© 1998 Ken Glasziou
© 1998 The Brotherhood of Man Library
Most readers are aware of the clash between a statement in The Urantia Book about the coming of the red man to the Americas about 85,000 years ago and the “Clovis First” view of early American pre-history. The latter view claimed that human penetration of the American continent was blocked by a Canadian ice sheet until 12,000 yers ago.
The degree of fanaticism with which the “Clovis First” view was promoted by the “establishment” of American anthropology and archaeology surely came close to promoting “Clovis First” to the “divinely dictated” status of a fundamentalist’s bible.
According to a recent review, the publication of the second volume of T. Dillehay’s opus magnum, Monte Verde. A Late Pleistocene Settlement in Chile (Smithsonian Institution Press) has now hammered home the last nail in the coffin of the “Clovis First” dogma, at last enabling studies of American pre-history to proceed on a more realistic footing.
The destruction of the “Clovis First” dogma may draw the attention of readers with an interest in anthropology and archaeology to a book, first published in 1993 by Michael A. Cremo and Richard L. Thompson, and entitled Forbidden Archaeology, that has painstakingly documented a large volume of early archaeological work in the Americas and the rest of the world, that bore upon the early history of mankind, and suffered suppression in the interests of maintaining “establishment” prejudices.
Amongst the large volume of material in Forbidden Archaeology is an account of work at a site at St. Prest in France that, according to some workers, established beyond doubt the presence of tool-making man in that region around one million or more years ago.
The authors of Forbidden Archaeology draw attention to the phenomenon of suppression of contrary opinion that exists in all areas of science. To a large extent it is generated by a system of refereed publication in which leaders in the appropriate field are appointed as advisors to journal editors for the purpose of guaranteeing the high standards of reputable journals.
Praiseworthy as is this system for maintaining high standards among science journals, the same system can also act as a vehicle of suppression.
For a long time now certain theories have become established dogma such that opposition to them is rarely seen in print. To name a few besides “Clovis First” are the “Big Bang,” and the “Out of Africa” view of mankind’s beginnings.
Forbidden Archaeology provides Urantia Book readers with an extraordinary listing of forgotten literature references that may throw new light on topics covered in the book. Among these is documentation on Java man, the Tasmanians, and the Foxhall people.
Also documented is evidence of toolmaking as far back as 3 million years ago from Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The Urantia Book discusses the direct lines of evolution to Andon and Fonta. It does not rule out the existence of tool making hominids not on that direct line. Forbidden Archaeology provides a fantastic index to forgotten archaeological literature.
¶ External links
- Article in Innerface International: https://urantia-book.org/archive/newsletters/innerface/vol5_2/page15.html