History of Life: Archaeology, Geology,

and Paleontology
As we turn our attention to life sciences, we will take three chapters that deal with the history of
life and how we know about things that happened in the past to people and later animals as we
explore paleontology in two modules from now.

Title
Transcript: no audio

Your Notes:

Introduction
Transcript:

Recap of studies so far …

• What Science is and is not

• Scientific Method, perform and analyze experiments

 • Difference between science, applied science, and technology

For the rest of the course we will be concentrating on life science.

Life science: all scientific pursuits related to living organisms

A great place to start learning about life science is to spend a few modules on the history side of life. In
this lesson we will focus on Historical Records and Archaeology. In the next module and the one after
that we will explore geology and paleontology.

You can see the subtopics we will cover in this lesson in black text. No need to go into those now. We
will look again at the end when we summarize the lesson.

Your Notes:

Introduction: Historical Records

Transcript:

How do we learn about the history of life? One of the "tools" used to study the history of life is ...
Historical records = The documents from humans as they recorded their history (primary source
documents).
Your Notes:

Introduction: Archaeology, Geology, Paleontology

Transcript:

Two more are …

• ​Geology - the study of earth's history as revealed in the rocks that make up the earth

• ​Paleontology - examines all life that once existed via the preserved remains of once living organisms

On the next slide we will talk about the last one, archaeology ...

Your Notes:
Introduction: Archaeology Overview
Transcript:

The last one is … archeology

Archaeology: The study of past human life as revealed by preserved relics.

Artifacts: Objects made by people such as tools, weapons, containers, etc.

Your Notes:
Historical Records - Introduction
Transcript:

Tests for historical document -

1. Internal Test

2. External Test

3. Bibliographic Test

If it passes all 3 tests, it's considered an historical document.

Difficult for ancient texts.

Your Notes:
Internal Intro- Language Changes over Time, part 1
Transcript:

Let's talk about the internal test first. Here is the definition:

Internal test: tests whether or not document is internally consistent (doesn't contradict itself)

One tricky area related to the internal test is in understanding that language changes over time. If an
archaeologist who is fluent in modern Greek finds a scroll written in Greek, right?

Your Notes:
Internal Intro - Language Changes over Time, part 2
Transcript:

Well, you are fluent in modern English, let's listen to an English story in Old English as it would have
been spoken at the time of its creation in the Middle Ages. This is a section from Canterbury Tales.

Click for Video

Or listen to one merely a few hundred years ago, Ode to a Mouse by Robert Burns.

Click for Video

Your Notes:
Internal Intro - Aristotle's Dictum
Transcript:

Aristotle was a famous ancient Greek that influences philosophy and science over many centuries. In
response to analyzing historical documents, ​the benefit of the doubt is to be given to the document
itself, not assigned by the critic to himself.

That means that if a critic says a document has an error or falsehood, if there is any room for doubt,
the document should be given the benefit of the doubt to be true.

Your Notes:
External Intro: Contradiction or Not?
Transcript:

Now we get to the external test. In that one we want to see if the document is contradicted by known
historical facts.

Your Notes:
External Intro - Eyewitness
Transcript:

Just as in a criminal investigation, eyewitness testimony carries a lot of weight. Of course, it isn't
perfect. Enjoy the cartoon here that shows one hilarious eyewitness that probably needed glasses.

Your Notes:
Bibliography Intro - Copies of Copies, Part 1
Transcript: E

The Bibliographic test asks how reliable are the copies that have been made that we now have to rely
on because the originals are long gone.

Your Notes:
Bible Put to the Test - Internal Test
Transcript:

Let's start applying what we are learning to a specific document, the Bible.

Using the internal test, does the Bible contradict itself?

Your Notes:
Genealogy - Contradiction?
Transcript:

Let's examine some famous 'problems' that critics have used and see how the Bible does.

One 'contradiction' that is brought up is the genealogy given for Jesus. It pops up in two different new
Testament books: Matthew and Luke. The two are different. Look at the chart. Can you think of a
reason that there might be a difference and yet not be a contradiction?

Answer:

Matthew = Joseph's family line

Luke=Mary's family line

Your Notes:
Conversion of Paul, contradiction?
Transcript:

The conversion of Paul is another famous one. In one place in the new testament. it seems in one
version the men heard a voice but not in the other. For this one we need to understand a little about the
Greek language at the time.

Verses:

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did
not see anyone.

Acts 9:7 New International Version

For the verbs for "heard the sound" the Greek word Acouo was used. It is in the
accusative case. That means it relates to not only the sound but also to the level
of understanding.
My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who
was speaking to me.

Acts 22:9 New International Version

Greek grammar - this time no voice Acouo is genitive case.

Your Notes:

It is All About Context

Transcript:

Linguistics is the grammar side of things, but cultural context is important too. Often what might seem
to be a contradiction is not when viewed through the use of the words at that time in history.

How have people expressed that something was really neat over the last 40 years:

That's so cool!
That's so hot!
That rawks!
That's so awesome!
That is so bad!

Your Notes:
Creation, Contradiction?
Transcript:
Have you noticed in Genesis that the Creation story seems to be given twice?
Creation as an overview first.
Then creation with focus on Adam and Eve.
In the first version animals were made first.
In the second it sounds like man was first and then the animals.

And the Lord God said it is not good that man should be alone; I will make a
helpmeet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the
field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would
call them.

Creation Story 2 Genesis

Grammar clears it up - Hebrew verb ' yatsar' could be 'had formed.'

Bible has no passages that clearly contradict one another = passes internal test Bible actually has
fewer "difficulties" than other historical documents of its time

Your Notes:

Bible Put to the Test - External Test

Transcript:
External test: tests whether or not document contradicts other historical texts or archeological facts
(like places)
The more overlap, the better the document passes the test.
In red are common complaints by critics of the Bible:
No historical works exist to compare to many OT events.
Biblical focus is narrow.
Authors of the time are not necessarily objective.

Your Notes:
Eyewitness Historians, Part 1
Transcript:
Archaeological discoveries used as primary data for applying external test to Bible; both New and Old
Testaments
Josephus was not a Christian. He was a Jew and remained one. He wasn't trying to make Christianity
look good.

Your Notes:
Eyewitness Historians, Part 2
Transcript:
Other non-Christian historians mention a darkness that covered the land on the day tha Christ died.
Thallus is one and Phleneon of Thalles is another.

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.

Matthew 27:45 Berean Literal Bible

Your Notes:
Archaeological Support, part 1
Transcript:
Many times when archaeologies thought that the Bible was inaccurate but now the archeology
evidence has become so overwhelming that it is overwhelming.

Your Notes:
Archaeological Support, part 2
Transcript:
Gen 14: Albright doubted it and he, himself, found it to be true and was convinced when ...

Your Notes:
Archaeological Support, Part 2 cont'd
Transcript:
Mari Tablet (found in 1933) showed that the tribe that took Abraham's nephew, Lot, really existed and
was at war with other groups.

Your Notes:
Archaeological Support, Part 3
Transcript:
At first experts thought that was not enough 'money' for a slave at that time.

Your Notes:
Archeological Support, part 3 cont'd
Transcript:
Then more information became available.

Your Notes:
Archaeological Support, part 4
Transcript:
The Pavement

Your Notes:
Archeological Support, part 4 cont'd
Transcript:
Archaeological evidence.

Your Notes:
Bible Put to the Test - The Bibliographic Test
Transcript:
Bibliographic test: to be reliable must be based upon eyewitness accounts or second-hand reports
based upon eyewitness accounts
Telephone Game is a good example of how you transfer information; it can pick up inaccuracies even
when it is merely one word.
There needs to be a short time between original and copy, and several copies made by different
people to pass this test.

Your Notes:
Bible Compared to Other Documents
Transcript: Enter the content of the slide 08 audio here.

Your Notes:
It Passed
Transcript:
When testing for the historical accuracy of a document, which test evaluates whether or not the
document we have today is the same document as the original?
Answer: best are Bibliographic and external

Your Notes:
How Old is the Oldest Copy?
Transcript: Enter the content of the slide 10 audio here.

Your Notes:
Archaeology - Dated Artifacts
Transcript:
Archaeology in the Absence of Historical Documents
Known age: The age of an artifact as determined by a date printed on it or a reference to the artifact in
a work of history that is dated.
Few artifacts have known ages
Known ages are only ages that are certain In archaeology

Your Notes:
Archaeology - Dendrochronology
Transcript:
Dendrochronology: the process of counting tree rings to determine the age of a tree (provides ages to
8000 years old)
Master tree ring pattern- special pattern of tree rings that shows how many years ago that weather
pattern occurred

Your Notes:
Age Certainty
Transcript:
The only ages that are certain in archaeology are KNOWN ages.
Next to that, dendrochronology is best for an age but it has an upper limit of 8,000 years.

Your Notes:
Radiometric Dating
Transcript:
Radiometric Dating: Using a radioactive process to determine the age of an item. Dating (ex: carbon-14
dating - accurate to to less than 3000 years old)

Your Notes:
Absolute Age
Transcript:
Using dendrochronology or radiometric dating provides the object's absolute age.
Absolute age: The calculated age of an artifact from a specific dating method.
Absolute age does not mean accurate age. The most reliable absolute dating methods is
dendrochronology (tree rings) and it has an upper limit of 8,000 years. Known age more certain that
absolute age of artifact

Your Notes:
Relative Dating and the Principle of Superposition
Transcript:
Principle of Superposition: What artifacts are found in rock or earth that is layered, the deeper ;ayers
hold the older artifacts.
• gives relative age (age relative to another artifact, or older or younger than another artifact)
• ​Assumes layers form one at a time

Your Notes:
Superposition And Relative Age
Transcript:
Here is an example. The wood allowed for a dendrochronology mapped age. The object lighter in the
earth would be younger. the object that is lower, would be older than the oldest tree ring.

Your Notes:
Bible
Transcript:
We have spent time looking at the non-document ways to verify something. We learned the Bible
stands up the best when it comes to the historical records methods. How well does it stand up to these
dating methods we have just learned about?

Your Notes:
Archaeological Tests and the Bible
Transcript:
Babylonian tablets dating back to 2000 BC called the Gilgamesh Tablet talks about a man and his
family being saved from a great flood.
Greek mythology speaks of a family being the sole survivor of a great flood but claims that Zeus sent
the flood to destroy men because of their wicked ways.
Cultures with ancient flood story and a sole surviving family:
• Polynesians
• Aborigines of Central America
• Aborigines of South America
• Natives of South Asia
• Chinese
• Japanese
Some of the oldest symbols in the Chinese language have references to the Biblical stories in them.
Chinese is the oldest continuously written language in the world.

Your Notes:

Best in Both Historical and Archaeological

Transcript:
For its time periods, Biblical accounts of human history are more historically reliable than any of other
documents as determined by the internal, external, and bibliographic tests.

Your Notes:
Summary
Transcript:
Now, let's look again at that first slide and we will review all that you have learned.
You learned that historical documents face three tests: Internal, External, and bibliographic. So, they
have to be consistent from inside the text itself, consistent with other documents from the same era,
and the text needs to be as close to the eyewitness as possible with accuracy in how it has been
handed down via copies.
In Archaeology, you learned that the most reliable dates are the ones where the artifact is dated right
on it. When undated, methods such as dendrochronology (trees), radiometric (carbon dating), and
superposition (earth layers assumed to be in order by time) are ways of estimating the age and period
in time.
We used the Bible as our analysis document. It not only stood up to all the tests, it is known as the
number 1 best document we have to learn about the past.

Your Notes:

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