Animal domestication in Mesoamerica

The Book of Mormon refers to various Old World animals, most of which are believed to not be indigenous to the Americas. Evidence for their existence or even what animals are being referred to is a topic for another discussion. But all throughout Nephite history, there is a mention of their having 'flocks and herds,' although the actual animals they contain are not specified.

Domestication of animals in Ancient America is a murky subject. According to an article at the National Library of Medicine, "The nature of animal management in Mesoamerica is not as well understood compared with other state-level societies around the world." Recent studies show evidence for the use of animals at the Maya city of Ceibal, a site in central Guatemala that we visited. Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and strontium isotopes show what kind of flocks and herds the Maya had, exercising some form of animal husbandry.

Using a multiisotope approach to examine faunal specimens, scientists have found the earliest evidence for captive-reared taxa in the Americas, showing that animal domestication and husbandry played a greater role in life at Ceibal than was previously believed. This city's central plaza is one of the earliest known in the region, with human habitation at the site going back as far as 1000 B.C. Live animal trade in the area is now known to go back as far as at least 700 B.C. Based on the evidence, the Maya had dogs (some used for hunting and some as food), deer, peccaries (a type of wild pig), tapirs, cats, and turkeys, among other animals. The more we learn the specifics of Maya and other cultures in Ancient America, the more we see that they had the same kinds of complex societies known in the Old World, including, urban areas, capitals, governments, markets, schools, agriculture, and even animal husbandry. These were not a primitive, Stone Age people as was first believed.

Many controversial aspects of the Book of Mormon have been shown to be plausible as we learn more about the history of the New World. While not a direct one-to-one comparison, strong evidence for large scale animal domestication among the Maya coincides with the Book of Mormon account.

Click here to read about the earliest isotopic evidence for animal management at Ceibal.

New cities discovered in South America

We think it's always interesting when previously-unknown cities are found in Central and South America. Geographically, this area is probably outside of Book of Mormon locations, but new technologies such as LiDAR are showing us just how much history is hidden under the jungles and remote areas in this hemisphere. It's interesting to not that as far as we know, there is nothing like this in North America. Of course, there's really no need to use LiDAR to search for them as the land has been cleared here and we don't really have rainforests anyway. But unknown ancient cities, structures, roads, and even agricultural sites where people dwelt in large numbers a long time ago.

In some cases, as with this site in Ecuador, mounds and roads were known, but the true extent of how it all fit together could not be known unless centuries of Amazonian growth could be removed, in this case, digitally. This ancient Ecuadorian city was inhabited by a people known today as the Upano as early as 500 B.C. In addition to buildings, farms, and drainage canals, they had roads, some of which stretched for 12 miles. As archaeologist Stéphen Rostain noted, "There's always been an incredible diversity of people and settlements in the Amazon..."

Our opinion is that modern Ecuador is far outside any map that would match Book of Mormon geography. However, similar discoveries are being made all over Mesoamerica. There is so much ancient history in these lands that we have yet to find.

Click here to read about the Kunguints site at the Upano Valley in Ecuador.

Jewish temples outside of Jerusalem?

One criticism of the Book of Mormon is the idea that faithful Jews would build a temple anywhere outside of the temple mount in Jerusalem. As we know, Nephi states that he "...did build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land..." (2 Ne 5:16). As a faithful, observant Jew (although not of Judah), would Nephi have dared to build a temple in another land, which was specifically forbidden by Deuteronomic law? Why would he think he had the authority to do so?

While we don't have proof of Nephi's temple, there is actually uncontested evidence for Israelite temples outside of Jerusalem. The best-known example is one in Egypt, on the island of Elephantine on the Nile River. Papyrus documents and ostraca (pottery shards inscribed with writing) show a Jewish presence on the island as early as the 7th century BC.  They apparently were Judean mercenaries that guarded the border between Egypt and Nubia. Based on these ancient documents, this Jewish community may have been polytheistic and surprisingly enough, they were not aware of the Torah or many of the accounts it contains. This could possibly explain the additional worship of other local deities, along with Yahweh (Jehovah). It is also somewhat similar to the account of the people of Zarahemla in the Book of Mormon, who had brought no scriptures with them and had lost their religion.

Letter asking for help in 
rebuilding the temple

The Elephantine Jews referred to their small temple as בֵּית יהוה Bēt YHWH (House of the Lord), just like Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. It was originally built between the 7th and 6th centuries BC and had altars for incense offerings and sacrifices. Serving the religious needs of this little community, it may also have been built as a reaction to the pagan worship instituted by King Manasseh in Jerusalem. Its construction appears to resemble a permanent version of Moses' tabernacle, although it is only known through the accounts found on the Elephantine papyri. The temple was damaged at least once as evidenced by a letter written in Aramaic found in the Elephantine papyri sent by the Jews there to the high priest in Jerusalem, asking for support in rebuilding it. They also sent similar letters to local governors. The letter is dated to 407 BC and contains the following passage: "We have also sent a letter before now, when this evil was done to us, to our lord and to the high priest Johanan and his colleagues the priests in Jerusalem and to Ostanes the brother of Anani and the nobles of the Jews, Never a letter have they sent to us." 

It is not known whether this temple was built before or after the destruction of Jerusalem that Lehi and his group escaped. The original Jerusalem temple was pillaged and destroyed shortly afterward in 587 BC by the Babylonians. Some surviving refugees may have fled to Elephantine, especially if there was another temple there. Sometime in the 3rd century BC, this satellite temple was also abandoned and destroyed, replaced by a temple to the Egyptian god Khnum.

Holy of holies in the
Tel Arad temple

Another Jewish temple is found at Tel Arad, near the modern Israeli city of Arad in the Negev Desert. Ostraca at the site written in Paleo Hebrew also identify it as בֵּית יהוה Bēt YHWH (House of the Lord). Its construction dates back to 950 BC, making its use concurrent with Solomon's temple. Its design included an outer court with an altar, a holy place, and a holy of holies.

Yet another temple outside of Jerusalem is mentioned by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. It was built in 170 BC by a high priest, Onias ben-Shimon (son of Simon) in the Egyptian city of Leontopolis of the district Heliopolis. It is described as a copy of the temple at Jerusalem, although smaller and less elaborate. Sacrifices were performed there, however, it is still debated as to whether they were valid (halachic) or if this was part of an idolatrous cult. This temple is referred to as Bēt Honio (or Chonyo), the 'House of Onias.'

With these examples in mind, it is easy to understand why Nephi felt justified in building a temple in the Promised Land to which he and his people had been led. Even though it was not built on Jerusalem's Mount Moriah and did not contain the holy temple artifacts found within Solomon's temple, the Nephites continued to obey the law of Moses with all its required sacrifices where they had settled. Since there were no Levites mentioned in Lehi's group, the authority for any ordinances practiced within would have been under the Melchizedek priesthood. The Book of Mormon later gives an account of a temple in the land of Zarahemla and again later in Bountiful, when the resurrected Savior appeared. Wherever the Lord's people end up, they feel compelled to build a temple to his name in which to worship. This pattern is as true today as it was anciently.

Click here to read more about the Elephantine temple.

Click here to read more about the Tel Arad temple.

Click here to read more about Onias' temple in Leontopolis.

Mysterious skulls may hold a secret

We're not saying it's aliens, but...

You may have heard that before. What is still known as the History channel (for some reason) has lots of shows dealing with the concept of ancient aliens and the like. It should go without saying that most archaeologists hate this theory, but they also reject much of what we suggest concerning the Book of Mormon and ancient history. It may be useful at times to see what is happening in the fringe areas of pseudoscience. Oddly enough, sometimes the Book of Mormon or other experiences of Joseph Smith are mentioned on these programs. They do at times find anomalies like advanced cultural artifacts, lost civilizations, ties to the Old World, or even writing on metal plates. While their standard answer is often aliens, we may have a more plausible explanation. 

There are a number of unusual skulls that have been excavated from ancient burial sites in the Americas. It is well known that for some reason, both Old and New World peoples with no apparent ties practiced cranial deformation to elongate their skulls, starting with infants. Some ancient American skulls look so unusual that again the alien hypothesis is brought up. Recently, DNA studies gave some surprising results and have raised questions about how the Americas were populated in antiquity.
In 2014, DNA tests were performed on 2000-3000-year-old skulls found in Peru. Hundreds were found in Paracas by a Peruvian archaeologist in the 1920s. The initial results found mitochondrial DNA “with mutations unknown in any human, primate, or animal known." To get a better idea of what was really happening with these ancient skulls, a second round of DNA tests was undertaken. Samples of hair and bone powder were taken and sent to three labs in Canada and two in the US. Geneticist at these labs were told that the samples were from ancient mummies, but the origins were not given. This nod to blind testing is commendable, as it avoids preconceptions that could influence the results or how they are interpreted.

The second set of tests were performed in 2016, with the results showing European and Middle Eastern Origins. Not surprisingly, not much more attention is given to these revolutionary findings. They are often explained away if not ignored outright. However, if true, it would mean that the accepted population history of Ancient America would need some serious re-evaluation. Scientists have always been reluctant to do so, even though some claim they are open to the question. On the subject, once scientist has commented, "It is of course possible that genetic evidence of an ancient trans-Atlantic migration event simply has not been found yet. Should credible evidence of direct gene flow from an ancient Solutrean (or Middle Eastern) population be found within ancient Native American genomes, it would require the field to reassess the “Beringian only” model of prehistoric Native American migration. However, no such evidence has been found, and the Beringian migration model remains the best interpretation of the genetic, archaeological, and paleoclimate data to date."

As we question the standard historical answer of how the Americas were populated, we need to keep these issues in mind. Often, controversial claims regarding DNA are hard to understand by non-geneticists. But the genetic record in the Americas was drastically altered after the European conquest, sometimes through violence, but more often through disease. According to lead researcher Antonio Salas of the University of Santiago de Compostela, “Up to 90% of native South Americans died very quickly...You can imagine that a lot of genetic diversity was lost as well.”

Click here to read about the DNA results.

Click here to read a reaction to pseudoscientific claims.

Click here to read about the impact on genetic history in South America.

'Elephants' in America?

One of the more outlandish claims of the Book of Ether is that there were elephants in the promised land. While we know that wooly mammoths and similar animals lived in the Northern Hemisphere during the last Ice Age, the question is how long they survived before becoming extinct. If there were remnant mammoth populations in the Americas during Jaredite times, this could be a good explanation for the 'elephants' mentioned in Ether 9:19.

Surprisingly, small populations of mammoths survived until relatively modern times. It is now accepted that a group of mammoths were still living on a remote Russian island in 1650 BC. This is pretty much what we understand to be at the start of the Jaredite time period as depicted in the Book of Mormon. Could there have been other groups still on the American mainland, and perhaps even as far south as Central America at that time? This is a controversial suggestion, but various explorers in the Americas have described seeing what could only be understood as mammoths, even as recently as the 19th century. Some of their accounts are reproduced in this video. 

 

Bearded Maya Deities

We have written before about bearded individuals depicted in Maya art. This is quite rare, as the native Maya did not generally grow beards, and according to some Spanish accounts, they did all they could to prevent facial hair from growing. Obviously, bearded figures stand out as notable, often seen on kings and gods. One of Palenque's founding kings is shown with a beard. Kings at Copán and Quiriguá had themselves depicted on monuments with false beards, much as ancient Pharaohs in Egypt did.

One figure often depicted this way was the Maya sun god. This detail from a mural at Xelhá shows the sun god with a floral breath scroll emanating from his mouth. Flowers and jade appear as Classic-era symbols.

We all know about legends regarding Quetzalcoatl. Without diving into questionable interpretations or connections, we still find this character to be noteworthy, whether as a conquering hero or as a god. This bearded depiction of Quetzalcoatl is found in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis. Notice the serpent earspool. Among the Aztecs, these items were part of the regalia of deity. These items were derived from more ancient Mesoamerican imagery of flowers as caves or portals. 

While Quetzalcoatl is the Nahuatl name for an Aztec deity, the sun god mentioned here is from Maya belief. He is often shown holding shield and a lance and also became associated with war. By the late Postclassic era, his visual traits include a beard and fangs. This image is from the Madrid Codex. Sometimes, beards are shown on images depicting old men.

Another image of the sun god is on the wooden handle of a sacrificial knife. This instance shows a him in the guise of a diving or descending god, which is a symbol particular to the Yucatán Peninsula. Some of the best known examples are found at Tulum and Cobá. This deity is often associated with the god of bees. The Maya honeybee symbolized a link to the spirit world. This particular image shows iconography on the band of his headdress that combines the solar k'in glyph for day and a floral sign. A turquoise mask, supposedly from Chiapas, Mexico, depicts the sun god with inlaid jaguar fangs. It originally also had a beard and brow made from human hair. 

Among the ancient Maya, flowers were closely related with the sun. In Mesoamerica, the sun was portrayed as a bellicose being ruling the afterlife, a floral realm for the brave and virtuous. Flowers symbolized the paradise of the sun, which contained not only flowers, but also precious birds and polished stones. The Aztec solar celestial paradise was where the honored dead became birds and butterflies. Some of this symbolism can be traced back to Teotihuacán, where plumed serpents emerge from giant flowers. The Aztecs placed this realm in the east, which was also the domain of plumed serpents. The feathered serpent is the major symbol of Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkán, his Maya counterpart. Quetzalcoatl has many connections to the east, the dawn, and the Morning Star.

We aren't making direct connections here, but feel that bearded figures are interesting and we aren't the only ones that see possible connections to Old World cultures. Some of the symbolism covered here spans a broad range of time periods and cultures, from Central Mexico to Guatemala and the Yucatán. Some important initial teachings may have been the source of beliefs that have had such a widespread impact.

Much of this content and imagery was taken from At Dawn’s Edge: Tulúm, Santa Rita, and Floral Symbolism in the International Style of Late Postclassic Mesoamerica by Karl Taube.