Jeffrey Goodman
Encyclopedia
Jeffrey Goodman is an independent archaeologist with training in both geology
and archaeology
. His early career was in oil exploration.
from the University of Arizona, and a Ph.D. in anthropology
from California Coast University. He also earned a M.B.A. from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He was accredited by the former Society of Professional Archeologists from 1978 to 1987.
He was originally known as a proponent of psychic archaeology
. Goodman is most well known for his idea that modern man was originally found in California
500,000 years ago. In his book American Genesis Goodman maintains that the conventional scenario is backwards, and that modern human beings originated not in Africa, but in California, where he cites the proverbial Garden of Eden
, half a million years ago. He also attributes to these early humans many discoveries considered to be much later, from pottery to insulin to "the applied understanding of the physics behind Einstein's gravity waves".
Later Goodman called for a Multiregional origin of modern humans
. Goodman’s next book was The Genesis Mystery: the Sudden Appearance of Man and according to Paul Dean of the Los Angeles Times it is “something of an academic brush with scientific creationism, the belief that a divine surge, without explicit adherence to the Bible, created modern man… 250,000 years ago.”. His more recent work has been in biblical archaeology
.
in the 1970s while still a student in the archaeological graduate program at the University of Arizona
. Through "psychic clues" he predicted that the excavation of a 10 foot wide test pit there would find stone tools from 4 to 20 feet, a minimum date of 20,000 years at the 15 foot level, a geological disconformity at the 15 foot level, a date of 100,000 years at 20 feet, and some human and animal skeletal material at the 20 foot plus level. As predicted, except for the human skeletal material, all of these things were found. In the 1979 dig season Dr. Alan Bryan of the University of Alberta and his team excavated at the site, and they found an engraved stone at 23 feet that is called the “Flagstaff Stone.” The “Flagstaff Stone” is thought to be approximately one hundred thousand years old and possibly “one of the most important artifacts ever found in the whole word” says Goodman, citing in the last instance Alexander Marshack of Harvard’s Peabody Museum. 3 [Goodman 1981:214.]The archaeologist Stephen Williams
wrote that "Marshack has said that he was badly misquoted by Goodman, and the date is arrived at by extreme extrapolation."
In 1973 Goodman took part in an excavation at a site in San Francisco Peaks
Arizona
. According to the Hopi people they had claimed to Goodman that their ancestors had originated in the area. Goodman three years later in 1975 discovered a chipped blade at the site. The blade was found amongst organic deposits dated at 125,000 years by Dr. Thor Karlstrom a senior geologist
.
about two and a half inches long which according to Goodman, is 100,000 years old and is Paleo-Indian art.
in California
500,000 years ago and then spread to the rest of the world. His views have been compared to the paleontologist Florentino Ameghino
who believed that humanity had originated on the banks of Río de la Plata
.
Goodman claims that the fossils in North America are "twice as old as the oldest fully modern skull from europe". In his work he attempted to show that the American Indians were not only the first Americans but were the first humans on earth. Goodman allows that hominids did appear in Asia and Africa, though homo sapiens are completey American in origin according to his theory. Goodman's theory has been criticised as his explanation of the relationship between hominids and humans was vaguely discussed. However Goodman in a later book addressed the issue in The Genesis Mystery: the Sudden Appearance of Man (1983) in which he criticised natural selection
and advocated a type of spiritual evolution
by claiming that archaeological findings verify an unbridgeable gap between modern man and the last "pre-man" creature and advocates spiritual intervention as the explanation for the "sudden appearance" of modern man. According to Michael Anthony Corey: Goodman "appeals to an intervening supernatural force, which would have manifested itself entirely through a "natural" series of evolutionary processes".
Goodman's theories are popular amongst American Indian creationists who believe that the American Indians originated in America and had not migrated there from Asia. Few scientists today give Goodman's ideas and his use of evidence much credence.
can be categorized in the realm of pseudoscience
and thus Goodman has received much criticism.
In his book Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of the North American Prehistory, Stephen Williams
says “he [Goodman] commits an intellectual crime on the very people he seeks spiritually to uplift with his discoveries, the Native Americans.” Here Williams is referring to Goodman’s excavations of Flagstaff, Arizona
and his attempted re-writing of American Indian
prehistory
In his review of Goodman’s book The Genesis Mystery, John R. Cole points out many ways in which Goodman succeeds at creating a book that is convincingly scientific. Cole states that “Goodman has succeeded where many before him have failed: he has produced something that mimics a scientific book very well.” He goes on further mentioning figures such as: Barry Fell
, Erich von Daniken
and Immanuel Velikovsky
, stating that Goodman has created a work that “seems to have sound, up-to-date, wide-ranging references to support his claims” unlike the former three. Cole states that Goodman's references are "selective, misused, or misunderstood".
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
and archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
. His early career was in oil exploration.
Biography
Jeffrey holds a geological engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines, a M.A. in anthropologyAnthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
from the University of Arizona, and a Ph.D. in anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
from California Coast University. He also earned a M.B.A. from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He was accredited by the former Society of Professional Archeologists from 1978 to 1987.
He was originally known as a proponent of psychic archaeology
Psychic archaeology
Psychic archaeology is a loose collection of practices involving the application of paranormal phenomena to problems in archaeology.Practitioners of psychic archaeology utilize a variety of methods of divination ranging from pseudoscientific methods such as dowsing for Electromagnetic Photo-Fields...
. Goodman is most well known for his idea that modern man was originally found in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
500,000 years ago. In his book American Genesis Goodman maintains that the conventional scenario is backwards, and that modern human beings originated not in Africa, but in California, where he cites the proverbial Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
, half a million years ago. He also attributes to these early humans many discoveries considered to be much later, from pottery to insulin to "the applied understanding of the physics behind Einstein's gravity waves".
Later Goodman called for a Multiregional origin of modern humans
Multiregional origin of modern humans
The multiregional hypothesis is a scientific model that provides an explanation for the pattern of human evolution. The hypothesis holds that humans first arose near the beginning of the Pleistocene two million years ago and subsequent human evolution has been within a single, continuous human...
. Goodman’s next book was The Genesis Mystery: the Sudden Appearance of Man and according to Paul Dean of the Los Angeles Times it is “something of an academic brush with scientific creationism, the belief that a divine surge, without explicit adherence to the Bible, created modern man… 250,000 years ago.”. His more recent work has been in biblical archaeology
Biblical archaeology
For the movement associated with William F. Albright and also known as biblical archaeology, see Biblical archaeology school. For the interpretation of biblical archaeology in relation to biblical historicity, see The Bible and history....
.
Flagstaff Excavation
Goodman began excavation at Flagstaff, ArizonaFlagstaff, Arizona
Flagstaff is a city located in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2010, the city's population was 65,870. The population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area was at 134,421 in 2010. It is the county seat of Coconino County...
in the 1970s while still a student in the archaeological graduate program at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
. Through "psychic clues" he predicted that the excavation of a 10 foot wide test pit there would find stone tools from 4 to 20 feet, a minimum date of 20,000 years at the 15 foot level, a geological disconformity at the 15 foot level, a date of 100,000 years at 20 feet, and some human and animal skeletal material at the 20 foot plus level. As predicted, except for the human skeletal material, all of these things were found. In the 1979 dig season Dr. Alan Bryan of the University of Alberta and his team excavated at the site, and they found an engraved stone at 23 feet that is called the “Flagstaff Stone.” The “Flagstaff Stone” is thought to be approximately one hundred thousand years old and possibly “one of the most important artifacts ever found in the whole word” says Goodman, citing in the last instance Alexander Marshack of Harvard’s Peabody Museum. 3 [Goodman 1981:214.]The archaeologist Stephen Williams
Stephen Williams
Steven or Stephen Williams may refer to:*Stephen Williams , archaeologist at Harvard University*Stephen Williams , former Gloucestershire cricketer*Stephen Williams , former Cornwall cricketer...
wrote that "Marshack has said that he was badly misquoted by Goodman, and the date is arrived at by extreme extrapolation."
In 1973 Goodman took part in an excavation at a site in San Francisco Peaks
San Francisco Peaks
The San Francisco Peaks are a volcanic mountain range located in north central Arizona, just north of Flagstaff.The highest summit in the range, Humphreys Peak, is the highest point in the state of Arizona at in elevation. The San Francisco Peaks are the remains of an eroded stratovolcano...
Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. According to the Hopi people they had claimed to Goodman that their ancestors had originated in the area. Goodman three years later in 1975 discovered a chipped blade at the site. The blade was found amongst organic deposits dated at 125,000 years by Dr. Thor Karlstrom a senior geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
.
Flagstaff Stone
Virginia Steen-McIntyre was one of Goodman's consultants who analyzed the Flagstaff stone, confirming its date and initially speculating that it was ceramic. The stone was confiscated by the federal bureau managing the site and could not be analyzed after the 1980s. It's location is now unknown. Some have claimed the stone is a piece of tuffTuff
Tuff is a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption. Tuff is sometimes called tufa, particularly when used as construction material, although tufa also refers to a quite different rock. Rock that contains greater than 50% tuff is considered...
about two and a half inches long which according to Goodman, is 100,000 years old and is Paleo-Indian art.
Human origins
Goodman is the author of American Genesis: The American Indian and the origins of modern man (1981) in which he claims that homo sapiens originated in North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
500,000 years ago and then spread to the rest of the world. His views have been compared to the paleontologist Florentino Ameghino
Florentino Ameghino
Florentino Ameghino was an Argentine naturalist, paleontologist, anthropologist and zoologist.Born in Luján, son of Italian immigrants, Ameghino was a self-taught naturalist, and focused his study on the lands of the southern Pampas...
who believed that humanity had originated on the banks of Río de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
.
Goodman claims that the fossils in North America are "twice as old as the oldest fully modern skull from europe". In his work he attempted to show that the American Indians were not only the first Americans but were the first humans on earth. Goodman allows that hominids did appear in Asia and Africa, though homo sapiens are completey American in origin according to his theory. Goodman's theory has been criticised as his explanation of the relationship between hominids and humans was vaguely discussed. However Goodman in a later book addressed the issue in The Genesis Mystery: the Sudden Appearance of Man (1983) in which he criticised natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
and advocated a type of spiritual evolution
Spiritual evolution
Spiritual evolution is the philosophical, theological, esoteric or spiritual idea that nature and human beings and/or human culture evolve, extending from the established cosmological pattern or ascent, or in accordance with certain pre-established potentials...
by claiming that archaeological findings verify an unbridgeable gap between modern man and the last "pre-man" creature and advocates spiritual intervention as the explanation for the "sudden appearance" of modern man. According to Michael Anthony Corey: Goodman "appeals to an intervening supernatural force, which would have manifested itself entirely through a "natural" series of evolutionary processes".
Goodman's theories are popular amongst American Indian creationists who believe that the American Indians originated in America and had not migrated there from Asia. Few scientists today give Goodman's ideas and his use of evidence much credence.
Comets
Goodman has his own publishing company which in 2010 published the book The Comets Of God-New Scientific Evidence for God which suggests that the Bible tells how God used comets to create disasters such as Noah's Flood. Julia Ann Charpentier of ForeWord Reviews writes: “Past events in the bible often have a verifiable historical or archeological basis. Though Christian fundamentalists may recoil from scientific exploration of what they believe to be unfathomable, sacred words, some experts have presented convincing theories for reinterpretation of biblical occurrences and predictions. Jeffrey Goodman, along with other scientists who preceded him, proposes that comets made an appearance in the Old Testament, one of which caused the Great Flood.” *http://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/the-comets-of-god/.Criticism
Most archaeologists agree that the practice of psychic archaeologyPsychic archaeology
Psychic archaeology is a loose collection of practices involving the application of paranormal phenomena to problems in archaeology.Practitioners of psychic archaeology utilize a variety of methods of divination ranging from pseudoscientific methods such as dowsing for Electromagnetic Photo-Fields...
can be categorized in the realm of pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
and thus Goodman has received much criticism.
In his book Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of the North American Prehistory, Stephen Williams
Stephen Williams (archeologist)
Stephen Williams is an archaeologist at Harvard University, currently holding the title of Peabody Professor of North American Archaeology and Ethnography, Emeritus....
says “he [Goodman] commits an intellectual crime on the very people he seeks spiritually to uplift with his discoveries, the Native Americans.” Here Williams is referring to Goodman’s excavations of Flagstaff, Arizona
Flagstaff, Arizona
Flagstaff is a city located in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2010, the city's population was 65,870. The population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area was at 134,421 in 2010. It is the county seat of Coconino County...
and his attempted re-writing of American Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
prehistory
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
In his review of Goodman’s book The Genesis Mystery, John R. Cole points out many ways in which Goodman succeeds at creating a book that is convincingly scientific. Cole states that “Goodman has succeeded where many before him have failed: he has produced something that mimics a scientific book very well.” He goes on further mentioning figures such as: Barry Fell
Barry Fell
Barry Fell was a professor of invertebrate zoology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. His primary research was on starfish and sea urchins...
, Erich von Daniken
Erich von Däniken
Erich Anton Paul von Däniken is a Swiss author best known for his controversial claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, in books such as Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968...
and Immanuel Velikovsky
Immanuel Velikovsky
Immanuel Velikovsky was a Russian-born American independent scholar of Jewish origins, best known as the author of a number of controversial books reinterpreting the events of ancient history, in particular the US bestseller Worlds in Collision, published in 1950...
, stating that Goodman has created a work that “seems to have sound, up-to-date, wide-ranging references to support his claims” unlike the former three. Cole states that Goodman's references are "selective, misused, or misunderstood".