25 December 2018

An interesting story to share

Merry Christmas, everyone! At this wonderful season, we thought we would share an odd story about something that happened to Daniel earlier this year. As you know, the point of this blog is to share our studies and also to contact others who are interested in this information.

Some months ago, Daniel was contacted by someone in Panama; we'll call him José. He said he had found a post on our blog about a new discovery of gold items buried in a stone box in Mexico City. According to this individual, there was a museum in Panama called the Fort David Museum. It was somehow associated with an ancient nearby site called Barriles. After a bit of research, we found some information on this site and it appears to be legitimate. But it is on property owned by people that are looking to get publicity for it by making some outrageous claims.

José wanted Daniel to come to Panama to see the artifacts and get his opinion on them. He was even willing to pay his way to fly and stay there. What made this interesting was that he claimed that ancient steel swords and gold plates had been found in a tomb in Panama. While things like this are always intriguing, caution is paramount. LDS hopefuls have been misled in the past by bad archaeology. The story being presented to Daniel was that this site contained the tomb of a chief or powerful leader named El Quibián Malchía. This Malchía supposedly left the Old World around 600 b.c. and sailed with Phoenicians to Panama. The purpose of this journey was to save the Ark of the Covenant from Babylonian capture. Once in the New World, he set himself up as a king. His tomb containing these artifacts was accidentally discovered a few years ago. This image is from one of the museum's videos and purports to be the actual Ark of the Covenant from his tomb. If only Indiana Jones had known!

Many details about this story are unlikely, not the least of which is the poor quality of this 'artifact.' But when José finally sent photos of their gold plates, we knew there was a real problem. The first surprising detail to notice here is that the hieroglyphics engraved on them are exact copies of the 'Charactors' facsimile, even down to their sequence. José even tried to convince Daniel that these were the actual plates guarded by Moroni and used by Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon. When Daniel sent him an image of the 'Charactors' and asked him to explain how it was exactly the same, José demanded to know where he had obtained this image, as they had been careful at the museum not to let let out any information on their plates. Daniel then had to explain to him that this image had been around since the early 1800s and was widely available. In fact, all the information needed to make this low quality replica of the plates could be found in posts on our blog.

From there, the communication just got even stranger, with José making some bizarre accusations and personal admissions. We don't know if he was complicit in this fraud or if he was fooled by it. We don't see much purpose in this whole affair, except maybe to scam LDS tourists into visiting this site and spending money there, and using Daniel to spread the word. While a free trip to Panama did sound tempting, Daniel did eventually decide against it and cut off all contact with José, after trying to convince him to give up on this hopeless fraud. Not wanting to be part of an obvious hoax, Daniel was also somewhat concerned for his own safety. Who was involved in this scheme and what did they really hope to achieve? Why did they want him to come, of all people? That is still a mystery to us. But if anyone is going through that area of Panama, it might be worthwhile to stop by the Fort David Museum and see what they have. We haven't seen anything there except very modern, crudely made fakes without any hint of authenticity or antiquity. They are about the quality that you would find as trinkets being sold to foreign tourists.

Click here to watch a video on some of the Fort David Museum's claims.

20 December 2018

Evidences from the Book of Mormon

This one is a bit off our usual set of topics, but it is an interesting way of looking at the Book of Mormon. Obviously, those who believe in it do so as a principle of faith. Much of what we discuss is admittedly theoretical. But those who reject our traditional explanation for its origins must offer some other story. After all, it is a real book with a coherent storyline and doctrinal teachings. From our point of view, no one has ever submitted a serious alternate theory. This may be that the critics don't take the Book of Mormon seriously enough to study it and find out what it really contains. While there remains much that is still up for debate, there are a lot of internal complexities that should warrant some consideration. Here is an interesting video that goes over quite a few of these internal details that are usually ignored by critics. That's not too much of a surprise, since many members probably aren't aware of many of them.

Click here to watch this video on internal evidences.

26 August 2018

Ancient horse bones found in Utah

Last year, a family in Utah came across some unexpected bones while digging in their back yard. After some inspection and having experts take a look, it was determined to be the unfossilized bones of an ancient breed of horse, dating to the Ice Age. It appears to have died about 16,000 years ago. The size is about that of a Shetland Pony. Paleontologists came in to excavate it professionally, and will do further work on the skeleton to find out more about it.






















We find this to be an interesting find. Because of its age, it cannot have any direct connection to Book of Mormon events. We doubt that the events related in it extended as far as the western United States, but these finds should be a constant reminder that there is so much ancient history in this part of the world yet to be discovered. The existence of early horses in American prehistory is now commonly known, but it should be remembered that this was not always the case. When the Book of Mormon was first published in 1830, the common knowledge then was that there were no horses or similar large fauna at all until after European contact. Daniel has spoken and written extensively regarding the evolution of belief about ancient American horses and the evidence for pre-Columbian horses in this hemisphere. Click the links below to read more details about this find.

Read about this discovery on Live Science.
Read about this discovery at the NY Times.


20 February 2018

More undiscovered Maya cities and large populations

Recent articles show that LIDAR has been used to see through the dense jungles of northern Guatemala and find what still lies underneath. Palaces, elevated highways, and the ruins of more than 60,000 houses have been discovered. What is now seen is a society that is far more complex and interconnected than previously thought.

Ten parcels of land, totaling more than 800 sq. miles was mapped, but this is just a small part of the large northern jungles of Guatemala, known as the Petén. It is likely that much more would be discovered if the unmapped areas were to be scanned. Because of these latest finds, the current estimate for the Maya population at its height is between 10 and 15 million. This is a surprisingly high number when compared to previous estimates.

The final battles of the Book of Mormon record large numbers involved in the fighting. In the past, these numbers seemed hard to justify, but as finds like these keep being announced, they are easier to believe. It should be pointed out that much of the Maya civilization existed after the end of the Book of Mormon, so these finds don't related directly to its history. But large populations among the Nephites, Lamanites, and other groups mentioned in this scripture are no longer a strong reason to discount it.

Read more about these discoveries at National Geographic.

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.