Page 174 - Darwinism Refuted
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DARWINISM REFUTED
Some other fossil discoveries show that Neanderthals buried their
dead, looked after their sick, and used necklaces and similar
adornments. 205
A 26,000-year-old sewing needle, proved to have been used by
Neanderthal people, was also found during fossil excavations. This
needle, which is made of bone, is exceedingly straight and has a hole for
the thread to be passed through. 206 People who wear clothing and feel the
need for a sewing needle cannot be considered "primitive."
The best research into the Neanderthals' tool-making abilities is that
of Steven L. Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner, professors of anthropology and
archaeology, respectively, at the University of New Mexico. Although
these two scientists are proponents of the theory of evolution, the results
of their archaeological research and analyses show that the Neanderthals
who lived in caves on the coast of southwest Italy for thousands of years
carried out activities that required as complex a capacity for thought as
modern-day human beings. 207
Kuhn and Stiner found a number of tools in these caves. The
discoveries were of sharp, pointed cutting implements, including
spearheads, made by carefully chipping away layers at the edges of the
flint. Making sharp edges of this kind by chipping away layers is without
a doubt a process calling for intelligence and skill. Research has shown
that one of the most important problems encountered in that process is
breakages that occur as a result of pressure at the edge of the stones. For
this reason, the individual carrying out the process has to make fine
judgments of the amount of force to use in order to keep the edges
straight, and of the precise angle to strike at, if he is making an angled tool.
Margaret Conkey from the University of California explains that
tools made in periods before the Neanderthals were also made by
communities of intelligent people who were fully aware of what they were
doing:
If you look at the things archaic humans made with their hands, Levallois
cores and so on, that's not a bumbling king of thing. They had an
appreciation of the material they were working with, an understanding of
their world. 208
In short, scientific discoveries show that Neanderthals were a human
race no different from us on the levels of intelligence and dexterity. This
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