The internet makes articles about archeological discoveries and theories available to all of us. Archeology Today has a website that’s always interesting. There is a recurring theme among archeologists about early human life originating in Africa. No one knows if it’s true, but it is politically correct.
Today, a typical archeology article appeared:
“More than 200 spear tips excavated from the Kathu Pan 1 site in South Africa are being called the oldest in the world. The 500,000 year old weapons are thought to have been crafted by Homo heidelbergensis, a common ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals, who then hafted them to handles and used them to hunt prey. The advanced age for the points was obtained through soil analysis, and if the dates are correct, it would follow that Homo sapiensand Neanderthals shared similar abilities when it came to making hafted stone tools. These points send this hunting technology back 200,000 years.”
Such articles have been appearing since the Leakey Family of archeologists began picking up pointed rocks, some of which had fallen from nearby cliffs, and announcing to National Geographic readers that they were, in fact, “Mankind’s oldest weapons.”
When the Leakeys came across dull, or rounded stones, often indistinguishable from river gravel, the National Geographic could be relied up on announce, “Mankind’s earliest tools have been discovered in the Olduvai Gorge.” That’s where the Leakey Family was able to earn quite a lucrative living, interspersing their long, and one would imagine, less than sober searches for an imaginary ancient history with even more profitable lectures to halls of wide-eyed nodders, believing themselves enriched by the opportunity to drink in the deep thoughts of the Leakey father and son as they pointed out features in randomly selected rocks that, in their minds, proved them to be artifacts, each coming from “the dawn of time”.
Archeology, still the same old story, demands that something new be discovered among the old. What better way to ensure funding?
