Moab Man
| Goddidit! |
| Key claims |
| Science |
| Random articles |
Moab Man, often referred to as Malachite Man by creationists (further, Moab Man is sometimes used to refer to a 1971 finding and Malachite Man, a 1990 finding), refers to a finding of two human skeletons near Moab, Utah in 1971. The remains were first found by a rock collector named Lin Ottinger. After archaeologists completed an excavation of the skeletons, Ottinger sold one of them to Carl Baugh, who put it on display at a creationist museum in Glen Rose, Texas. A second excavation of about eight more skeletons was done in 1990. Because of the cretaceous sandstone at the site, young Earth creationists touted the skeletons as "proof" that men and dinosaurs co-existed. However, the skeletons were not fossilized, making them a recent burial. Carbon dating puts the first set of skeletons at around 140-280 years old and the latter set at 1,360-1,540 years. They were also found in loose sand and not associated with any rock formation according to the archaeologists who performed the excavation. This means they were the result of either an intentional (i.e., grave) or unintentional burial. The best evidence points to Puebloan miners who were either buried at the site or trapped in a mine collapse of some sort. The use of Moab Man to support creationist arguments has even been criticized by some Old Earth Creationists.[1]