Was there a Stone Age?

Creation Ministries International stated:*

Evolutionary stereotypes of the first humans as primitive “Stone Age” cave men who had not yet evolved agriculture just do not square with the Bible’s account of history. The Bible says that in Adam’s day, people “worked the soil” (Genesis 4:2—following the events of 2:15 and 3:17), forged bronze and iron tools (4:22) and made and played musical instruments (4:21). There never was a “Stone Age”!1 (Nor the evolutionary-defined “Bronze Age” or “Iron Age” for that matter.)

I'd disagree. There have been two kinds of stone age.

First, people living like hunter gatherers have existed soon on, I'd say even before the Deluge, and they still exist. In the cases where they lack contact with Europeans or Indians or Chinese, they use tools of stone, antlers, wood, bones. But today they do not dominate the societies available to man, and in the beginning of their existence, they didn't either.

Second, there has been a time at which this lifestyle dominated. And Biblically it can be pinpointed to the last 350 years of Noah.

2957 BC to 2607 BC, agriculture was rare (Noah was a pioneer in the post-Flood era, Genesis 9:20, and he was ridiculed more or less for it, see following verses). Metal tools were rare, only what Noah had brought on the Ark. And as those limited items would wear out, one made sure to make stone tools. Probably the Neanderthal inlaws of Noah were able to give lessons on how to make Mousterian tools.

Neanderthal inlaws, by the way. Who exactly on the Ark could have been half Neanderthal and how? Noah could have been half Neanderthal, with his mother a Neanderthal. Neither his nor his sons' mitochondriae are with us now. Noah's wife could have been fully Neanderthal or half Neanderthal. As said, his sons' mitochondriae don't stay with us. Noah's daughters in law, any of them, could have had, now we are on Neanderthal fathers, since they couldn't transmit their fathers' Y-chromosomes, but would have transmitted their mothers' mitochondriae.

Now, part of the reason Noah's family involved some Neanderthal heritage, well, God didn't want the race to fully get extinct. Other part, as mentioned, teaching Noah and his sons Mousterian tool making and survival as hunter gatherers was vital for the early post-Flood time.

But wasn't Noah a husbandman straight away? Isn't Genesis 9:20 happening just the year after the Deluge or sth? No. Noah was ridiculed before loads of people either by them seeing him, or by Ham telling more people than his brothers and presumably Canaan telling more people than just his father Ham. Presumably, because this, and Canaan advising his grandfather dishonestly on quantities, would very precisely explain why Noah condemned Canaan to be sommelier while others enjoyed their drink. And why he cursed him:

Woe to him that giveth drink to his friend, and presenteth his gall, and maketh him drunk, that he may behold his nakedness.
[Habacuc (Habakkuk) 2:15]

So, first, Ham had had time to have sons, Genesis 10:6 says And the sons of Cham: Chus, and Mesram, and Phuth, and Chanaan. He very presumably had daughters as well, but they are not named. Given that a certain period male lineages were very reduced, it is possible that the ones mentioned here are those remaining in Abraham's time, that the table of nations used to be a way longer text, but was gradually reduced, as lineage after lineage dropped out of existence.

But second, the youngest son of Ham also had to be old enough to be responsible for a misdeed. And third, some penal servitude already existed, since Noah's curse states:

He said: Cursed be Chanaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren
[Genesis 9:25]

So, not just a servant of his brethren (and of his two uncles, see following verses) but also of the servants they presumably already had.

In other words, one cannot put this event earlier than c. 40~50 years after the Flood and it could be later. The terminus ante quem would be finding wine dated that old (but the earliest so far found is dated post-Babel) and possibly even finding wheat from then (the carbon date is 20 500 BP or 18 550 BC for the beginning of Ohala II, which is between 2725 and 2712 BC**).

Around the death of Noah, we see the Neolithic starting, not quite yet making agriculture the staple, along with the building complex I take as being the city of Babel.

The Chalcolithic or the Copper Age or the Eneolithic starts with among other things a copper mine found in the Timna Valley. The earliest year would be 7000 BC, carbon dated, which is around the time when Shem died and Reu was born, not far from 2440 BC.*** It ends in the Near East around carbon dated 3500 BC, which is connectable to Genesis 14 via the evacuation of Amorrhaeans from Asason Tamar a k a En Geddi.

So, sorry Mr. Catchpoole, a stone age of sorts actually existed. Bronze age and Iron age correspond to post-Flood rediscoveries of the metallurgy of Tubal-Cain, the pre-Flood original has not been found in finds that mainstream archaeology accepts (nor has the city Enoch in Nod). If ever some high mountains in the East break up, be it even for doomsday, we might see what that looked like. At the end of that story, not too pretty.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
St. Sindulph of Vienne
10.XII.2025

Viennae, in Gallia, sancti Sindulphi, Episcopi et Confessoris.

Material like this more usually on my Creationist blog, when in English:

Creation vs. Evolution
https://creavsevolu.blogspot.com/

* A post from 2009 answering about Cave Men:

Cave men—in the Bible
By David Catchpoole | Published (online) 04 Jun, 2010
https://creation.com/en/articles/bible-cave-men

Previously appeared in print, Creation 31(3), Pages 52 - 53, June 2009. Apart from the quip against the stone age, I'm not the least against that article. And in some cases, you had manmade caves, cut into the rock, as in Cappadocia.

** See the table extract:

2725 BC

14.329 pmC, dated as 18,786 BC

2712 BC

17.585 pmC, dated as 17,081 BC

From: Creation vs. Evolution: Newer Tables, Flood to Joseph in Egypt
https://creavsevolu.blogspot.com/2024/12/newer-tables-flood-to-joseph-in-egypt.html

It's the table I/II—II.

*** Same post, table III—IV:

2456 BC

Shem died

2442 BC

57.683 pmC, dated as 6990 BC

2427 BC

Reu born