CFAH Response to Tweedy’s Ice Age Paper
The Ice Age Fits Perfectly with Ussher's Chronology of the Bible
By Kenneth Griffith and Darrell K. White
Tweedy's (2024) paper “Oard’s Ice Age and Settlement of Northern Europe on Masoretic and Septuagint Timelines” is a needed survey of MT/LXX alternatives for the Ice Age after the Flood. It reviews an important topic in establishing a baseline for creationist history. It is well written, informative, and shows a breadth of information from many fields. We are delighted to provide a variant Masoretic Text (MT) compatible Ice Age model, which was not mentioned in Tweedy’s paper, and to address a few concerns he mentioned related to MT Ice Age models, especially those related to the settlement of Trier and Ireland (Griffith and White 2022). Our model is entitled “The Chronological Framework of Ancient History” (CFAH).
Building upon the research of Oard, Nienhuis, and von Fange, our study has found post-dispersion historical evidence and synchronisms for many aspects of the Ice Age within our MT-compatible chronological framework based on the durations given by the Ancient Chroniclers. We have planned a paper to explain our Ice Age findings in more detail, but it will be some time before it is ready. We feel a short summary of our results would be beneficial to the current thinking on this topic. We will also address some of the concerns pointed out in Tweedy's paper and suggest that a Mastoretic Text-compatible Ice Age should be a very reasonable possibility.
The CFAH Ice Age Model used Oard's model as a starting point. Oard posits 500 years from the Flood to the Glacial Maximum (GM) and 200 years to the high water mark after the meltdown. Then we looked for historical clues and synchronisms that appeared compatible. After considerable research, we found datable events in ancient history which match up nicely with a slightly longer Oard Model as follows:
(dates below are approximations)
~2340 BC Start of Ice Sheet expansion
~2030 BC Likely mid-point of glacial expansion
~1720 BC Likely Glacial Maximum (GM) – start of slow meltdown of ~200 years
~1523 BC Start of 73-year rapid meltdown:
~1523 BC Flood of Deucalion II - Aegean Sea is formed (Fange 1994, 202; Nienhuis 2006, 23, 156)
~1450 BC High Ocean Levels – Flood of Dardanus, sinking of Dwarka
~1200 BC Ocean Levels near present levels – Sealand returns to usefulness
The result is a period of glacial expansion for about 620 years from the Great Flood to the Glacial Maximum and 270 years of melt from the Glacial Maximum to the post-glacial high sea level mark. This is about 27% longer than Oard's 500-year and 200-year estimations. This appears to be a reasonable fit with Oard’s model, with a slightly longer glaciation and thus a proportionately longer meltdown.
Is it reasonable for the Ice Age to have lasted during historical times after the Dispersion through the Exodus at the end of the Early Bronze Age? Both Tweedy and Habermehl have assumed that the meltdown phase would have been so destructive that cities could not have been founded in affected regions until afterwards. In our opinion, the impact of the meltdown phase was more nuanced, and we will address that concern.
Background:
We place the Dispersion from Babel at 2191/2190 BC, the settlement of Trier at about 2053 BC, and Partholan’s settlement of Ireland in 2035 BC.
That places the founding of these settlements at about the midpoint of the glacial buildup (2030 BC). However, we suspect that many hunting and exploration groups set up camps and settlements throughout Europe shortly after the Dispersion (2191/2190 BC). Following the interpretation that the division of the Earth in Genesis 10 referred to territorial inheritances, we expect the migrations were not slow and random, but relatively rapid migrations to their agreed-upon allotments.
“Archaeologists have found thousands of campsites and small settlements where Noah’s descendants lived after the Babel dispersion during the Ice Age. The earliest pioneers were daring explorers and settlers.”
– Snelling and Matthews 2013
Basic Assumption: The above-mentioned settlements would have been after the Dispersion, which we place in 2191 BC (Figure 1). We believe what von Fange calls “The Village Explosion” happened quickly after Babel fell, not before. However, we also recognize that a few explorers probably traversed much of the world before the Dispersion, leaving Paleolithic campsites. Additionally, hunting and fishing parties and outcasts probably already existed in some parts of the world outside the Babel region even before 2191 BC.
What is Needed for Prosperous Settlements?:
Humans require plentiful food sources, water, safe shelters, and a reasonable climate. The following quotes from Oard and others suggest these needs could be met within the MT timeframe.
Food & Climate:
“When the ice sheets were growing, there were immense herds of large animals. Plenty of grass and food grew because the rain and snow watered the land so well.” … “Their winters were not that cold.” (Oard 1993, 66)
“Winter temperatures over the ice sheets would not be extremely cold, and the areas south of the ice sheets would be rather mild, mostly cloudy, and wet in winter. Summer south of the ice sheets would be cooler due to volcanic dust, greater cloudiness, and the proximity of the sheets. In other words, winters would be warmer, and summers cooler than the present. The seasonal differences in climate would have been less extreme, or, in other words, more equable.” (Oard 1990, 83-84)
“If mammoths reproduced at the slow rate of modern elephants, more than two million would have been born in 200 years, and about two billion in 300 years.” (Oard 1990, 83) “... mammoths had plenty of time to multiply and spread across the Northern Hemisphere after the Flood.” (Oard 1990, 83) “... it seems certain they represent animals which lived in earily post-Flood time – not Flood burials.” (Oard 1990, 87)
The Ice Age climate was reasonably mild near the seas. The rapid growth of immense herds of wild animals would easily feed hunting communities, especially by the time of the Dispersion.
Water:
“Immediately after the Flood, about three times more water vapor would have evaporated from the oceans than is evaporating now.” (Oard 1993, 65) “... the amount of moisture available for rainfall in non-glaciated areas was at least three times higher than today.” (Oard 1990, 80)
Plenty of rainwater was available throughout Northern Europe. But what about permafrost as a problem for agriculture?
“First, a million or more well fed mammoths, …, lived in a climate much warmer than at present, and with no permafrost.” (Oard 1990, 131) “Thus, a catastrophe seems to be the logical conclusion.” (Oard 1990, 130) “The permafrost must not have existed at the beginning of the catastrophe.” (Oard 1990, 130)
“... followed the herd north in a lush life zone near the edge of the great ice build up all the way from Britain, France, and Spain to eastern Siberia ...” (Fange 1994, 95)
Safe Shelter:
“We now learned that, contrary to popular myth, they did not live in caves but in natural rock shelters or dwellings built of wood, stone, bone, or skin. The hunters lived in cozy base camps, complete with hearths and cobblestone floors.” (Fange 1994, 197, 99)”
The colonists traveling from the Middle East in the 2191 to 2030 BC timeframe had the knowledge and access to a vast supply of timber, earth, and stone available to construct permanent settlements at their destinations. Some sheltered in caves, as testified by the artifacts and art found therein. However, caves were most likely used for temporary shelter while hunting or traveling, for burials, and for rituals.
Early in the Ice Age ( 2300 to 2150 BC )
“There was probably only a small temperature difference between Summer and Winter.” “Warm air off the Atlantic Ocean would have constantly bathed countries like France, Spain, and England.” (Oard 1993, 50)
Trier is near the eastern border of France.
“Lowlands, close to the warm ocean water, would not be glaciated at this time. Such areas would include the British Isles and northwest Europe, which would be bathed in warm westerly winds at the beginning of the ice age.” (Oard 1990, 63)
Settlements by sea near the coast of Ireland would have a pleasant climate, even as the ice sheet accumulated in the interior.
Neanderthals & Cro-Magnons
“In our story, we treat them as one of the many nomadic tribes that wandered in search of food during the Ice Age.” (Oard 1993, 58)
“Neanderthal bones are found buried in the deepest layer of cave floors. This seems to indicate that he was the first tribe to reach Europe ... We now have a great deal of evidence that shows both groups lived in the same areas at the same time.” (Oard 1993, 59)
Likewise, Fange concludes that “Neolithic villages were thriving at the same time Paleolithic hunters were active.” (Fange 1994, 93)
Middle of the Ice Age Glaciation – (c. 2030 BC: 2180 to 1880 BC)
The time of Trier and Irish Settlement
“Ice in northern Germany and Poland probably developed during the middle of the Ice Age, eventually merging with the Scandinavian ice sheet. The British Isles would be very slow in forming an ice sheet, due to the warm ocean, but by the middle of the glacial build-up, highland ice caps would have been established in the northern portions.” (Oard 1990, 76)
When Trier was first colonized in 2053 BC on the MT timeline, the Scandinavian Ice Sheet was still about three centuries away from reaching the Glacial Maximum, and the southern edge was probably more than 300 miles to the Northeast. Likewise, in the Irish settlement, the lowlands near the warm ocean would be safe from the ice sheet, even at the Glacial Maximum. Those lowlands are now below sea level.
Migration: CFAH identifies the division of the Earth in the time of Peleg (2147 BC) as the allotment of territories within the world to the descendants of Noah. Thus, we presume:
1) that all regions of the world had been very roughly surveyed before 2147 BC, and
2) that each tribe would know the location of their allotment and travel directly there, either by ship or overland, soon after the fall of Babel. These tribes, for the most part, reached their destinations within two centuries after the Dispersion.
Even during the GM, an ice-free corridor existed from the Black Sea westward to the Atlantic Ocean (Oard 1993, 58).
The European corridor may have experienced conditions similar to the “Chinook” in Canada: “These winds would keep the corridor free of ice for quite a while.” (Oard 1993, 60).
At the Glacial Maximum (GM)
Living near the Ice Sheet (about 1750 to 1690 BC)
“The most challenging problem is presented by the existence of warmth–loving animals, especially the hippopotamus, so close to the maximum ice sheet boundaries, and in association with cold-tolerant animals. The climate caused by the warm ocean at mid and high latitudes provides the solution.” (Oard 1990, 83)
“England, France, and western Germany, where the hippopotamus fossils are found, ...” (Oard 1990, 84)
In a find in Alaska, camels were found with a variety of ice age animals in the muck. (Fange 1994, 216) Thus, camels were part of the ice age menagerie of warm and cold-loving animals living in the far North.
Irish coastal settlements, for the most part, would still be usable at least until the great meltdown caused the sea level to rise.
Trier was about 100 miles south of the southernmost edge of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet at the Glacial Maximum and thus was never directly impacted. Yet from Oard's and Fange's comments, we see no reason that communities like Neanderthal, which were located closer to the edge of the Ice Sheet at the Glacial Maximum, would need to move away from it.
The Great Meltdown – (1520 BC to 1450 BC) Was the Meltdown Dangerous?
Although a catastrophic meltdown was undoubtedly highly destructive to some parts of the world, that destruction was highly localized. It would have been limited to areas that experienced dam breaches of formerly endorheic basins like the Black Sea, breaches of ice dams like the Missoula Flood, hypothesized regional impacts such as the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, and catastrophic rises in sea level such as the floods of Deucalion and Dardanus. There is no reason to believe that rivers like the Rhine, the Nile, or the Euphrates experienced catastrophic flooding merely from the melting of glaciers in their watersheds. However, regions like the Indus, Ganges, and Columbia river valleys, located downstream of a vast quantity of melting ice at high elevation, would have been in greater danger of catastrophic flooding caused by ice dam breaches.
As cited above, the rate of evaporation of the warm post-flood seawater was about three times what it is today. As the sea gradually cooled over the centuries of the Ice Age, the rate of evaporation diminished until it approached the present level. This means that annual precipitation in the first third of the Ice Age would have been about three times the present value in most regions.
By the time the meltdown phase of the Ice Age began, the rivers downstream of glaciers would have higher flow rates from meltwater, but this would have been offset to some degree by the 66% reduction in precipitation.
Ireland: Partholón's settlement was founded in 2035 BC, but lasted only 281 years until the colony died out due to plague. However, a second settlement by Nemed existed during the meltdown. According to some Irish Historians, Ireland was laid waste for 200 years (1504 to 1304 BC by our chronology). We do not know where that settlement was located. If it were on the continental shelf at the southern end of Ireland near the outlet of the strait between Britain and Ireland, then that region may have been subjected to widespread flooding when the British-Irish Ice Sheet melted and the sea level rose.
The meltdown laid waste to large regions downstream from the major ice sheets, such as the region from the English Channel to the edge of the continental shelf.
Trier, 2053 BC:
Our chronology suggests the founders of Trier travelled from the Middle East up the Rhone River. They likely brought advanced methods and goods with them.
Founded on the Moselle River during the mid-glacial buildup period, Trier’s climate would still be moderate with heavy rain and snow compared to the present. Thus, the people of Trier would have experienced floods of the Moselle. They likely built lodging well up the ridge above the river, situated where they could quickly escape to even higher ground should need ever arise. The nearby Rhine drained the glacial meltwaters of that region. However, the Moselle watershed did not reach the foot of the Alps. Thus, the Moselle would have suffered little effect from glacial melting.
Likely, the majority of villages and most of the nomadic groups in central Europe south of the ice sheet would have survived the meltdown and rebuilt as needed.
Destruction of Greek Civilization:
“Plato spoke of a sequence of four floods that divided the history of mankind. For example, it was the third of these, the flood of Deucalion, that we believe we can identify with the meltdown of the ice cover.” (Fange 1994, 202, 205). The authors concur.
The third flood, attributed to Deucalion by the chroniclers, can be dated to about 1520 BC. Being cut off from the ocean by the then Isthmus of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean Sea was at a much lower level, leaving the Aegean region as dry land. This Deucalion flood appears to have occurred as the eastern side of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet melted, causing the Black Sea to overflow, cutting the Bosporus channel, and flooding the region that is now the Aegean Sea (Figure 2).
“It is fascinating to note that Plato, in his work Critias, stated that the area of Greece was much larger before the flood. It was then greatly reduced in area. This is a perfect description of civilization thriving during the great ice buildup, followed by the great meltdown and the vast drowned lands all over the world.” (Fange 1994, 212)
The common date for the Flood of Deucalion is around 1520 BC. The CFAH date is 1523 BC.
Diodorus recorded the story of that flood as follows:
[5.47.3] … And the Samothracians have a story that, before the floods which befell other peoples, a great one took place among them, in the course of which the outlet at the Cyanean Rocks was first rent asunder and then the Hellespont.
[5.47.4] For the Pontus [the Black Sea], which had at the time the form of a lake, was so swollen by the rivers which flow into it, that, because of the great flood which had poured into it, its waters burst forth violently into the Hellespont and flooded a large part of the coast of Asia3 and made no small amount of the level part of the island of Samothrace into a sea; and this is the reason, we are told, why in later times fishermen have now and then brought up in their nets the stone capitals of columns, since even cities were covered by the inundation.”
[5.47.5] The inhabitants who had been caught by the flood, the account continues, ran up to the higher regions of the island; and when the sea kept rising higher and higher, they prayed to the native gods,” (Diodorus 1935, V.47.3-5)
When the meltdown waters filled the Black Sea, causing it to overflow and flood (some say form) the Aegean Sea, a greater part of Greek Civilization (now underwater) was destroyed. Much of the history of Greece before 1500 BC appears to have been wiped out. The timing of the formation of the Aegean Sea by the Deucalion flood is a key synchronism.
Figure 2. Glacial Maximum Map, modified by authors from Snelling and Matthews 2013.
At the end of the Ice Age (1450 BC)
Arctic Ocean Freezes Over: (Oard 1990, 110)
The vast amounts of fresh water that flowed into the Arctic Ocean during the great meltdown, combined with cold temperatures, led to the Arctic Ocean freezing over, which in turn, firmly established a permafrost in the northernmost lands.
Extinctions (of Mammoths) (Oard 1990, 124-127)
“Man, who by this time had spread over most of the world, would also have been stressed by the harsher climate.” (Oard 1990, 127)
During the Ice Age, ivory, due to its multiple uses, would have become a valuable commodity. When the herds were greatly reduced, man would continue to want ivory. Thus, even the few mammoths that survived would likely have been hunted to extinction within a millennium of the end of the Ice Age.
High sea level mark after the meltdown. (1450 BC) How long ago did the Ice Age end?
“A more reasonable estimate for the time since the glacial ice melted is probably 3,000 to 4,000 years.” (Oard 1990, 173) [[Ave. = 1500 BC]]. Even 1650 BC + 700 years = 2348 BC or so as a feasible date for the start of the Ice Age after the Great Flood. This suggests Oard would consider an MT time frame as a reasonable possibility. His “Life in the Great Ice Age” story of that Ice Age would certainly fit within a Masoretic Text timeframe just as reasonably as for the Septuagint chronology.
Repeating: “... it was the third of these, the flood of Deucalion, that we believe we can identify with the meltdown of the ice cover.” (Fange 1994, 202, 205) This would be about 1523 BC by CFAH estimates.
Dwarf mammoths found in the Arctic Circle of North Russia were dated quite late (Fange 1994, 183). After the Arctic Ocean froze over, it would have been impossible for them to survive.
Nienhuis (2006, 3-5) gives evidence for 1500 BC as the time of high sea level. We use some of his information as one of our key synchronisms for the timing of the end of the Ice Age.
Conclusion: Historical evidence points to when the meltdown occurred (c. 1523 BC: Deucalion’s Flood) and the high water mark circa 1450 BC. This information gives us the historical length of the Ice Age, about 620 years to GM, and 270 years to the high water mark, or about 890 years in total. Our research and everything we have read by Oard, von Fange, and Nienhuis seems to affirm that this was the most likely timeframe of the Ice Age (2340 – 1450 BC). Figure 3 charts an overview of the CFAH Ice Age model.
We look forward to the time when we can provide, in greater detail, the Ice Age events that synchronize quite well with our baseline CFAH histories of the nations.
References
Diodorus Siculus. (30 BC) 1935. The Library of History of Diodorus Siculus. Vol. II of the Loeb Classical Library. Charles Oldfather, translator. London: Heinemann.
Fange, Erich A. von. 1994. Noah to Abraham: The Turbulent Years. Syracuse, IN: Living Word Services.
Griffith, Kenneth C., and Darrell K. White. 2022. “Chronological Framework of Ancient History. 2: Founding of the Nations.” Answers Research Journal 15 (December 14): 405–426. https://answersresearchjournal.org/tower-of-babel/chronological-framework-ancient-history-2/.
Hosfield, Robert. 2020. “Lower Palaeolithic Europe.” In The Earliest Europeans: A Year in the Life: Seasonal Survival Strategies in the Lower Palaeolithic, 15–71. Oxbow Books, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv138wsvq.7.
Nienhuis, James I. 2006. Ice Age Civilizations. Houston, TX: Genesis Veracity.
Oard, Michael J. 1990, An Ice Age Caused by the Genesis Flood. El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research.
Oard, Michael, and Beverly Oard. 1993. Life in the Great Ice Age. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
Snelling, Andrew, and Mike Matthews. 2013. “When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History?” Answers Magazine. April 1, 2013. https://answersingenesis.org/environmental-science/ice-age/when-was-the-ice-age-in-biblical-history/.
Tweedy, E. J. 2024. “Oard’s Ice Age and Settlement of Northern Europe on Masoretic and Septuagint Timelines.” Answers Research Journal, 17, 763–783.https://answersresearchjournal.org/chronology/oards-ice-age-europe-timelines/.
The distance between Trier and the Neander Valley is about ~130 miles. Not next door neighbors but close enough for me to wonder...