Ararat, but search attempts so far have been without success. In the light of history, geology, and archaeology, we need to consider that the Ark probably landed elsewhere, and that there may be little of it left.
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The Role of Science in Determining the Resting Place of the Ark

The unsuccessful search for Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat (Turkish Agri Dagh) has been driven largely by traditions, claimed sightings, and strong belief. Surprisingly, there has been little scientific input into the question of the mountain where the Ark came to rest. This lack of attention to science has greatly hampered the search because science has an important role to play. Application of science shows that Mount Ararat cannot be the place where the Ark rested; however, science does not preclude Mount Cudi.
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Sodom Part I

An unresolved question has been where the biblical cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar were located. Arguments from the Bible and geography show that these cities had to have lain along the west side of the Jordan River, north of the Dead Sea. This strip of land is shown by Google Maps to be a desolate wasteland even today, as predicted by Scripture. Arguments for other advocated locations can be shown to be flawed.
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Sodom Part 2

According to Scripture, Sodom was destroyed at the time of Abraham about 1900 bc on the biblical timeline. In this paper it is argued that the standard secular timeline diverges drastically from the biblical timeline in this era, and that the destruction of the cities of the land of Sodom would have been near the beginning of the Early Bronze Age (3000 bc or possibly earlier). Archaeologists therefore need to look for these cities much earlier on the secular timeline than is commonly believed. In this second installment on Sodom, we look at some implications of placing Sodom's destruction this early in secular history. Arguments are also presented against Tall el-Hammam as Sodom.
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