Stone Age Atlantis
by Shaun Doyle
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Underwater archaeologists recently discovered a settlement dubbed “Stone Age Atlantis”.
What an interesting combination of terms: ‘Stone Age’ and ‘Atlantis’!
Both refer to ancient people, yet they conjure up contrasting images. The Stone
Age was purported to be a primitive time but Atlantis was the legendary city of
advanced technology that sank beneath the waves.
However, scientists from the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology
have recently discovered a settlement dubbed ‘Stone Age Atlantis’ submerged
beneath the Solent, the channel of water separating the Isle of Wight from mainland
England. They have ‘dated’ this settlement to the Middle Stone Age,
about 8,000 years ago by their reckoning.1
This ‘stone age’ culture had a few technological surprises. Alongside
flint knives and scrapers, they discovered worked wood, which they believe was used
to build houses and canoes. Gary Momber, director of the trust, said, ‘I believe
these people were far more sophisticated than we give them credit for.’1
If that’s the case, why were these people hunter-gatherers and not farmers?
In evolutionary terms is it because they hadn’t worked out how to farm yet?
That’s what secular anthropology assumes.
The Bible gives a different story, one that makes sense of this evidence. Man was
created fully capable of culture and technology, which was sufficiently sophisticated
by the time of Noah and his family that they were able to build a massive Ark and
manage an enormous floating zoo for a year! This technological ability continued
after the Flood.
The prevailing climate of the day also gives us a clue. The post-Flood climate was
unstable and with large ice sheets on the continents the sea level was lower. People
were forced to disperse from Babel and there is evidence of a periodic movement
of ‘civilization’ out from that centre.2 Survival would have been the
primary concern at first, especially in places like England, which were not far
south of the large ice sheet that covered Scotland in the Ice Age. This meant that
farming was not practical for the pioneer migrants, so the best way to survive was
with a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.3
References and notes
- Williams, E., Fight on to save Stone Age Atlantis, BBC
News, <news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6928293.stm>, 8 August 2007.
Return to text.
- Pierce, L., In the days of
Peleg, Creation 22(1):46–49, 1999; <creation.com/peleg>.
Return to text.
- Osgood, A.J.M.,
A better model for the Stone Age, Journal of Creation 2:88–102,
1986; <creation.com/stoneage>. Return to text.
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