Part 6 - Neanderthals & Nephilims

March 21 - Today we visited three of the famous Paleolithic caves on the western side of Mt. Carmel.  Northern Israel, between Mt. Carmel and the Galilee, has more Neanderthal-type remains than almost anywhere in the world.  We visited at cave of Tabun, which yielded one burial of a Neanderthal-type female, and about a football field away, the cave of Skhul produced ten skeletons of a more modern type with some archaic features.  

I have always wondered if, before the Great Flood, there was not more genetic variability in the human genome than there is today.  They find skeletons which are quite similar to modern humans, perhaps a bit more robust and archaic, and then there are Neanderthals with their thicker bones and pronounced brow ridges.   But only one type of mankind entered the Ark.  Noah and his entire family were moderns.  The Ark was a genetic bottleneck, and only the genes from those in the boat were passed on to future generations.  Were the Neanderthals wiped out by the flood waters?

We are given a glimpse into the pre-Flood world in the sixth chapter of Genesis.  "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,  That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.  And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.  There were giants (Nephilim) in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.  And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart."

There are signs of violence and even cannabalism at many Neanderthal sites.  Sometimes the human  arm and leg bones are splintered, like they were smashed to get at the marrow, and sometimes the foramen magnum, the hole at the base of the skull, has been widened to extract the brain.  

The Genesis record tells us that men lived hundreds of years after creation.  Methusaleh set the all-time Guiness book of records at 969 years.  Would it not be helpful, if one were to live that long, to have a more robust physique?  That is exactly what we find in both archaic moderns and Neanderthals.

This picture shows three of the Mt. Carmel caves.

We caught Nick and Nancy Neanderthal preparing for dinner.  The man was obviously watching an Oregon Duck football game.

This shows the series of layers found at the upper cave.  Notably, Neanderthals were found at the top of the sequence, which shows the great antiquity of the deposits at the bottom.