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.