I'm going through the Year 1 material now and am having a real problem with ancient civilization chronologies and dating systems. According to creation scientists, the Flood (which occurred approximately 1,600 years after Creation) was so cataclysmic that it wiped out every trace of civilization. Why, then, do Christian history resources not mention this? Many (not all) do mention Creation as being 6,000 years ago, but they indicate civilization was continuous after that. There's little to no mention of the Flood and/or the Tower of Babel dispersion.

Is anyone else having this problem with ancient history resources, and how do you resolve it?

I'm not sure what history resources you're using. I think the reason there is so much difficulty with this issue is that apparently Egyptian history has been significantly expanded by a long-ago misreading of the sequence of Pharoahs. Most of the dating of other ancient civilizations is based on the dating of Egyptian civilization, so if Egyptian dating is wrong (and there's increasing agreement on the part of Egyptologists that it is), then the dating of all the other cultures is wrong, too.

For more on the subject, there's a section in Ruth Beechick's book, The Language Wars, and a fairly new book called Unwrapping the Pharoahs: How Egyptian Archaeology Confirms the Biblical Timeline, by John Ashton and David Down. The latter book is wonderfully revealing. It points out a number of well-documented instances in which it seems clear the traditional timeline for Egypt is incorrect. One of my favorites is the relationship between Pharoah Akhenaten (traditionally dated to the 14th century BC), the Hittite kings, including Supiluliumas, and Shalmaneser III of Assyria (definitively dated to the 9th century BC). Based on the relationship between Egyptian Pharoahs (in the traditional dating system) and the Hittites, it is claimed that the Hittites were "overrun by the peoples of the sea about 1200 BC and ceased to exist as a nation." But in the 9th century Shalmaneser claims to have been fighting a war against the Hittites - and the names of the Hittite kings (at least 4 of them) are identical to those who were relating to the Egyptian Pharoahs. By assuming that the Egyptian chronology is incorrect, and synchronizing the Hittite history with the Assyrian history instead, we discover that the Hittites were in fact fighting in the 9th century (as the Hebrew Bible also shows in II Kings 7), and all of the histories fall in line.

With the Egyptian timeline corrected, a young-earth position, with the Flood having destroyed all ancient cultures, is much more logical. But this information (about Egypt) is fairly new; many historians still hold to the old timeline, and there is no consensus on a new one as yet (only an general understanding among many historians that the old one is much too long). There is enough controversy, and it is recent enough, that most material written for children doesn't include it, and simply lists the Egyptian dates as they have traditionally been reckoned.

Take a look at these resources, though, especially the Unwrapping the Pharoahs book. I'm finding it fascinating reading!

Thanks, Deanna. If you look at Holman's Bible Atlas and Story of the World, you'll see that they espouse an older-than-6,000-years earth. There is no mention in either of them of a disruption of human civilization due to the Flood or Babel.

I do have "Unwrapping the Pharoahs," and I think it's fascinating, but my question goes even deeper than that. It's not just an issue of Egyptian history, but all human history.

Two hours after I posted my question this morning, the UPS man brought me a copy of "God and the Nations" by Henry M. Morris, which I'd ordered from Amazon. I wasn't sure when I ordered it if it would help me. I've spent the afternoon reading it, and it seems to be EXACTLY what I was looking for! It talks about Shem, Ham, and Japheth and the Table of Nations in Genesis 10. It lists the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, where they ended up, and the civilizations they founded. Fascinating! It is truly an answer to a prayer, because I've been agonizing over this issue for weeks.

Thank you again!

Well, I can't say I'm surprised about Story of the World. That fits with what I've heard about them otherwise. I don't want to get into details here because I have nothing specific. As for the Holman Bible Atlas, I don't know why it doesn't include the impact of the flood unless it's because it follows the traditional chronology for Egypt, which makes it difficult to account for the apparently early development of Egyptian culture. It's also possible that the authors of the Holman Bible Atlas are long-agers and don't take the first 11 chapters of Genesis literally.

God and the Nations, huh? I'll have to look for it. Another book that includes the Flood clearly in the record, and accounts for the development of ancient civilizations around it, but is fictionalized so not really scholarly research, is the book Adam and His Kin - but you probably already knew that. I have read that to my older daughter twice in the past five years or so, and I intend to read it again as we go through Y1 this year.

Thanks for the recommendation.

The full name of the book is "God and the Nations: What the Bible Says About Civilizations," and it's by Henry M. Morris, who founded the Institute for Creation Research. I found it last week as I was ordering a copy of his book "The Long War Against God" for a friend who is struggling with the evolution concept. I'm so happy now because I can finally teach with authority about how the nations came into being. I was really floundering before because the all the resource books had wildly differing dates and explanations.

Lindsey's Mom, thanks for posting about the Morris book. I'm going to look into that. I've purchased Unwrapping the Pharoahs, which came out when we were doing Y1U2 last winter. The kids and I are excited about doing that book when we come back to Y1. I had similar frustrations with the timeline. So we had lots of discussions about it.

I'm debating . . . my daughter will be 11 and in 6th grade next year. She's pretty advanced and definitely ready for Dialectic. Do you think Unwrapping the Pharoahs is OK or too much for a D student? I'm reading it myself and am not finding it too difficult (if I could just get a few hours to myself it would be easier to get through it, though!).

What do you all think?

I haven't read it yet but I know it would be too much for my 11yos (brilliant reading) and 14yod (bit of a struggler) right now. We are excited about doing it in our R years. We liked the D books we used, minus the dates.

Lindsey's Mom, The book God and the Nations sounded so great I just ordered it, but which weeks and what pages would I assign my rhetoric student to read? Thanks for your help.
Kinca

I don't have a rhetoric student, so I can't answer that question for you! It's not a very long book, and it's a fairly easy (but fascinating) read. If my student were older, I'd have her read the entire book during Week 4 and/or Week 5 (Creation and Mesopotamia).

Since I'm teaching a 5th grader (actually, I'm teaching a whole class of them!), I'm assigning "In the Days of Noah" and "Life in the Great Ice Age" to cover the areas of pre-flood civilization, the Flood, and the post-Babel dispersion. We will also discuss a poster sold by the new Creation Museum regarding Rodinia (Panagea) and plate tectonics.

Anything by Dr. Henry Morris is wonderful to read! I loved his book "The Long War Against God."