Naragansett Runestone

My parents and I took the 2 ½ hour trip from our house in Massachusetts to Newport, Rhode Island to see the Newport Tower. I remembered that the Narragansett Runestone was in the area so we stopped to see it before heading to Newport.

The Narragansett Runestone is located in Wickford (which is in North Kingstown), Rhode Island. The stone was moved from its original location “in the intertidal zone of Narragansett Bay just south of Pojac Point in North Kingstown, at 41O38.90N and 71O24.48W” (according to a kiosk at the rune stone) to an area behind Old Library Park next to the Town Hall Annex, in Wickford off of Brown Street. This will save it from the tidal erosion.

It was neat to see the runestone in person after reading about it online and in books. For the most part, the rune writing is carved maybe 1/2” deep into the rock and fades out at the right side of the sentence due to water erosion. As far as I know, nobody knows what the stone says even though there are recognizable runes that can be interpreted like the first three runes, the s, h, r, and a runes.

Olmec Origins

The Olmec and a Biblical Perspective of Ancient History

By Bethany Youngblood
When I was a child, we would sit together as a family and watch documentaries about ancient history. My parents would mute or forward through places where the narrator talked about certain things; ideas about history that were secular. The Bible did not talk about that stuff, so young ears did not need to hear about it. But a young mind starts to connect the dots, begins to wonder why the only way to look at ancient history is from a perspective that doesn’t agree with the Bible. As I got older, I realized that the realm of interpreting ancient history has been largely left up to the Non-Christian crowd. This passive acceptance of a secular worldview is hindering Christians in their understanding of history. Instead of seeing God’s special design for mankind, we get lost in the popular speculation that ancient man was less intelligent or less capable than we are today. Adopting a Biblical worldview when looking at ancient history is something every Christian should consider. If Christians were to peel back the layers of secular speculation and get at the realities of ancient man, they would see that everything secular historians present as evidence fits perfectly within a Biblical model.

Babel in the Backyard

In the wake of the publishing of The Secrets of Ancient Man the Ancient Man Team is gearing up for round three in the ancient man series! We're excited about the addition of new team members and the new research we have already uncovered and started to sift through. To give you a little glimpse into what we are up to these days, check out what one of our researchers has to say about joining the team...

An Ancient Man Surprise...

By Don Landis

Pastor Don Landis is the general editor of both The Genius of Ancient Man and The Secrets of Ancient Man. On a recent trip down to an Answers in Genesis board meeting, Don and his wife Bev stumbled across an unexpected ancient man site...

Who were our Human Ancestors?

by Brian Mariani

Model of Neanderthal Man, at one time thought to be human ancestors
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/feb/04/neanderthals-modern-humans-research

Were our early ancestors ape-like creatures and dumb cavemen or were they fully formed human beings created intelligently? Why do people think humans evolved from animals?

While an evolutionist would defend the ape-to-human evolution paradigm, citing various pieces of “evidence” throughout history and describing multiple transitional species along the long journey to homo sapiens, we believe that the correct interpretation of Scripture rules out all that conjecture.

Derinkuyu: City Beneath Our Feet

By Analea Styles

http://travellerguide.asia/turkey-tourism-the-incredible-underground-city-of-derinkuyu.html

It’s not everyday you hear about entire cities built thousands of years ago, boasting sophisticated architecture, design, and careful organization – underground! Derinkuyu, a massive subterranean city that could have housed up to 20,000 people, is literally a mine for unearthing evidence of ancient genius.

Biographies of Ancient Man: Joseph

By Jacob Brockmann 

http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2010/04/05/Joseph-in-Egypt-Part-V.aspx

In The Genius of Ancient Man, we contrast two beliefs of human origins: the humanistic, evolutionary model of mankind slowly evolving from simple organisms to apes to humans and the biblically-based model that outlines how God created man perfectly intelligent, highly skilled, and capable of amazing feats.

We want to introduce you to some of the most ancient people of history, men and women created in the image of God, people whom God describes to us in His perfect, authoritative Word.

Why did it take so long?

By Matthew Zuk

Artist's depiction of Babel
http://www.anunnakicouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Tower_of_Babel.jpg

Ever wondered why certain civilizations took longer than others to become well established? Why did the Middle East, Northern Africa, and Europe rise to greatness literally thousands of years before the Americas, Australia, and Africa? Why did civilizations like the Minoans, Babylonians, Egyptians, and others have more sophisticated technology than the Mayan, Aztec, and Incan civilizations?

Ancient Athletes

By Analea Styles

As summer quickly approaches and the weather continues to improve, outdoor sports and leisure activities become ever more common; soccer camps for the kids, volleyball at the beach, marathons through the cities, and swimming at the lake on weekends. We love our recreational activities! Did you know that in ancient times people enjoyed sports and various forms of exercise just like we do?

Biographies of Ancient Man: Bezalel and Oholiab

By Danae Styles

When listing our favorite and most prominent men in the Bible, the names Bezalel and Oholiab are not likely the first names to come to anyone's mind. However, these individuals were outstanding men of their day and both are excellent examples of the intelligence of ancient man.

Artist's Impression of the Tabernacle
http://eborg3.com/Bible-Alphabetical/Bible-Alphabetical-T.htm

Biographies of Ancient Man: Noah

By Analea Styles

Lately there has been one biblical name that seems to be on everyone’s lips, showing up all over in news feeds, blogs, and social media platforms. He even has a hashtag! But who is this “Noah” that everyone is talking about? Well he’s Darren Aronofsky’s fantastical cinematic Noah. And he’s the biblical Noah of Genesis. And he’s everyone’s own interpretation of the two.

An artist's imaginative rendition of Noah and the Ark 

The purpose of this post is not to get into the debate over said recent film. Read our review of Noah if you are interested in our stance. Instead, we would like to introduce you to the Noah the Bible teaches as one of the most intelligent, skilled, and righteous men of the ancient world.

The Incredible Journey (Part Two)

By Bethany Youngblood

Artist Depiction of Tower of Babel
Wikimedia Commons

(Be sure to read Part One of The Incredible Journey if you missed it!)

How Did They Go?

Now that we have a general idea of what direction these groups of people where headed in, how did they get there? It is an exhausting exercise to imagine that everyone simply walked all those miles day after day after day until finally arriving in some random place that looked like home. So was this migration some sort of mad dash, or a slow trek?

The Incredible Journey

By Bethany Youngblood

Wikimedia Commons

"So The Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because The Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." (Genesis 11:8-9 KJV)

The Biblical account of the Tower of Babel is a familiar one. We know that it was at Babel that God divided the languages and thereby scattered the people in all directions to fill the earth and multiply. But we are not so familiar with the span of time between the dispersion and the many civilizations that were created by the migration from Babel. Evolutionary models for how man populated the globe are so common that when confronted with the question of how it happened from a biblical perspective and within a biblical timeframe, we often come up short for answers.

Traditions of Christmas

By Analea Styles

To begin this post, we want to be clear that we are not condemning Christmas or the classic Christmas traditions and symbols. This post is merely to inform and encourage you to think about what we truly celebrate during this season and why.

The Christmas holiday has been a beloved celebration for hundreds of years for many Christians. Many people believe that Christmas really began with the birth of Christ and is a purely Christian holiday but this is actually not the case. Here are a few examples of Christmas traditions that may have roots in ancient pagan practices.

A Stone Canvas (Part 2)

By Bethany Youngblood

Now that you have been introduced to the concepts and purposes of ancient cave art (read Part 1 if you missed it!), we can begin our grand tour fully prepared to appreciate it. I’ve arranged what I consider to be the five most stunning works of ancient man’s artistic genius.

A Stone Canvas (Part 1)

 By Bethany Youngblood

Chauvet Cave
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/

Mention “cave art”, and you’ve introduced the image of charcoal scrawls and odd looking stick-men into your listener’s head. This realm of primitive man cannot possibly hold any of the beauty or finesse we associate with the term ‘art’, can it? What is more, even if the doodles could be recognized as man or beast, would they have any commonality with our art today? The answer is a resounding yes! The realm of ancient artwork is a vast landscape rich in a variety of styles and purposes. To serve as an introduction to this beautiful chapter of ancient man we want to take you on a little art tour. We will start by focusing in on that first misconception at the beginning of this paragraph: cave art.

Biographies of Ancient Man: Adam

By Analea Styles

In The Genius of Ancient Man we contrast two beliefs of human origins:

“The naturalistic, evolutionary model depicts the first humanoid beings as brutish creatures evolving out of slime, looking more like apes than humans. Their behavior would be only slightly more advanced than the rest of the animal world from which they were evolving…By going to the Word of God, Christians are able to refute this claim of primitive man with truth that coincides with the physical evidence.“[1]

We want to introduce you to some of the most ancient people of history, men and women created in the image of God, intelligent, creative, strategic and skilled. People whom God chose to tell us about in His perfect, authoritative Word.

The Inca: Masters of Cyclopean Masonry

By Matthew Zuk

Machu Picchu
http://cdn.media.kiwicollection.com/media/property/PR000846/xl/000846-02-macchu-picchu.jpg

The Incan Empire (circa A.D. 1150 – 1550)[1] produced some of the most impressive architectural feats not only in South America, but also in the entire world. Many of these structures have proven to be inexplicable enigmas and no one knows for sure how on earth they were built!

Intelligence = Technology?

Hadza Tribe - http://www.creative-inspiration.co.uk/?category_name=tanzania

For many people, studying ancient man and his accomplishments can give rise to more questions than answers. For instance, ancient technology in architecture, art, transportation, agriculture, and even sanitation often baffles our modern minds. Such ancient technology clearly displays that ancient men were intelligent—just as we would expect from a biblical worldview. But other questions arise—maybe you as a reader have been asking them: Were there any ancient societies that did not possess advanced technology? If so, then were they still intelligent? And what about tribal people that live in remote areas of the earth? Are they intelligent? Is intelligence dependent upon technology?

Gears from the Ancients

By Bethany Youngblood    

          

Byzantine sundial-cum-calendar
 http://mediumaevum.tumblr.com/post/31263384884/
byzantine-sundial-cum-calendar-5th-6th
 

Gears and ancient man do not sound like two compatible subjects for a conversation. They just don't seem to mix within the mainstream view that ancient man lacked the intelligence to accomplish anything we see as modern or advanced.

But is it so out of proportion to think that the mathematical and mechanical knowledge necessary to construct something as common to us as a clock is limited only to our modern era? In reality this knowledge might simply be a rediscovered practice from our past. In other words, perhaps we forgot and have now relearned how to use this mathematical and mechanical knowledge.

Even inhabitants of the ancient world had to keep track of time. Don't you think they could have worked out ways to physically display it, like we do with our wristwatches today? Is it possible that they had actual mechanical devices to measure time, not just a sundial or an hourglass? There is fantastic evidence for just this, another marvel of ancient man's intelligence.