Latest Insights on Anthropology
William S. Stoertz
originally August 27, 1998; updated October 10, 1998

     As we all know well, when members asked Father when 
Adam and Eve, the first human beings lived, Father has many 
times said "25 million years ago". Even when questioned about 
that, if he had perhaps meant 2.5 million years ago, Father 
reemphasized his original figure.
     At the same time, if we examine the latest anthropological 
findings, we see that they are homing in on a figure of 5 mya 
for the first hominids. Here is, in fact, a timeline of the sequence 
of events in this line:

Cretaceous period: 146-65 mya.

70 million years ago -- Two varieties of primates exist: the 
Strepsherini, a nocturnal beastiary, and the Haplorini, a diurnal 
variety, from which the hominids arose.

65 million years ago -- Chicxulub asteroid impact on Yucatan 
peninsula. K-T Boundary: extinction of dinosaurs and 
beginning of reign of mammals.

Tertiary period: 65-1.64 mya: Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, 
Miocene and Pliocene epochs. Mammals took over from the 
dinosaurs. Continents took on present positions.

Paleocene epoch: 65-56.5 mya: Mammals spread rapidly. 
Flying mammals replaced flying reptiles, swimming mammals 
replaced swimming reptiles.

60 mya -- Rats, mice, squirrels appear.

60 mya -- Herons, storks appear.

Eocene epoch: 56.5-35.5 mya -- Early forms of mammals 
developing.

55 mya -- Rabbits and hares appear.

50 mya -- Primitive monkeys appear.

Oligocene epoch: 35.5-23.5 mya: Modern mammals. Deer, cats, 
foxes, bears, dogs.

30 mya -- First old world monkey fossils. Fayum, Egypt.

29-28 million years ago -- Aegyptopithecus, early primate, 
found in Egypt.

28 mya -- Koalas appear.

25 mya -- God created Adam and Eve, the first human beings, 
as His children. But they disobeyed God's commandment not to 
engage in sexual relationship before their maturity, thus falling 
and becoming "the worst animals". (True Father, Oct. 31, 1997 
et al.) [Note: Father has several times, upon questioning, 
reaffirmed that he means 25 million and not 2.5 mya.]

Miocene epoch: 23.5-5.2 mya: Grasslands, hoofed mammals 
spread.

20 mya -- Parrots and pigeons appear.

20 mya -- Early ape fossils, Dryopithecinae. Europe, India, East 
Africa.

20-12 mya -- Common chimpanzee and hominid line.

14-4.2 million years ago -- Gap in the Hominoid fossil record.

10-4 mya -- Ramapithecus.

6-5.3 mya -- Major climate change dried out the primeval 
forests in Africa, forcing primates to forage in the open country.

Pliocene epoch: 5.2-1.64 million years ago.

5-4 million years ago -- Adam and Eve (by estimate of William 
Stoertz on Aug. 27, 1998; later updated to 2.5 mya).

5-1.4 million years ago -- Australopithecines. Lake Baringo 
jawbone earliest find. They had human-like jaws and teeth; ape-
like (small) skull. Bipedal but still climbed trees. Primarily 
vegetarian. Pronounced sexual di-morphism. Only in Africa.

4.4 mya -- Early hominid, Ardipithecus ramidus, discovered in 
Ethiopia. Upright posture, semi-pedal locomotion.

at least 4.15 mya -- Humans and chimps diverged. Average of 55 
differences between human and chimpanzee mitochondrial DNA, 
27 between human and Neanderthal, and an average of 8 
differences among contemporary humans.

4.1 [4.2-3.9] mya  -- Early hominid, Australopithecus 
anamensis, found at Kanapoi and Allia Bay, northern Kenya by 
Meave Leakey in 1995.

3.6 mya -- Fully bipedal primate footprints left in wet volcanic 
ash on Tanzania's Laetoli plain, discovered by Mary Leakey's 
team of paleoanthropologists in 1978.

3.5-3 [3-2.3] mya -- Australopithecus africanus ("Little Foot"), 
discovered at Sterkfontein, South Africa, with a humanlike 
ankle but an apelike grasping big toe; more bowlegged, apelike 
gait than Lucy.

3.3-2.6 mya -- Paranthropus aethiopicus discovered by Alan 
Walker in Tanzania in 1985.

3.18 [3.9-3] mya -- Australopithecus afarensis ("Lucy"). 
Primitive ancestor of modern humans.

2.6 mya -- Earliest known stone tools, older than any Homo 
fossils, found at Gona, Ethiopia.

2.6-1.8 million years ago -- Paranthropus robustus.

2.6-1.2 million years ago -- Paranthropus boisei. Bony crest 
atop skull; smallest braincase.

2.5 mya -- Bible indicates Adam and Eve lived 6,000 years ago. 
Father in Belvedere about 1990 said "25 million years ago", 
possibly meaning 2.5 mya.

2.5 million years ago -- Adam and Eve (revised estimate of 
William Stoertz on Oct. 10, 1998).

2.5-1.6 mya -- Homo habilis, from Olduvai Gorge and Lake 
Turkana, Kenya.

2.4 mya -- First Homo genus found at Uraha, Malawi; and at 
Lake Baringo, Kenya.

2.33 mya -- Oldest Homo fossil found together with stone tools 
in Hadar, Ethiopia in 1994 by Donald Johanson and Bill 
Kimbel.

2.0 to 1.2 mya -- Homo robustus, from Swartkrans, South 
Africa.

ca. 1.9 mya -- Three branches of Homo line: Homo habilis, 
Homo rudolfensis, and Homo erectus (leading to Homo 
sapiens, modern man).

1.8 to 0.4 mya -- Homo erectus.

ca. 1.8 million to 100,000 years ago -- Homo ergaster.

1.7 mya -- End of Tertiary, beginning of Quaternary.

1.64 mya -- End of Tertiary, beginning of Quaternary period.

Quaternary period: 1.64 mya to present. Includes Pleistocene 
and Holocene epochs.

Pleistocene epoch: 1.64 mya to 11,000 years ago.

ca. 1.4 mya -- Extinction of last Australopithecus line.

1 mya -- First evidence of controlled fire.

770,000 to 100,000 years ago -- Archaic Homo sapiens, 
including Homo heidelbergensis.

690,000 to 550,000 years ago -- Neanderthals split off from 
ancestors of modern humans and never reconciled. Determined 
from DNA of mitochondrion from fossil arm bone.

ca. 330,000 years ago -- Earliest evidence of shelters.

ca. 300,000 years ago -- Primitive humans lived in northern 
Siberia. Handmade stone tools found above Lena River near 
Yakutsk.

ca. 300,000-150,000 years ago -- "Mitochondrial Eve", 
common woman ancestor who passed her mitochondria down 
to all living human beings. By molecular-clock estimates of 
mitochondrial DNA.

230,000 to 27,000 years ago -- Neanderthal man.

180,000 years ago -- Ancestors of Neanderthals and Homo 
sapiens, with advanced hand-axes.

125,000 years ago -- Earliest evidence of Homo sapiens 
(modern humans) in Africa.

100,000 years ago -- Anatomically modern Homo sapiens.

100,000 years ago -- Earliest known burials.

100,000-35,000 years ago -- Neanderthal man, nearly identical 
to today's Homo sapiens, except for linebacker build, lack of 
chin, and protruding brows. Found from Europe to Central 
Asia. Buried their dead with care, looked after sick and lame. 
Did not mingle nor interbreed with Cro-Magnons.

ca. 60,000 years ago-(?) -- Cro-Magnon man. Direct ancestors 
of modern man.

60,000 years ago -- Earliest firm evidence of humans in 
Australia.

40,000 to 10,000 years ago -- Most recent Ice Age.

39,000 years ago -- Earliest evidence of modern humans in 
Europe.

ca. 30,000-15,000 B.C. -- Migration of American Indians from 
around Lake Baikal across Alaska land bridge.

31,000 years ago -- Earliest known cave paintings.

27,000 years ago -- Last Neanderthals die out.

22,000 years ago -- Finno-Ugaric hunters lived in small 
settlements of 10-15 people around Moscow, hunting woolly 
mammoths.

22,000 years ago -- Australian aboriginal tools and rock 
carvings at Jimnium in Northern Territory. Previously wrongly 
dated at 116-176,000 years old. Dr. Richard Roberts dated at 
10-22,000 years using thermoluminescence of sand grains and 
carbon-14.

20,000 years ago -- Altamira cave and Chauvet cave paintings.

17,000 years ago -- Lascaux cave paintings.

ca. 15,000 B.C. -- First settlements at Jericho.

12,500 years ago -- Archaeological evidence of American 
Indians at Monte Verde, near Chilean village of Pelluco. 
Charcoal, tent stakes, mastodon tusks, stone flakes, wood lance, 
fire drill board. Carbon-14 dating +250 years, ranging from 
13,565 to 11,920 years from different sites.

12,000 years ago -- Earliest evidence of humans in Americas.

ca. 10,000 B.C. -- Undisputed evidence of humans living in 
Americas, but migration to the new world could have started 
much earlier.

12,000 years ago -- Homo sapiens have domesticated dogs in 
Kirkuk, Iraq.

Holocene epoch: 11,000 years ago to present. Climate warmed, 
humans developed significantly.

ca. 9000 B.C. -- Komsa culture on northern Scandinavian coast 
during the last Ice Age, related to Lapps, Komis, and Siberian 
tribes.

9,000-8,000 B.C. -- One of the most ancient farming villages in 
the world, uncovered by Iraqi archaeologists since 1991 in 
Kurdistan. Village of houses of dried bricks.

10,000 years ago -- First permanent human settlements.

10,000 years ago -- Most recent ice age ends.

ca. 8,000 B.C. -- People learn to use fire to cast copper and 
harden pottery.

ca. 7,000 B.C. -- Origin of Indo-European race and languages 
from Punjab or Afghanistan. "Japheth".

ca. 7,000 B.C. -- "Cheddar Man" from southwest England. 
Britons appear to come from a race of hunter-gatherers who 
later turned to farming. Mitochondrial DNA extracted from a 
molar tooth compared with living British volunteers.

ca. 9,000 ago -- Remains of Western European Caucasoid man 
found 1990 in riverbed near Kennewick, Washington.

ca. 5,400 B.C. -- Many farming villages in lower 
Tigris/Euphrates Valley.

October 23, 4004 B.C. -- Creation date reckoned by James 
Ussher, Anglican Primate of All Ireland, in 17th century.

     So, with information like that above, people have variously 
placed the first human beings at 5 mya (with Australopithecus), 
2.6 mya (the first stone tools), 1.8 mya (Homo erectus), 1 mya 
(the first use of fire discovered), 800,000 years ago (archaic 
Homo sapiens, including the ancestors of the Neanderthals), 
100,000 years ago (the first burials, and other evidence of 
culture), or even 50,000 years ago. Yet Father, in contrast to 
all the known evidence, said "25 million years ago". At that 
time, monkeys had just appeared, and horses and chimpanzees did 
not appear until later! Reasonably, considering what is known 
scientifically, it would rather seem that Father meant "2.5 
million years ago". Since Korean language counts based on the 
number 10,000 rather than 1,000 as with Western systems, such a 
difference is understandable.

     So when I was praying about this, I asked, "What do You 
make of that, Heavenly Father?" and I received the answer, "He 
said that to challenge you, and to challenge the secular 
humanists."
     Working on the question some more, I came to a seemingly 
inevitable date of 2.5 mya, and, reporting this to God, I felt He 
said, "Father wanted you to work hard on it, not just accept it."

     I think there are three or four major reasons why Father has 
given this date of 25 mya, which seems unreasonably long ago:
     1. To challenge us to think more deeply, and to think further 
back, as when Father gives us a goal which is higher than our 
realistic thinking.
     2. In order not to be dominated by the secular humanists, 
who would gloat if they thought their opinion was upheld, and 
whose materialistic thinking is completely unacceptable to 
Heaven.
     3. To emphasize how much Heavenly Father was longing to 
create His son and daughter as early as possible, since a long 
time ago; and in His mind He was looking for how to establish 
the true human beings. God commenced the providential period 
to establish Adam and Eve, the first true human beings, since as 
long as 25 million years ago, even if He did not at once do so 
on this earth.
     4. To emphasize how long God has been suffering in 
heartache and agony since the Fall -- that this was not just 
6,000 years, nor even a million years, if we would think that 
were small, but much longer.

     Modifying my previous conclusions of August 27th, I 
realized that the Ramepithecus (10-4 mya) were pretty much out 
of the picture, being clearly on the ape side, and not human 
ancestors. The Australopithecus (5-1.4 mya), while most likely 
on the direct line, were dull and brutish, but could not be 
humans -- not even fallen humans. In this way, the identity of 
the first humans came right back to 2.5 million years ago with 
the first Homo genus. These were crafty, clever, and did many 
things. Even being "cavemen", the descendants of Adam and 
Eve retained this basic intelligence; just they were using it 
against each other as well as dealing with the natural elements 
and catching wild beasts. We may suppose that eventually 
further, more precise traces of the earliest Homo species will 
be found, and we might even locate the remains of Adam and Eve 
and their family.

SUMMARY OF DIRECT PHYSICAL LINEAGE OF MODERN PEOPLE

70 mya -- Haplorini, early primate from which the hominids arose.
29-28 mya -- Early primate, Aegyptopithecus, found in Egypt.
20-12 mya -- Common ancestral line of chimpanzees and hominids.
4.4 mya -- Early hominid: Ardipithecus ramidus.
5-1.4 mya -- Hominids: Australopithecus.
3.3-1.8 mya -- Hominids: Paranthropus.
2.5 mya -- ADAM AND EVE.
2.5-1.6 mya -- Homo habilis.
1.8-0.4 mya -- Homo erectus.
770,000 years ago -- Archaic Homo sapiens.
690-550,000 yrs ago -- Ancestors of Neanderthals split from our 
     own ancestors.
230,000-27,000 years ago -- Neanderthals (Homo sapiens 
neanderthalensis).
60,000 years ago -- Cro-Magnon man, our direct ancestors.
40,000-10,000 yrs ago -- Most recent ice age.
10,000 yrs ago -- Beginning of our phase of civilization.

William Stoertz, ITPN, 1998.10.10.


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