Over the past century, Christians have had difficulty dealing with the discovery of fossil man. These men did not look quite like us and so it was natural to ask if these being were human, in the theological sense. Did these men engage in worship? Did they behave like us? Hugh Ross does not accept the theologically human status of fossil man. He writes:

"In Genesis 1, God speaks of adham (male and female), and only adham, as being made in His image. The point is emphasized by repetition. Clearly, as man's story unfolds through subsequent chapters, one discovers that what makes him different is a quality called 'spirit.' Man is unique among all species of life. By 'spirit' the Bible means 'aware of God and capable of forming a relationship with Him.' Evidence of man's spiritual dimension would include divine worship, shown by religious relics, altars, and temples. From the Bible's perspective, decorating, burial of dead, or use of tools would not qualify as conclusive evidence of the spirit. Moreover, nonspirit creatures such as bower birds decorate their nests, elephants bury their dead, and chimpanzees use tool."

"While bipedal, tool-using, large brained hominids roamed the earth at least as long ago as one million years, evidence for religious relics and altars dates back only 8,000 to 24,000 years. Thus the secular anthropological date for the first spirit creatures is in complete agreement with the biblical date."  Hugh Ross, The Fingerprint of God, (Orange: Promise Publishing, 1991), p. 159-160.

He further says:

"From a biblical standpoint, I see Neanderthals as one of the nephesh, soulish (not spiritual) creatures God made before he made humans. In other words, the Neanderthals must have been a bipedal mammalian species created a few tens of thousands of years before Adam and Eve. Neanderthals became extinct, possibly as the result of some climactic upheaval, at least several thousand years before the creation of Adam and Eve."~Hugh Ross, "Link with Neanderthals Cut by Computer," Facts & Faith, 9:3, 3rd Qtr. 1995, p. 2

John Wiester also rejected the humanity of fossil man. He writes:

"Where does this leave Homo habilis and Homo erectus?

Scientists have spent a great deal of time documenting the chimpanzee's use of tools and have even reported the crude manufacture of tools. Chimpanzees have been observed in the wild in the process of killing young baboons to eat. This evidence has been used in the past to indicate that the behavior of chimpanzees is so close to that of human beings that we must share a common ancestor. But this same evidence can also be used to indicate that Homo habilis and Homo erectus were hominids that became extinct. If paleoanthropologists can list australopithecines as extinct beings, they can surely consider the possibility that Homo habilis and Homo erectus met the same fate."~John Wiester, The Genesis Connection, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983), p. 173.

Here are some of the activities of fossil man. While the technology is primitive, their actions are not unlike those of us alive today.

FIRE

Mankind is the only creature that controls fire. The first evidence of fire comes from 1.5 myr ~C. K. Brain and A. Sillen, "Evidence from the Swartkrans cave for the earliest use of fire," Nature, 336, Dece. 1, 1988, p. 464-465

STONE TOOLS

Mankind is the only creature who makes stone tools. The earliest evidence of stone tool making date from 2.5 to 2.6 myr ago. S. Semaw, Nature, January 23, 1997 Brand New report.

SCALPING

Mankind is the only creature who scalps his fellow beings. The oldest evidence of that is from 300-400 thousand years ago from Bodo Ethiopia ~Ian Tattersall, The Fossil Trail (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p.244.

MURDER

Mankind is the only being who uses tools to murder their own kind.

"One of these examples is the trauma on the left ninth rib of the skeleton of Shanidar 3, a partially healed wound inflicted by a sharp object. The implement cut obliquely across the top of the ninth rib and probably pierced the underlying lung. Shanidar 3 almost certainly suffered a collapsed left lung and died several days or weeks later, probably as a result of secondary complications. This is deduced from the presence of bony spurs and increased density of the bone around the cut. "The position of the wound on the rib, the angle of the incision, and the cleanness of the cut make it highly unlikely that the injury was accidentally inflicted. In fact, the incision is almost exactly what would have resulted if Shanidar 3 had been stabbed in the side by a right-handed adversary in face-to-face conflict. This would therefore provides conclusive evidence of violence between humans, the only evidence so far found of such violence among the Neanderthals." ~Erik Trinkaus, "Hard Times among the Neanderthals," Natural History, 87:10(Dec. 1978), p. 58-63, p. 61-62

LANGUAGE

Only mankind speaks. The part of his brain which controls speech is different from that part which controls vocalization in animals. Human speech functions are controlled by the outer part of the brain, the cortex.

"Sites implicated in the production of naturalistic calls in squirrel monkeys and macaques include structures in the midbrain, diencephalon and limbic cortices. Although auditory analysis of these calls is likely mediated by neocortical auditory areas, possibly homologous to those involved in human speech comprehension, call production appears almost entirely under the control of subcortical structures and cannot even be abolished by extensive lesions of the motor cortical areas for controlling the mouth, tongue and laryngeal musculature. In humans the brain structures homologous to primate vocalization areas are likely involved in the production of the few innate vocal calls characteristic of our species (e.g. laughter, sobbing, groans, sighs, shrieks, etc.). "

"In contrast, human speech appears to depend almost entirely upon neocortical areas." ~T. W. Deacon, "The Neural Circuitry Underlying Primate Calls and Human Language," Human Evolution, 4:5(367-401), p. 369

Luckily the part of the brain which controls speech leave marks on the inside of the skull bones and thus are fossilized. We can examine the fossils and see when the earliest skull was which had those markings. These brain areas are Broca's area and Wernicke's area. The first appearance of these structures in a skull occurs 2.0 million years ago in the skull KNM-ER 1470. (Dean Falk, Braindance,(New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1992), p. 50)

Most anthropologists believe that mankind has been talking at least that long.

Neanderthal speech:

"This is not to say that classic Neanderthals lacked speech capabilities and language. As I have pointed out in every publication on this topic, the classic Neanderthal supralaryngeal vocal tract would have allowed speech; the archaeological evidence of Neanderthal culture, moreover, is consistent with their having some form of language, and the new data reported by Bar-Yosef and his colleagues reinforce these conclusions." Philip Lieberman, "On the Kebara KMH 2 Hyoid and Neanderthal Speech," Current Anthropology, 34:2(April 1993):172-175, p. 174

Homo erectus speech:

"The basicranial line studies of Laitman et al. therefore reach the same conclusion as the supralaryngeal vocal tract reconstruction studies: Neandertals were different from modern humans in their speech capabilities. These basicranial line studies also conclude that other archaic sapiens (or erectus?) fossil specimens were capable of modern human speech." L. A. Schepartz, "Language and Modern Human Origins," Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 36:91-126(1993), p. 106

RIGHT-HANDEDNESS

Only mankind is predominantly right-handed. All other animals are evenly split between right and left-handed. The earliest evidence of right-handed ness (which is associated with brain lateralization and speech occurs with the appearance of the first stone tools. One can tell from the way the stone tools are made that they are made by right handed people. Two quotes

"In modern human populations approximately 90 percent of people are dominantly right-handed (dextral) and about 10 percent are dominantly left-handed (sinistral). This is a very unusual pattern, and it is unique to humans. In the rest of the animal world, including nonhuman primates, the breakdown of handedness (or pawedness) tends to be about 50 percent left-handed and 50 percent right-handed."~Kathy D. Schick and Nicholas Toth, Making Silent Stones Speak, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993), p.140

"Let's look at what a right-handed tool maker typically does during hard-hammer percussion. As outlined above, a right-handed individual normally holds the hammer stone in the dominant right hand (which gives more precision and power to the flaking blows and lessens the chance of hitting one's fingers) and the core to be flaked in the more passive left hand. The left hand essentially acts like a vise to securely grasp the core during repeated blows from the hammer stone, orienting the core properly for each successive impact.

"Now, what effect does this setup have upon the flaking process? If a sequence of flakes is removed from one face of a core, there is a tendency for the left hand holding the core to rotate it in a clockwise direction as the flakes are removed. One hits off a flake, rotates the cobble a little, and strikes off another to the right of the first, rotates it slightly again and flakes again, and so forth. If the core is made on a cobble or thick coritcal flake, we can see this clockwise rotational bias by examining the flakes that have been produced. Successive flakes tend to have part of a flake scar on the left (where the previous flake had been struck off) and part of the cobble's cortex on the right. Thus, large samples of these flakes can tell us something about handedness: whether the cobble was being rotated in this way, as would a right-handed person, or whether it was being turned by a left-handed person, in the opposite hand and producing the opposite pattern.

Experiments show that right-handed tool makers produce significantly more oriented flakes. In our experiments, (we being right-handed), a ratio of 57- 43 of right-oriented flakes was produced.

"This is an experimental result that can be applied directly to early Stone Age artifacts. So far, every site we've examined from the early Stone Age, including those at Koobi Fora dated from about 1.9 to 1.5 million years ago, shows exactly the same pattern. Thus it appears that by the time of early toolmaking in the archaeological record, these ancestral hominid populations may have already become preferentially right-handed. For whatever reason or reasons, right-handedness seems to be an ancient trait in humans."~Kathy D. Schick and Nicholas Toth, Making Silent Stones Speak, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993), p. 142

TENTS

Humans are the only creatures who built tents. The earliest evidence for tents are from 300-400 thousand years ago.~Kathy D. Schick and Nicholas Toth, Making Silent Stones Speak, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993), p. 281.

ART

Mankind is the only being who makes art. The oldest manmade art dates from 1.6 million years ago.

"In concluding this review of the lithic material from Oldowan and Developed Oldowan Sites the grooved and pecked phonolite cobble found in Upper Bed I at FLK North must be mentioned. This stone has unquestionably been artificially shaped. But it seems unlikely that it could have served as a tool or for any practical purpose. It is conceivable that a parallel exists in the quartzite cobble found at Makapansgat in which natural weathering has simulated the carving of two sets of hominid-or more strictly primate- features on parts of the surface. The resemblance to primate faces is immediately obvious in this specimen, although it is entirely natural, whereas in the case of the Olduvai stone a great deal of imagination is required i order to see any pattern or significance in the form. With oblique lighting, however, there is a suggestion of an elongate, baboon-like muzzle with faint indications of a mouth and nostrils. By what is probably no more than a coincidence, the pecked groove on the Olduvai stone is reproduced on the Makapansgat specimen by a similar but natural groove and in both specimens the positions of the grooves correspond to what would be the base of the hair line if an anthropomorphic interpretation is considered. This is open to question, but nevertheless the occurrence of such stones at hominid sites in such remote periods is of considerable interest." M.D. Leakey, Olduvai Gorge 3 Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960-1693, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971), p. 269

The next earliest art object is the Golan Venus from 330,000 years ago (~Desmond Morris, The Human Animal, (New York: Crown Publishing, 1994), p. 186-188.). It is an extremely crude representation of a naked female. It would have been made by archaic Homo sapiens or Homo erectus. It was probably a fertility goddess and thus probably represents a religious artefact. Similar Venus figurines have been used as religious objects in modern times. Jean Guilaine wrote:

"Of the religion practiced by the first farmers, we can only make a few general suppositions. As early as the seventh millennium, the cult of the ancestors appears likely at Jericho, as is testified by the display of a number of heads with faces modeled in plaster. Elsewhere, in southeastern Europe, an abundant statuary favoring female idols (there also exist male or androgynous representations) with developed genitals and the breasts, is generally linked with a fertility cult." Jean Guilaine, "the First Farmers of the Old World," Prehistory, ed. Jean Guilaine, (New York: Facts on File, 1991), p. 90.

RELIGION

Mankind is the only being who engages in ritual religion. Besides the Golan Venus described above which might indicate religion among Homo erectus, Brian Hayden notes that Neanderthal also appears to have had a religion.

"If the previous observations by excavators of burials are taken at face value, then fires, burials, offerings and repasts in the partially illuminated areas of caves seems to have been important ritual element, although a few dark recesses moderately deep in caves such as the Grotte du Renne (Galerie Schoeppflin) with its elephant tusk and bone piles may have been used for other ritual feasts just as dark areas near the entrance to the Grotte d'Enlene seem to have been used for feasting and preparations prior to ritual excursions into the cave during the Upper Paleolithic. Caves, bears skulls, antlers, elephant tusks (a tusk was also recorded in the Neandertal burial at Roc-de-Marsal; Defleur, 1987), directional significances, fire, ochre, fine flint tools and rock piles seem to have had strong symbolic meaning in Neandertal rituals. It is worth recalling that rocks and rock piles continue to have strong symbolical significance among various ethnographic hunter/gatherer groups up until recent times." Brian Hayden "The Cultural Capacities of Neandertals ", Journal of Human Evolution 1993, 24:113-146, p. 121

The burial of their dead implies a religion. Falk writes:

"Certainly big-brained, but beleaguered Neandertals had some sort of religion. As far as we know, they were the first hominids to bury their dead. Times were cold and the earth was frozen hard. Consequently, Neandertals often buried their dead in small graves, with corpses in flexed or semiflexed positions. Despite the practicality of their burials, by 50,000 years ago some Neandertal graves had become quite spectacular. For instance, analysis of pollen deposits from Shanidar Cave in northeastern Iraq indicates that the grave of an adult male may have been covered with an assortment of colorful flowers." Dean Falk, Braindance, (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1992), p. 181-182

Neanderthal left some evidence that he was engaged in a bear cult. Barnouw writes:

"There are other implications of religious beliefs held by Neanderthals in the collections of bear skulls found in their caves. The mere preservation of skulls need not suggest anything religious, but in some cases special attention was given to their placement. In one cave, five bear skulls were found in niches in the cave wall. The skulls of several cave bears in a group have been found surrounded by built-up stone walls, with some skulls having little stones placed around them, while others were set out on slabs."

"All this suggests some kind of bear cult, like that practiced until quite recently by the Chippewa and other North American Indians. After a Chippewa hunter had killed a bear, he would cut off the head, which was then decorated with beads and ribbons (in the period after contact with Europeans). Some tobacco was placed before its nose. The hunter would then make a little speech, apologizing to the bear for having had to kill it. Bear skulls were preserved and hung up on trees so that dogs and wolves could not get at them. Bear ceremonialism of this and related kinds had a wide circumpolar distribution--from the Great Lakes to the Ainu of northern Japan through various Siberian tribes, such as the Ostyaks and the Orochi, to the Finns and Lapps of Scandinavia. So wide a distribution of this trait, associated as it was with other apparently very early circumpolar traits, suggests great age. It is possible, therefore, that some aspects of this bear ceremonialsim go back to Middle Paleolithic times."~Victor Barnouw, An Introduction to Anthropology: Physical Antrhopology and Archaeology, Vol. 1, (Homewood, Illinois: The Dorsey Press, 1982) p. 156-157

BUILDING ACTIVITIES

Paul Mellars reports of a Neanderthal-built wall,

"Potentially more significant are the occasional claims for segments of 'dry-stone walling - implying the deliberate piling up of stones in two or more courses. A widely reported case was described by Bordes in the lower MTA levels (layer 4) at Pech de l'Aze shelter I. Here, he believed he could identify a length of approximately 2 metres of deliberate, wall-like construction, which apparently delimited the main area of human occupation and associated hearths on the site and appeared to extend the natural line of the rock wall of the adjacent cave."~Paul Mellars, The Neanderthal Legacy, (Princeton: University Press, 1996), p. 305

Neanderthal also built pavements,

"Whether or not all of the recorded stone pavements and concentrations were purposefully created by humans, it appears that by Mousterian times occasional importation and arranging of stones was practiced. In the Mousterian deposits of la Ferrassie, Peyrony uncovered a rectangle of calcareous stones, 5 X 3 m, forming a pavement. These stones were 'carefully placed one alongside another. They had been carried there in order to construct a veritable parquat of which the surface was nearly flat. There is no doubt that one is, in this case, the presence of clearly intentional work.' At Pech de l'Aze, Bordes excavated a 'clustering of big limestone blocks, clearly assembled by man but representing neither a fireplace . . .nor a sepulcher.' Among the B level hearths of Grotte du Prince, Villeneuve also excavated seven slabs of hardened clay arranged around a hearth. He suggested that they were possibly placed there to grill pieces of meat. Similarly, the Mousterian hearth in Grotte du Bison at Arcy-sur-Cure was surrounded 'quite regularly by a circle of blackened and heated blocks'."~Brian Hayden "The Cultural Capacities of Neandertals ", Journal of Human Evolution 1993, 24:113-146, p. 133

Neanderthal dug post-holes for his tents,

"The earliest indications come from one of the 12 Mindel/Riss interglacial occupation levels at Lunel-Viel. There, a line of six groups of large stones occurs about 10 m inside the present cave entrance. Two to four large stones constitute each group, and the line creates a division between the occupied area at the mouth of the cave and the less used interior part of the cave. These groups of stone most plausibly represent rocks used to stabilize poles wedged between the cave floor and ceiling. In fact, one such small rock circle at Lunel-Viel surrounded a small post hole 15 cm deep and about 2.5 cm in diameter confirming the construction nature of these rock features."Brian Hayden "The Cultural Capacities of Neandertals ", Journal of Human Evolution 1993, 24:113-146, p. 132n

WEAPONS

Mankind is the only creature who makes weapons. The earliest spear is from Clacton on Sea from 400,000 years ago.~Kathy D. Schick and Nicholas Toth, Making Silent Stones Speak, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993), p.172, p. 271

WOODWORKING

Mankind is the only being who makes a tool for a purpose other than to get food. The first evidence of woodworking with tools comes from 1.5 myr ago. ~Kathy D. Schick and Nicholas Toth, Making Silent Stones Speak, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993), p.160

It seems that a wooden plank with one polished surface was found at an Acheulian site, Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY) in the Northern Jordan Valley of Israel. The artifact is 25 cm long, 13.5 cm wide and 4.0 cm thick, broken off at each end. The sediments containing the plank lie above a basalt that dates at 800,000 years, and the sediments themselves contain an extinct mollusc which is not found above any surface which dates less than 240,000 years. Since the sediments are normally magnetized it means that the sediment is less than 750,000 years. Thus the polished plank dates from 240-750,000 years old.

This plank was planed from a fairly large branch. In English units, it is 10 inches long, 5 inches wide and 1.5 inches thick. The branch had to be at least 5 inches in diameter.

Here is the conundrum for Christians. During this time period (or for YECs in rocks with these dates) no known anatomically modern humans are found. The date range means that the plank was made and polished by either an archaic homo sapiens or a Homo erectus! This is a human-like activity.

TANNING SKINS

The earliest evidence for making and tanning skins which could be used for clothes is from from Swartkrans South Africa dated at 1 million years ago~Donald C. Johanson, Lenora Johanson, and Blake Edgar, Ancestors, (New York: Villard Books, 1994), p. 163-165~Richard G. Klein, The Human Career, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989), p. 113-117

HUNTING TOOLS

Man is the only being who hunts by making stone artefacts and using them as projectiles. There is some speculation that the acheulean hand ax, which remains a fixed feature in the Homo erectus tool kit for over 1 million years, may have been aerodynamically suited as a projectile. (see Eileen M. O'Brian, "What was the Acheulean Hand Ax?" Natural History, July, 1984, p. 18ff.)

MUSIC

Mankind is the only being who makes musical instruments with which to produce sound. The earliest musical instrument is a bird bone flute from Haua Fteah, Libya and dates to between 70 and 80,000 years ago. It was made by a primitive variant of Neanderthal. (SeeGlynn Isaac, in Barbara Isaac, editor, The Archaeology of Human Origins, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 71;C.B.M. McBurney, Haua Fteah (Cyrenaica),(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967), p. 90 ;Phillip V. Tobias "The Hominid Skeletal Remains of Haua Fteah", in C.B.M. McBurney, Haua Fteah (Cyrenaica),(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967), p. 349)

At the Neanderthal site of Prolom II, 41 phalange whistles were found. These objects make high pitched shrieks. (Vadim N. Stpanchuk, "Prolom II, A Middle Palaeolithic Cave Site in the Eastern Crimea with Non-Utilitarian Bone Artefacts," Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 59, 1993, pp 17-37, p. 33- 34.) Prolom II dates from 90-100,000 years ago. (Paul Mellars, The Neanderthal Legacy, (Princeton: University Press, 1996), p. 17 and ~Vadim N. Stpanchuk, "Prolom II, A Middle Palaeolithic Cave Site in the Eastern Crimea with Non-Utilitarian Bone Artefacts," Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 59, 1993, pp 17-37, p. 17)

MINING

Mankind is the only being who engages in subterranean mining for raw material with which to make tools. Neanderthal also engaged in subterranean mining.

"Dans le niveau le plus inferieru, parmi les outils en bois de cerf, nous avons trouve un racloir de type mousterien, et un chopping-tool."~Veronika Gabori-Csank, "Une mine de silex Paleolithique a Budapest, Hongrie," in H. L.Dibble and A. Montet-White eds. Upper Pleistocene Prehistory of Western Eurasia, pp 141-143. Monograph 54 University Museum. University of Pennsylvanian, Philadelphia.

"In the lower level among the bone tools we found a racloir of Mousterian type and a chopping-tool." Translation by Glenn Morton

They dated the tools by comparison with similar types in the same area and their dates.

"C'est donc Budapest-Farkasret qui peut etre considere le premier site ou on connait, incontestablement, une mine une exploitation, a' ciel ouvert, et surtout des outils de mineurs a cette epoque."

"This is therefore Budapest Farkasret which is considered the first site known which is incontestably an open air exploitation and especially the miner's tools of the same epoch." Transl. Glenn Morton

Archaic Homo sapiens engaged in mining also.

"Three Upper Palaeolithic digging activities can be distinguished. A trench, 9 x 2 m, with a depth of 1.5 m had been opened at the northern edge of the Nile deposits had been removed from this trench which represents ~15 m3 of ground. Vertical shafts, dug down to the channel lag gravel, had sometimes been enlarged at their base to form bell pits. From the walls of the trench or from the bell pits, the channel lag gravels had been extracted from the substratum for several metres, creating short galleries."~P. M. Vermeersch, et al., "33,000-yr Old Chert Mining Site and Related Homo in the Egyptian Nile Valley," Nature, 309(May 24, 1984): 342-344, p. 342

" A nearby grave contained a skeleton of a man in the extended position. We show that the cranial morphology is anatomically modern with archaic characteristics such as a very robust mandible. There is evidence that the skeleton has a similar age to that of the mining site." ~P. M. Vermeersch, et al., "33,000-yr Old Chert Mining Site and Related Homo in the Egyptian Nile Valley," Nature, 309(May 24, 1984): 342-344, p. 342

The oldest mine in the world is from Lion Cave, Swaziland.

"Perhaps the most common non-utilitarian finds at MSA sites are pieces of hematite that are ground or show other signs of abrasion. At Howieson's Poort Rockshelter, a trihedral piece of soft ochre has one surface ground flat and small, V-shaped notches along the three edges. Otherwise, all of the hematite found in MSA sites appears to have served as a source of pigment, or, in the case of a few, very hard pieces, as a raw material for tools. At Lion Cavern in Swaziland, where MSA peoples were mining for specular hematite by perhaps 110,000 years ago, a large adit was cut into the side of a specularite-rich portion of the hematite cliff face. The artificial bedrock floor inside and outside the present cave is overlain by deposits with MSA artifacts, including heavy-duty mining tools."

"Beyond the fact that hematite was ground, little is known about its uses or preparation. One of the five grindstones from Bed 2 at Olieboompoort preserves traces of ochre, but it is unlikely that the rare MSA grindstones served primarily for processing pigments."" Thomas P. Volman, "Early Prehistory of Southern Africa," in Richard G. Klein, Prehistory and Paleoenvironments, (Boston: Balkema, 1984), p. 215

The amazing thing is that this was a paint mine. They painted with red ochre and this was used in their rituals.

FOSSIL AND MINERAL COLLECTING

Homo erectus (Peking Man) collected quartz crystals "Almost all varieties of quarz occur in this horizon. Of quartz crystals about twenty pieces of different size were found together with one perfect crystal (Cat. No. Q2:25) 6 cm. length. This crystal is smoky in color and all the crystalline faces are complete."~W.C. Pei, "Notice of the Discovery of Quartz and Other Stone artifacts in the Lower Pleistocene Hominid-Bearing Sediments of the Choukoutien Cave Deposit," Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, 11:2:1931:109-146, p.120

"The Acheulians (as well as the Zhokoudian I hominids) collected quartz crystals and probably fossils, neither of them for utilitarian purposes (the crystals were often much too small for tool or use). Among their manuports are also various colourful or oddly shaped pebbles, in some cases modified. Many hundreds of haematite or ochre manuports occur in the Acheulian sites of Africa, Europe, and Asia, and those from South Africa are thought to be up to 800,000-900,000 years old. These hominids distinguished between ordinary and unusual or exotic object types: they had begun to classify the object world (the significance of this capacity is discussed in Bednarik 1992d), and they were undeniably using red pigment. We have no reason to assume that their level of encephalization was significantly less than that of more recent archaic H. sapiens; in fact it had begun to approach that of anatomically modern humans. Since they are thought to have produced coloured rock markings, presumably non-utilitarian, and collected 'aesthetic' objects, the only surprising thing about the archaic petroglyphs from Auditorium Cave is that we should have managed to locate them; the odds against this are considerable." Robert G. Bednarik, "Concept-mediated Marking in the Lower Palaeolithic," Current Anthropology, 36:4(1995), pp. 605-634, p. 611

"One could argue that these habits might have been the hominid equivalent of the behavior of certain birds, notably the bower birds of Australia, who collect brilliantly colored or reflective objects. But this is not a very convincing argument, and is in any case hardly relevant to the issue at hand. Firstly, the bower bird produces no stone tools or polished wooden planks and does not use hematite crayons or fire, nor is it likely to develop its present skills to those attributed to Middle and Upper Paleolithic humans." Robert G. Bednarik, "On Lower Paleolithic Cognitive Development," 23rd Chacmool Conference Calgary 1990, pp 427-435, p. 433

BOAT BUILDING

Crossing the ocean has apparently been accomplished by man and his ancient, archaic ancestors for hundreds of thousands of years. Ancient man was on Flores, an island in the Indonesian archipelago, at least 700,000 years ago. see P.Y. Sondaar, et al., "Middle Pleistocene faunal turnover and Colonization of Flores (Indonesia) by Homo erectus," Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences. Paris 319:1255-1262.

To get to Flores, mankind must have been able to build a boat because even at the lowest sealevels of the glacial ages, Flores required an ocean voyage. Flores also was never connected to the Asian mainland during low sealevel stands. Indeed it required the crossing of at least 2 straits.

     "Even at times of low sea level, when Sumatra, Java and Bali were connected to mainland Southeast Asia, at least two sea crossings were required to reach Flores.  The first of these deep-water barriers, between the islands of Bali and Lombok, is about 25 km wide and constitutes a major biogeographical boundary, the Wallace Line.  Prior to human intervention, only animals capable of crossing substantial water barriers by swimming, flying or rafting on flotsam were able to establish populations on Flores (e.g. elephants, rats)." M. J. Morwood et al, "Archaeological and Palaeontological Research in Central Flores, East Indonesia: results of Fieldwork 1997-1998," Antiquity, 73(1999):273-286, p. 285,286

The only person on earth at that time was Homo erectus. If Homo erectus was building boats to cross the sea, then that is a human activity.

JEWELRY

Early man engaged in the making of jewelry. Robert G. Bednarik notes:

"Similarly, the idea that the advent of personal ornamentation coincides with that of the Aurignacian is attributable only to insufficient knowledge of the relevant material. Drilled animal teeth and other objects that are several times as old as that 'transition' (up to 300,000 years have been known to exist for many decades." Robert G. Bednarik, "Concept-mediated Marking in the Lower Palaeolithic," Current Anthropology, 36:4(1995), pp. 605-634, p. 606

Neanderthals made some beautiful necklaces. One appeared on the cover of the May 16, 1996 Nature from Arcy-sur-Cure cave in France. Bahn and Vertut report numerous examples of ornamentation by Neanderthal.

"Much of what is called 'parure' (jeweler) belongs in this category--i. e. fossils, teeth, shells or bones which have been incised, sawn or perforated. Such techniques are by no means restricted to the Upper Palaeolithic: a growing number of specimens are known from the preceding (Mousterian) period, and can therefore be attributed to Neanderthalers: two bones (a wolf foot-bone and a swan vertebra), with holes bored through the top, from Bocksteinschmiede (Germany), dating to c 110,000 years ago; a carved and polished segment of mammoth molar, and a fossil nummulite with a line engraved across it (making a cross with a natural crack), from Tata (Hungary), dating to c 100,000 years ago; a bone fragment from Pech de l'Aze (Dordogne), with a hole carved in it; a reindeer phalange with a hole bored through its top, and a fox canine with an abandoned attempt at perforation, from La Quina (Charente). As will be seen below, other forms of 'aesthetic expression' are also known from the Mousterian.

"The earliest phase of the French Upper Palaeolithic, known as the Chatelperronian (c 35,000 BC), has yielded a few more examples: the best known are those from the cave of Arcy-sur-Cure (Yonne). These levels at the site also contained a Neanderthal tooth; in view of the discovery of a Neanderthal skeleton in a Chatelperronian layer at St Cesaire (Charente Maritime), it is more than likely that the earliest Arcy ornaments can be attributed to Neanderthal craftsmanship. They include wolf and fox canines made into pendants by incising a groove around the top, at least one sawn reindeer incisor, a bone-fragment with a wide carved hole, a sea fossil with a hole bored through its centre, and a fossil shell with a groove cut around the top.

"The next layer at Arcy, representing the Aurignacian (c 30,000 BC), has material which features the same techniques, clearly drawing on what had been developing for millennia: perforated fossils, a bone pendant with a wide carved hole, and so forth. Even older Aurignacian sites, such as the cave of Bacho Kiro in Bulgaria (over 41,000 BC), contain perforated animal-tooth pendants." Paul G. Bahn and Jean Vertut, Images in the Ice, (Leichester: Windward, 1988), p. 72

CONCLUSION

The activities in which fossil man engaged were quite human like. While they did not have the technological edge that we have, their behavior is much like that which we would perform under similar technological deficits. The evidence would seem to say that spiritual man extends at least as far back as 2.6 million years ago.

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