20 January 2018

Ancient elephants and horses in the Yucatán?

More unexpected artifacts have been found in caves in the Yucatán Peninsula. A recent article on the Latin American news site teleSUR tells of explorations by INAH of cenotes and the underwater tunnels linking them. The Yucatán is riddled with caves and tunnels going all through its limestone foundation. Many of them are filled with water and were the primary water source for the ancient Maya. They were also ritual and sacred spaces, seen as an entrance to Xibalba, the underworld and land of the dead, according to Maya religious beliefs. So, they were also commonly used as ceremonial centers and places of sacrifice.

In one of these cave systems, well preserved ceramic vessels and bones of sacrificial offerings have been found. In addition to human skulls, bones of extinct animals like giant sloths, elephants, and horses have been found. It's interesting how casually these animals are mentioned in the article, especially since many people still think they were never in Ancient America. Horses and elephants are mentioned in the Book of Mormon, and are still the source of much criticism against it, even though discoveries like this latest one keep happening from time to time. We explored the Loltún Caves, where ancient horse and mammoth bones were found many years ago, but these finds apparently are still not common knowledge. We find it especially noteworthy that this article mentions 'elephants' specifically (not mammoths or mastodons), not even bothering to comment on how revolutionary this idea must be to some people. It's obvious that these finds are likely prehistoric, long before the time period of the Book of Mormon, but it is nonetheless additional evidence supporting its veracity. Sadly this information will likely go ignored by our critics.

Click here to read the full article on teleSUR.