Page 3 of Amazing Photos - Book of Mormon Evidences - LDS Scriptures Supported by Science

Please support our sponsor, who makes this web site possible:

Page 3: Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

"Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" - - Groucho Marx

Page 3: Photographic Evidence for the Authenticity of The Book of Mormon

By Mike Sageloff

The evidence is turning up faster than I can keep up! I receive or come across dozens of new photos and scientific articles supporting the Book of Mormon every week. Here's a sampling of what's new!

If you like this page, please feel free to send this page to a friend by clicking here!

Click Here to Send This Page To a Friend

The Critics:

The Picture:

Commentary:

Beards Revisited
Again and again, archeologists are uncovering figurings, sculptures, carvings, and murals depicting possible caucasians/semitic peoples sporting beards. Of course, this is supposed to be impossible, since ancient (and even most modern) indiginous Meso-Americans didn't grow facial hair!

Bearded figure dated 600 BC
found at Monte Alban, Mexico,
Click to see full photo

A 1998 DNA study conducted by The Center for Molecular Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA has discovered a mitochondrial DNA strain in some 3% of Amerindians called "Haplo-group X" which supports a pre-Columbian migration of caucasians to the Americas. Haplo-group X is NOT found in Asians, demonstrating it did not come across the Bering Strait.

Elephants Revisited:
Many BoM critics first claim that the mention of elephants in the BoM is a laughable gaffe. When they are shown evidence for elephants in the Americas, they invariably claim it depicts nothing more than prehistoric mammoths. Click here to see pictures of mammoths and compare.

Native American
Elephant Pipe found near
the Mississippi River in 1880

This Native American pipe, is made of a light-colored sandstone, and contained evidence of grease, resin and smoke. It definitely lacks the characteristic tusks and shoulders of a mammoth. It was taken from a burial mound near an old bed of the Mississippi by the Reverend Dr. Blumer on March 2, 1880

Elephant Figures on ancient
Mayan ruins, circa 500 AD
Chichen Itza, Mexico

Pre-Columbian Indian Burial Mound
in Grant County, Wisconsin
is elephant shaped.
(Smithsonian Report, 1872)
Click photos to enlarge.

Carvings depicting
Elephant headresses worn
by Mayans at Palenque, Mexico
circa 600 A.D.

Caucasoids with Semitic Facial Features:
In addition to numerous bearded figurines, carvings, and murals, there have been numerous finds of representations of people who are plainly caucasoid (not resembling the typical Mayans or other Meso-Americans) and very Semitic in appearance. Mainstream science has no explanation for this and similar finds.

Ancient Pre-Columbian
Bearded Incense Burner
with Semitic facial features
found in Guatemala

The Book of Mormon states that the land was sparsely popluated by others when the Nephites arrived. Could the Nephites have co-existed with other Meso-American cultures and interacted with them? That would explain artifacts like this one. Due to the intricate detail and lifelike quality of this piece, experts say the artist must have actually encountered the individual represented.

Metallurgy Evidence
There are an abundance of critics who are quick to proclaim that ancient Meso-Americans did not smelt metals or have metal tools or weapons. The fact that the Book of Mormon claims they did has always been a stumbling block in their eyes.

This Pre-Columbian bronze
axe head was discovered
in Cozumel, Mexico

This axe head, which is dated circa 1000 BC is of Mediterranean design and was found in Mayan ruins at Cozumel. Cozumel, Mexico's largest inhabited island, was a Mayan stronghold which was never conquered by the Spaniards. It is located near the Mayan ruins of Tulum, Xel-ha, Xcaret, Chichen-Itza and Coba.

Black Skins:
Critics of the Book of Mormon often say, "How is it possible that a people's skin could turn black practically overnight?" and even if it were possible, there is no evidence that it ever did in the Americas, as the Book of Mormon claims.

Ancient Mayan Pottery shows
dark and light-skinned people.
Click to see entire photo.

One of the best kept secrets of Mayan archeology is that quite a lot of Mayan art shows dark and light skinned peoples. The Bureau of American Ethnology calls this "wearing the skins of one's enemy," and dismisses it as as religious ceremony without explaining where the dark skins came from in the first place! Note the beard on one of the dark figures.

"BoM written in Reformed Egyptian Writing?"
No such thing, say the "experts." yet, we now know that according to Michael D. Coe, author of "Breaking the Maya Code," Emeritus Yale Anthropologist, and a leading expert on the Mayan Language, Mayan writing is in many ways similar to Egyptian, using logographs along with phonetic indicators. (Gugliotta, 2002)

The Micmac Indian language,
not only looks Egyptian, it has
many identical meanings!
Click to enlarge.

The Micmac language was discovered by Catholic priests in 1609 when, as they preached to the Indians, they were shocked to see them taking notes in a strange language. The priests copied the characters, which much later were compared to hieroglyphs used by ancient Libyans and Egyptians and found to have many of the same meanings!

Writing Sample #1

Writing Sample #2

Micmac racial stock

Black and White: Part 2
On the north coast of Peru, from 400-1000 AD, a culture called the Moche or Mochica flourished. According to modern archeologists, the Moche painted thier bodies black before going into battle. Could this be the source of the Nephite belief in the BoM that the Lamanites who battled against them had turned black? Or could the scientists be wrong, and some Moche did become dark-skinned?

Moche Battle scene
on pottery dated c. 400 AD
show black warriors vs white ones.

The Moche used clubs, darts,
atl-atls, copper ax heads,
and possibly copper knives.

Artifacts
One of the criticisms we hear over and over again concerns either the lack of artifacts to support the Book of Mormon, or the controversial nature of the artifacts that do surface. Unfortunately, artifacts that come to light and refute commonly accepted scientific dogma are automatically branded "controversial" or suspect, and are often never examined or studied by "respectable scientists" for fear of being associated with such controversy.

The Pontotoc Stele
unearthed in Oklahoma by
Gloria Farley and Weldon Stout.
Click to see enlarged photo.

The Pontotoc Stele, according to Dr. Barry Fell, a celebrated if not controversial epigraphist, is written in a Phoenecian language called Iberian Punic and contains a “Hymn to the Aton,” by Pharaoh Akhnaton. It reads, “When BaaI-Ra rises in the east, the beasts are content, and (when he hides his face?) they are displeased.” The artifact has been tentatively dated to approximately 100 BC. The Hymn, an ancient Egyptian heresy, supposedly expunged, infiltrated Israelite tradition after a lapse of many centuries, and is reflected in the 104th Psalm.

Tantalizing Remains:
What would you think if ancient human skeletal remains were found in Mexico that were distinctly NOT similar to any other native American group? Silvia Gonzales of Liverpool John Moores University in England concluded, "We need to discard the hypothesis that it was just one massive migration into America. The picture is much more complicated." [pg 11, Discover, Mar 2003]

One of 33 Pericu skulls
found in Baja California Mexico
with non-Amerindian dimensions.

The Pericus, which went extinct as a culture in the 1700s, lived on the Baja California penninsula of Mexico. Measurements of their skulls have yielded an amazing fact: They were completely unrelated genetically to either the Amerindians of the Americas or east asian Siberians. This data contradicts the traditional scientific view that all Amerindians came from northeastern Asia via the Bering Strait. [Science News, Sept 6, 2003]

Scimitars:
The BoM mentions "scimeters" several times, and critics claim that the scimitar was an Islamic weapon, not used until the 16th century. Wrong! - In fact, you can find scimitars in the Old Testament! Consider the Hebrew word used in 1Sam 17:45 --"kidon." The KJV of the Bible translates it as "spear," but the 1 Samuel Anchor Bible Commentary (McCarter 1980, 284, 291-93) and its supporting references suggest that a kidon was a scimitar (see also Molin 1956). This was a sword with a single-edged, curved cutting blade. The Anchor Bible translates "kidon" as "sicklesword," in Joshua 8:18, 26. These and two references in Job 39:23 and 41:29 are the only biblical references to a kidon.

King Ramses III with scimitar,
around 1200 B.C.
Click to see whole photo.

Yadin, in his discussion of the Egyptian sicklesword (a khopesh, meaning the "foreleg of an animal," which it does resemble), states that it was a very common weapon used from Anatolia to Egypt and that it continued to be used into the twelfth century B.C., the period of the Judges (Yadin 1963, 2:349-50; pictures in 1:172, especially 204-7, where Pharaoh Ramesses III is shown carrying one. (photo1) (photo2) All this suggests that 1 Samuel 17:45 should read, "You [Goliath] come to me with sword and spear and scimitar..."
Conclusion: Lehi would have been familiar with the scimitar, and no other English word would have sufficed to describe the weapons called "scimiters" in the Book of Mormon.

Honeybees:
Ether 2:3 in the Book of Mormon says: "And they did carry with them deseret, which by interpretation, is a honey bee; and thus they did carry with them swarms of bees..."

Critics are usually quick to point out that honey bees are not native to the Americas and were not introduced until the 1600s by European colonists.
The critics are only half right. It may be true (although not proven) that the European honeybee (Apis Mellifera Linnaeus) is not native to the Americas, and was introduced in the 1600s. However, the Mayans, Aztecs, and other ancient Mesoamericans cultivated a species of native honey bees called Apis Mellipona.

Speculation:

BoM Jaredites may, in fact, have imported these stingless bees from northern Australia, which is between the arabian penninsula and mesoamerica.

Or the Jaredites may have imported a mediterranean strain of European honey bees, but they did not flourish (or survive) in the Mesoamerican climate.

Apis Mellipona
Stingless Honeybees:
A species cultivated by Mayans
a thousand years before Columbus
(Click to enlarge)

According to "Microlivestock: Little-Known Small Animals with a Promising Economic Future" (National Academies Press, 1991), "For thousands of years in the tropical Americas, Indians have raised them [Apis Mellipona honey bees] in special hives made out of logs, gourds, clay pots, and other simple containers. Honey from these bees has lower sugar content than honey from the introduced honeybee, but the Melipona honey is considered better tasting. The Maya so honored honey and honey wine, they had festivals dedicated to the god of honey, Ah Mucan Cab."
Ah Mucan Cab, Bee god

Bee, from Mayan Codex Tro-Cortesianus

Click here for More on Mayan Beekeepers

Please support our sponsor, who makes this web site possible: