2007-10-18

The complex lives of earliest humans

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

by Neil Godfrey

What can be deduced from a bit of ochre and a whale barnacle . . . .

News story of a recent publication in Nature, with related audio file:

Earliest humans lived complex lives, scientists find by Sarah Clarke

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Bearing False Witness for Jesus - 2022-01-18 01:12:46 GMT+0000
Why Did Written Stories of Jesus Take So Long to Appear? - 2022-01-17 05:02:14 GMT+0000
Nero – Followup #2 - 2022-01-15 12:17:08 GMT+0000

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"For an excellent example of generally high-quality scholarship by someone who isn’t a biblical studies professor, see Neil Godfrey’s work posted on the website vridar.org."

— Tom Dykstra, – JOCABS 2015
"Thanks for your very elaborate review! I realized that I hadn’t added your blog to our blogroll. This oversight has been corrected. Looking forward to more segments."

— Anthony Le Donne, – September 2009
"Very good. This post is going straight to the March 2016 Biblical Studies Carnival."

—N.T. Wrong, – March 2016
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-- Martin Lewadny, - March 2009
"Neil Godfrey and Tim Widowfield, who both write at Vridar . . . happen to be some of the most astute and well-read amateurs you can read on the internet on the subject of biblical historicity. I call them amateurs only for the reason that they don’t have, so far as I know, advanced degrees in the subject. But I have often been impressed with their grasp of logic and analysis of scholarship. I don’t always agree with them, but I respect their work."

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— James McGrath, – June 2009
"These reviews of yours are so bloody weird!"

— James Crossley, – April 2010
"Note that I do not use the term ‘amateur’ pejoratively. . . . In fact, Godfrey is extremely well read and his librarian skills have brought many important academic works to my attention."

Raphael Lataster - August 2019
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-- Thomas L. Thompson, - April 2020
"I have found your website really valuable as an interpretive filter for Biblical scholarship, especially the origins of Christianity and historicity of Jesus issue. Your clarity of expression, fair comments and personal insights are much valued. I refer to your site frequently as yet more names and publications pop up requiring an academic critique and helpful recommendations for book purchases. So, please continue to delve deeply and share this intellectual sustenance with your grateful readers."

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— Russell Gmirkin, – October 2016
"Many thanks for this post, and for the quality of your blog."

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"Neil, You’ve done a clean job in your posting on ‘Jesus the Healer’. It reflects well on you. Best, John"

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"Thanks much for this book review. I think it expands, and contributes to, the effort in honouring Thomas that we with Lukasz originally had in mind with this volume. Best, Emanuel"

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"I still wonder at all the material you turn out for Vridar. The more I read your stuff (and I still do, of course), the more I realize how much we all owe you. Your voice is unique."

— Earl Doherty, November 2013 (personal email)
"By the way, my thanks to Neil for an ongoing superb job of exposing Jim’s review for what it is: a farcical and none too effective exercise in mythicism assassination, nothing to do with rational, let alone unbiased, scholarship. I’m also happy to see even Jim giving Neil credit where credit is due."

— Earl Doherty, June 2011
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— Gregory Doudna, – January 2019
"I’d like to thank you for this very nice representation of what I was trying to show in the book. It’s always gratifying when a reader zeroes in on exactly those aspects I thought were most interesting and most central to my argument. Thank you for this careful and engaged reading of my work – much appreciated!"

— Eva Mroczek, – June 2017
"I always enjoy reading Neil’s blog because I think that he is careful, thorough, intellectually fair, and honest."

— April DeConick, – November 2007
"Here I give an admittedly subjective short list, in random order, of useful, high level and regularly updated weblogs on the study of the Old Testament . . . ‘Vridar: Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science’ (http://vridar.org/) by Neil Godfrey"

-- Klaas Spronk, - Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXI, 3/4 (2014)

db on Bearing False Witness for Jesus: “Some more current debate: • Peter Clarke (14 January 2022). “Jesus Mythicism Is About to Go Mainstream”. Merion West. None…” Jan 20, 23:36
db on Bearing False Witness for Jesus: “Professors Alanna Nobbs and Edwin Judge find the evidence compelling 😉 Per John Dickson (24 December 2012). “The irreligious assault…” Jan 20, 19:14
Danila on Why Did Written Stories of Jesus Take So Long to Appear?: “So someone wrote ur-Luke in a “scribal community” for the purpose of impressing other writers? No religious motives at all?…” Jan 20, 16:02
VinnyJH on Bearing False Witness for Jesus: “Notice how little he actually discusses the evidence that Jesus existed compared to how much he discusses reference works that…” Jan 20, 15:18
Kelly Wellington on Why Did Written Stories of Jesus Take So Long to Appear?: “How do speculative fanzine writers get the writings of other writers? They pass them around amongst themselves and their tight…” Jan 20, 15:11
Danila on Why Did Written Stories of Jesus Take So Long to Appear?: “Agree about the Pauline materials. But if Marcion tampered with ur-Luke, who wrote ur-Luke? Why? How did they get a…” Jan 20, 13:49
MrHorse on Why Did Written Stories of Jesus Take So Long to Appear?: “The author of ‘Mark’ almost certainly if not indeed certainly used the Pauline epistles (and more of the LXX. A…” Jan 20, 12:05
RoHa on Bearing False Witness for Jesus: “Hold on! Are you trying to tell us that Heracles wasn’t real?” Jan 20, 05:41
Kelly Wellington on Why Did Written Stories of Jesus Take So Long to Appear?: “Interesting. I like your inclusion of Marcion in the mix, as I’m of the opinion that his meddling set a…” Jan 20, 02:20

Recent Posts

Bearing False Witness for Jesus 2022-01-18 01:12:46 GMT+0000

Why Did Written Stories of Jesus Take So Long to Appear? 2022-01-17 05:02:14 GMT+0000

Nero – Followup #2 2022-01-15 12:17:08 GMT+0000

Nero – the Followup: Reviews of Barrett’s Discussion of the Neronian Persecution 2022-01-15 09:12:30 GMT+0000

Rome Burning – the Christian Problem in the Annals of Tacitus 2022-01-13 14:55:18 GMT+0000

Rome Burning – Difficulties with the Tacitus Passage 2022-01-11 11:17:40 GMT+0000

Rome Burning — and the Christians: A New Study 2022-01-10 21:48:19 GMT+0000

After the Transfiguration of Jesus — Some Lesser Known Allusions to Moses 2022-01-05 23:38:48 GMT+0000

What’s a lonely Jesus to do? 2022-01-04 23:52:09 GMT+0000

The Fairy Tale Ideal World of the Gospel Story as a Living Hell 2022-01-03 14:01:47 GMT+0000

The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes 2022-01-02 23:47:55 GMT+0000

A Common Origin – One Wonders 2022-01-01 11:27:06 GMT+0000

Sermon on the Mount – Bruno Bauer update 2021-12-31 08:41:30 GMT+0000

Further updates 2021-12-23 21:53:37 GMT+0000

From Hermes to Yahweh 2021-12-21 22:19:37 GMT+0000

Updates – Late gospels and Josephus’s guilt-inspired prophecy 2021-12-20 10:43:38 GMT+0000

On Charity and Tyrants 2021-12-18 22:01:21 GMT+0000

New Thoughts on Christian Origins 2021-12-17 13:38:17 GMT+0000

Where none shall hunger 2021-12-09 23:28:54 GMT+0000

The Big Question We Should Be Asking of Human History 2021-12-06 22:51:36 GMT+0000

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2007-10-18

The complex lives of earliest humans

by Neil Godfrey

Neil Godfrey

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