Dating the Ice Age
Part One:
From The End of the Flood to the End of the Ice Age
The oldest human remains and artifacts are from the Ice Age. All older human artifacts were destroyed by the flood. These artifacts allow modern observers to use some other tools and other forms of evidence to understand this time period. It begins with Noah and his family leaving the ark at the end of the flood and continues until Jacob brings his family to live in Egypt. The entire Ice Age was less than seven hundred years.
The universal flood of Noah is recorded not only in the Bible, but in hundreds of other sources such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. The worldwide catastrophe of the Flood as well as a series of catastrophes after the Flood make all 14C dates before the Roman Empire too old. 14C dates are very close to actual dates for artifacts from the present back to the Roman Republic. As we go backward in time, the radiocarbon dates become increasingly less accurate. There are other factors which can alter the accuracy of 14C dates, even recent dates, usually making the date too old, certainly making them inaccurate.
If we take its severe limitations into account, 14C dating is a useful tool for relative dating. Unlike other forms of radiometric dating, we can know the original condition of the 14C sample being tested. Relative dating is built on the assumption that conditions were similar throughout the earth at the same time. Therefore, an artifact which 14C dates to be older in one part of the earth (Akkad for example) than an artifact from another part of the earth (Japan for example) will have an actual date which is older. The geography will not matter, because of the assumption that conditions were roughly the same all over the earth at the same time. There are significant exceptions, but it still allows for 14C to be a useful tool for relative dating. It is important to understand that relative dating (for example; sample b is older than samples d and a, but younger than sample c) is neither actual dating nor is it absolute dating. But it can be a useful tool.
Secular 14C dates are always based on the assumption that the rate of 14C formation was always constant in the past. That is the red line on the chart. The change in 14C formation does not change the decay rate. An accurate understanding of the original amount of 14C in the sample being tested will result in an accurate date.
The Ice Age began after Noah and his family left the ark. It lasted approximately 700 years, based on Michael Oard’s examination of the evidence. Noah left the ark approximately 2350 BC according to Ussher’s chronology. If Ussher’s chronology is incorrect, it is likely to be too old. The Ice Age ended approximately 1700 BC. Joseph was vizier of Egypt during the seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, which ended the Ice Age.
About a century after the Flood, Nimrod formed a government to rebel against God. Since no one had died a natural death at this time, there was another population bloom, a period of explosive growth. By the time the tower of Babel was built, at least a hundred thousand people were on earth. It is possible that there were over a million people at that time. The population bubble continued until approximately the time of Abraham, three hundred years after the flood. At this time both warfare and natural death reduced overall population growth.
Noah lived 58 years after the birth of Abraham. His son Shem, who survived the Flood, died fifty years after the birth of Jacob (Israel).
Noah lived 952 years.
Shem lived 600 years.
Arphaxad lived 438 years.
Salah lived 433 years.
Eber lived 468 years.
Peleg lived 239 years.
Reu lived 239 years.
Serug lived 230 years.
Nahor lived 149 years.
Terah lived 205 years.
Abraham lived 175 years.
Isaac lived 180 years.
Jacob lived 147 years.
Joseph lived 110 years.
We do not have the lifespans in Egypt until Moses.
Moses lived 120 years.
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