Page 675 - Atlas of Creation Volume 2

Harun Yahya

HOMO ERECTUS'S SAILING CULTURE
"Ancient mariners: Early humans were much smarter than we suspected" According to this article in the March 14, 1998, issue
of New Scientist, the people that evolutionists call Homo erectus were sailing 700,000 years ago. It is impossible, of course, to
think of people who possessed the knowledge, technology and culture to go sailing as primitive.

have tried very hard to present them as a "primitive species," yet all the findings indicate that they

were no different from a "robust" man walking on the street today. A prominent authority on the sub-
ject, Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist from New Mexico University, writes:

Detailed comparisons of Neanderthal skeletal remains with those of modern humans have
shown that there is nothing in Neanderthal anatomy that conclusively indicates locomotor, ma-
nipulative, intellectual, or linguistic abilities inferior to those of modern humans. 166

Many contemporary researchers define Neanderthal man as a subspecies of man of our
day, and call him Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.
On the other hand, the fossil record shows that Neanderthals possessed an advanced cul-

ture. One of the most interesting examples of this is a fossilized flute made by Neanderthal
people. This flute, made from the thighbone of a bear, was found by the archaeologist Ivan
Turk in a cave in northern Yugoslavia in July 1995. Musicologist Bob Fink then analyzed it.
Fink proved that this flute, thought by radio-carbon testing to be between 43,000 and 67,000
years old, produced four notes, and that it had half and full tones. This discovery shows that
Neanderthals used the seven-note scale, the basic formula of western music. Fink, who ex-

amined the flute, states that "the distance between the second and third holes on the old flute
is double that between the third and fourth." This means that the first distance represents a
full note, and the distance next to it a half note. Fink says, "These three notes … are in-
escapably diatonic and will sound like a near-perfect fit within any kind of standard dia-

tonic scale, modern or antique," thus revealing that Neanderthals were people
with an ear for and knowledge of music. 167
Some other fossil discoveries show that Neanderthals buried their
dead, looked after their sick, and used necklaces and similar adorn-
ments. 168
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

HOMO ERECTUS AND THE ABORIGINES
The Turkana Boy skeleton shown at the far right is the best preserved example of Homo
erectus that has so far been discovered. The interesting thing is that there is no major
difference between this 1.6 million-year-old-fossil and people of our day. The Australian
aboriginal skeleton on the right particularly resembles Turkana Boy. This situation re-
veals once again that Homo erectus was a genuine human race, with no "primitive" fea-
tures.
Adnan Oktar 673