Two Steps Forward - 10,000 Years Worth of Steps Back

Here are some of my thoughts in regards to:

Science News_ v. 166, 7/24/04, p. 61, "Seeds of Agriculture Move Back in Time"

This article tells of an increase in the date assigned an event, but as in many such cases, it seems to pose a bit of a conundrum for evolutionists as well as YECs, although I've seldom if ever seen them notice this sort of thing.

In a report to appear (or now appearing?) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers say they have evidence that as early as 23,000 years ago people in the area of the Sea of Galilee ate "a plentiful portion of seeds from wild grasses along with a side of grains from wild cereals, such as wheat and barley" in addition to what they could get by hunting and fishing.

"This discovery pushes back by 10,000 years" the date when humans started this diet. "That transition in eating habits set people on the path to farming, a practice that began in the Middle East between 11,000 and 10,000 years ago."Hmmmm, let's see, 23,000 minus 10,000... so the old date for the shift was 13,000 years ago, or 2-3 thousand years before farming began.

Think of the advancements in technology made since the time of Christ. And these people would be every bit as intelligent as us even in the evolutionary view. Could one argue that for all that time, nobody saw the possibility of or any advantage in saving some seeds and planting them in a convenient location? And now they supposedly took up to 13,000 years? More than twice the time since writing was invented? (and then another 5,000 years or so after farming started before that invention of writing?)

Also, what land animals in the area would have eaten fish? I ask because it seems very clever to me for early humans to figure out that fish were edible and then figure out how to spear them -- or did they actually use hook-and-line fishing? 12-13 thousand years of hunting, fishing, living off the land -- with all that intelligence and never settling down...you think the women would put up with that? 8-)

23,000 to 10,000 years would be from the peak of the Ice Age to just after it ended. I don't know what effects it had in that area, though. Still, if the Ice Age was an after-effect of the Flood, adjusting/collapsing these dates accordingly might well fit with the dispersal from the mountains of Ararat with a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle followed by a rapid re-establishment of civilization.

Until Next Time,
David Bump