Religion

Abstract

Many millennia ago, our early ancestors began to make artifacts to serve as tools and as weapons. As was pointed out in Chapter 2, the earliest stone tools have been dated to 2.6 mya; they were discovered at Gona, Ethiopia, in a general area where many other ancient artifacts have been found. These fabricated artifacts were associated with an ancestor species, Homo habilis. Later ancestors developed the ability to make fire. A recent archaeological discovery in northern Israel, at a crossing of the Jordan headwaters called Gesher B’not Ya’aqov (Bridge of the Daughters of Jacob), provides the earliest evidence of fire-making. It occurred, according to the analysis of the ashes and their context, at 790 kya. Interestingly, this discovery was made by archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It seems clear that researchers at that Jewish-sponsored center of learning are not required to believe that human life began with Adam and Eve, just 6 kya.