A busy October

There is a lot to announce this month. First is the Book of Mormon Annual Conference on the 20th. Daniel has been asked to be the final speaker. His topic will be Hard Evidence of Horses in Ancient America. Originally, he had planned on headlining a cruise to Book of Mormon lands this week, but that has been rescheduled for next year. However, for him speaking at the conference is almost as much fun. Click the image for a larger view of the program.

As you can see, there are some great presenters this year, as always. The keynote speaker is LDS author and scholar John Lund, so this will be a great event. Afterwards, Daniel and Derek are putting together a fireside at Derek's home in Bountiful.

Daniel is scheduled to be an in-studio guest for a Utah radio show on Friday the 19th, and there is news on the new book's availability. More to come soon.

Click here for more conference details and registration at the BMAF website.

Radio show archives are up

Daniel's spot as a guest on Mormon Miscellaneous is archived and available to listen or download. He had a good time answering questions from various callers that evening. Some unusual ideas were presented and some callers were very adamant about their positions. It just goes to show that many conflicting theories are out there among members of the Church. There is still a lot of opportunity to share the latest scholarship for discussion and comparison.

Click here to listen to the show.

Daniel on an LDS radio show this Sunday

Daniel has been in touch with Van Hale, host of the Mormon Miscellaneous Talk Show on K-TALK 630 AM and has been invited to be his guest this Sunday. The show airs 26 August at 5:00 pm, Mountain Standard time. It should be an interesting time as Daniel will be talking about our new book and a lot of the research that went into it. Also, expect somewhat of preview of the topic he will be sharing at this year's Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum's conference in October.

Be sure to tune in. If you are not in Utah, the show can be accessed from the station's website.

Click here to listen to K-TALK 630 AM on the Internet.

Some bad news and some good news

First, the bad: the tour with Cruise Lady this year has been cancelled. The ship was filling up and the lower rate was lost for this excursion. But Cruise Lady is still interested in having Daniel headline a cruise, so they have scheduled one for him next year in September. If you had wanted to go on this one but did not have the time now, start thinking about next year! It should be very fun and informative.

Also, the Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum had invited Daniel to give a presentation at this year's conference. Initially, he had to turn it down because it conflicted with the cruise, but since he now has that time open and the BMAF still has a spot available, he will be speaking there this year. This will be a good time to let people know about An LDS Guide to the Yucatán, which should be ready and out by then. We have finished our initial layout and sent the files to our publisher, Cedar Fort. They are now working on proofing and editing the text. We are very excited to have completed this second book and look forward to getting the word out and talking to all those who are interested. Our contact at the publisher has some good ideas about promoting it, so stay tuned for more info.

New article about Cancuén

The Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum has published an article written by Daniel from our upcoming book. It is taken from from the chapter on the Guatemalan site of Cancuén. A full PDF can be downloaded from our blog, but the BMAF's site has a nice, condensed page where you can quickly get an overview of this interesting site.

Daniel has also been asked by the BMAF to give a presentation on horses in ancient America at their conference this fall. Stay tuned for more info.

Click here to read the Cancuén article at the BMAF's website.

Native American traditions about horses

Things on the blog have been quiet as we are furiously working on finishing up our new book this month. But here is some information we felt was important to share. Daniel has been gathering research that supports the existence of horses on the American continent for much longer than is commonly believed. Look for the chapter on the Loltún Caves in An LDS Guide to the Yucatán for data on horse bones, including radiocarbon dating, stratigraphic excavations, and more.

But perhaps an overlooked area of support for indigenous ancient American horses is found in Native traditions about them. Many Native American tribes adapted very quickly to the use of horses once they were reintroduced by European conquerors. Was this something they were already familiar with culturally?

Click here for a page with articles supporting the idea that horses were here before Columbus.