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FROM MODERN MAN TO CAVE MAN IN 3 GENERATIONS
Ever since I have been reading about the advanced artifacts dug up
from deep in the earth, I have been perplexed by the concept of
�cave men�. That this world shows signs of terrible cataclysms in
our past that overturned mountains and swept all life off the lands
they inhabited cannot be denied. That we find artifacts of advanced
cultures made of metals we cannot duplicate today also cannot be denied.
Yet we go on as if these things don�t exist. And when we find evidence
of men living in caves and writing on the walls we see this as proof
that man climbed up from the apes or other animals. Never do they put
the two scenario�s together and form a picture of man surviving a
disaster. As an artist I look at some of the cave art and see advanced
skill of line drawings. As a teacher of Art for both children and adults
I know the skills involved in those drawings. I keep asking myself why
no artist makes a comment on this. I think one of the reasons is the
wide divisions in the fields of the earth sciences, where everyone is
expert in their little field and only exchange information with others
in closely related fields. It reminds me of the electrical engineer who
saw the vase in some exhibition and recognized it as a battery. Why
would archaeologists be so stupid as to dig up ancient cities and not
ask engineers and specialists in all fields to give them input? What
does an Archaeologist know about drainage ditch�s and engineering of
structures? Or all the other specialty�s that go to make up a city?
So, for a long time I have thought of these cave men and where they
come from and who they were. Then,after rereading Velakovsky�s "Earth
In Upheaval" I began to wonder what would happen to modern man today
if a great disaster struck this earth. The following is my picture of
that future.
We will start our story with a family of four people. Mother, Father,
Son and Daughter. Mother and Father both in their middle thirty�s with
a High School Education. Son, 12 years of age and Daughter 11 years of
age. They live on the outskirts of a small town in upper Canada. It
doesn�t matter where. It is a Sunday Morning and everyone is home. Then
without warning a low rumbling disturbs the silence. It sounds like an
earthquake but there is no movement of the ground like they would expect.
They all go outside to look around. At the back of their house is a
large rock formation that sticks out of the ground. This breaks the
force of the wall of water that sweeps over them but does not stop all
the small rocks moving with the water. They are pummeled and rolled for
yards with the breaking wave. What saves them is the gully they are swept
into. But not for long. They are washed along with the still moving water.
They don�t die, but the world around them is no longer one they recognize.
What had just washed over them was the dwindling tail end of an enormous
tidal wave that had started out as a mile high wave of water drawn up
into the sky by the attraction of a passing Asteroid 30 miles across.
When the wave dropped it followed the force of the rotation of the planet
and dropped across the Eastern seaboard traveling at enormous speeds
across the continent to the western shores, wiping off all life and
buildings and trees. The only area not affected was the North Eastern
corner of Canada and the Central North. Just above the small homestead
of our family.
Imagine being the only humans left in miles and miles of land. Even if
the south is safe that is not going to help our little family. There are
no cars left whole, no trains, no buses, and no planes to get you out of
the area. You are on your own. And the same Asteroid played havoc with
the rest of the world. There are no relief planes or boats to come and
rescue anyone. Even if there were, they are trying to help their own.
Their future survival depends on a number of things. How much they know
of survival skills, and how healthy they are. What tools they can find.
How much they want to live. Lets assume that both Mom and Dad were into
Survival Skills. They are on their own. Food, shelter and fire, will be
their most important needs. Lets give them the benefit of the doubt and
say that they survive. I can predict the future for them.
Most of the words that they used in the past will be redundant. The
references to things we take for granted will no longer apply. The
children are too young to have a large vocabulary and knowledge of any
of the sciences except what they saw on television. For the life of the
father and mother some of those words will be used but without the young
remembering them. There will be no paper to write the story on. No pens
or pencils even if they did. They will try to find civilization or what�s
left of it. But the journey will take the father and mothers life time.
They will discover that the dead and decaying cities are too dangerous.
They will head back to upper Canada where some animals survived. Thinking
the whole world is dead the father will breed with his daughter in order
to start the race over if he has any sense. If the parents are smart they
will not impose the old rules on their children who will have to breed
with each other. By the time the children are adults they will not
remember their old life. Nature does have some redeeming features. They
will learn to live as the cave man did on the barest essentials. By the
time the children are adults their vocabulary will have been reduced
down to what is necessary for survival and communications. By the time
their children are talking they will have invented new words to describe
their world. The parents will become the story tellers in the night.
Remembering the past that means nothing to the third generation. These
will become the �Fairy tales" of their future. Told over and over again.
But the third generation will see their world as normal and their children
will be even different from them. By then they will truly be Cavemen. On
an upward climb again. The only tools they will have are poor copies of
what the father could make from rocks and wood and maybe some things they
find. If the mother knew plants they might have medicine and gardens but
I doubt it. Clothing would be whatever they could find. Eventually as
they increase they may move to other area�s. The first place the father
would want to go to would be the coast where food fish could be
found. But whatever they did ,within a short time they would be CAVEMEN.
Other countries that did not suffer as much may have retained the vestiges
of civilization and within a few centuries go exploring. If they find our
family they will be seen as a lower form of man.
Always, the artifacts and tools they will have will be dependent on
what the parents knew about. One of the commonest tools to create will
be clay bowls or pottery as clay and fire will always be around. And
everyone is familiar with the basics of making clay pots. Making fire
will depend on finding flint or knowing how to use friction to start the
heat that leads to flame. And everyone is familiar with the simplest tools
needed to survive. Like arrow heads. Spears. Axes. Using rocks to grind
seeds to make flour or a mash. Using dirt and charcoal to draw with. Or
berry juices for coloring. All of these basics were in use by cave men.
Were their lives this basic because that�s all they knew or because
that�s all they had after a catastrophe to work with? Have we been
misjudging this form of man?