Book of Mormon External Evidence: Documentary Review: Hidden in the Heartland (2016)

This is a series of ten episodes over two seasons.  It starts each episode with the statement that if you peel back the archeology of the Americas you just might find the Book of Mormon.

Episode 1: Who Are the Mound Builders.  This episode points out that the time line of the Hopewell Mound builders matches the timeline of the Nephites of the Book of Mormon.  hey start in as early as 600 B.C. in Florida and then disappear in upstate New York in 400 A.D.  There are significant number of sites which include religious sites, burial mounds, and fortifications.  There are up to a million mound sites in North America, but many have been destroyed, plowed under, or not yet identified.  Wayne May, Rod Meldrum.

Episode 2: The Origin of the Central American Model.  How did we become convinced that the Book of Mormon took place Central America.  This points back to an article in the Times and Seasons which was edited by Joseph Smith.  However questions exist as to his actual involvement of this article.  This is compared to his and Oliver Cowdery saying things happened in North America.  Jonathan Nelville

Episode 3: Manifest Destiny.  This presents the claim that the U.S. government and the Smithsonian Institute under the direction of John Wesley Powell deliberately destroyed evidence or called any evidence outside the narrative fraud.  Any artifact before Columbus had to be fake.  This was to justify the concept of Manifest Destiny and the idea that the Native Americans were savages.

Episode 4: Hebrew in America.  Artifacts with Hebrew have been discovered in North America.  The Bat Creek Stone was discovered and thought to be ancient Cherokee.  However a linguist turned it up side down and said it is ancient Hebrew.  Scholars consider it a fake.  The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone is claimed by some to be the ten commandments in Hebrew.  Again this is refuted.  There is another Decalogue stone with the ten commandments written on all sides of it in Hebrew.  Lastly there is a mound which was recorded but then destroyed, which shows a menora and an oil lamp.

Episode 5: The Great Earthquake of 1811-1812.  Centered around New Madrid, Missouri along the Mississippi River there were a series of earthquakes which created events which mimic the destruction in the Book of Mormon at the time of Christ's death.  There was darkness, the Mississippi flowed backwards, lakes were drained and lakes were formed, there were sand geysers, there was fire and cities destroyed.

Episode 6: America the Covenant Land.  George Washington talked about America as the covenant land, and Abraham Lincoln checked out the Book of Mormon from the Library of Congress.  Joseph Smith had been assassinated while running for president on an abolitionist platform 16 years prior to Lincoln being president.  Tim Ballard explains the idea of America being a covenant land.

Episode 7: The Kinderhook Plates.  Joseph Smith was presented with some plates people said they found in a mound.  Joseph Smith at first glance said they were authentic; however he never translated them.  These plates disappeared, but once has since been found.  However this plate does not match any of the etchings made of the plates.  It is now said to be a great hoax.

Season 2

Episode 1: Crossing the Seas.  It has now been shown that ocean travel was possible using ancient means.  Phillip Beale constructed a boat using ancient tools and materials after the pattern of the Phoenicians.  He was able to circumnavigate Africa; however in his journey he almost landed in America, close to Florida.  He later did travel to America from the Mediterranean.  

Episode 2: The 2-Hill Cumorah Theory.  This episode confronts the impracticality of the Book of Mormon taking place in Meso America, but the plates being found in the Hill Cumorah in New York.  This movie documents that people have taken artifacts from the Hill Cumorah area for years and years.  Bucket loads of arrow heads and other artifacts have been hauled away.  There is a book store in Palmyra with a small museum of artifacts.  

Episode 3: Archeoastronomy.  In this episode we see comparison of the mounds to Stone Henge, which has been shone to have astronomical properties.  The same is true of the mounds, incuding the Serpent Mound.

This series is narrated by Scott Christopher.  It is available on LDS Scriptures.  I really enjoyed this series.  Of course a true testimony comes through the Holy Ghost and applying Moroni's promise.  However it is good to know that evidences to the Book of Mormon are more and more prevalent

Book of Mormon External Evidences: He Walked the Americas, Book Review

 

He Walked the Americas by L. Taylor Hansen, Legend Press, Amherst, Wisconsin, copyright 1963, twenty-second printing 2003.

This book tells stories of the great white prophet and miracles associated with him.  These stories do not come from an isolated roup, but are general throughout the people of the Americas, and the islands.  The Book of Mormon tells of the visit of Jesus Christ to the people in the Americas. Nephites and Lamanites at the temple in the land Bountiful.  This book tells similar stories through the land, how the prophet taught against human sacrifice, and warring with each other.  In the Book of Mormon the influence of Jdsus lasted for over two hundred years before the people divided and began fighting with each other.  

After reading this book, there is really no denying that Jesus visited the New world after his resurrection. It is documented in the stories of numerous groups, whether North American or South American or MesoAmerica, and also the islands of the South Pacific.   I very much enjoyed it.  I purchased it through the Wayne May bookstore LDSarcheology.

Book of Mormon External Evidence: The Controversy Surrounding the Michigan Relics Explained: Real History Video Review

 This is a video from Real History: The Controversy Surrounding the Michigan Relics Explained.

This video does a good job of explaining both sides of the controversy.  The conclusion must be that James O. Scotford and Daniel E. Soper were conducting a scam in Michigan where they manufactured and his relics.  However does this account for all the relics found.  Wayne May project the argument that among the over 10,000 relics they could not all have been manufactured.  The relics often provide scenes from the Bible. 

John Halsey, Michigan State archeologist tells the story of Scotford and Soper.  Scotford first discovered a relic in 1890.   A relic society was formed but the decided to have an expert look at them.  The first expert who looked at them said they were fakes.  However Scotford would continue to find relics for the next 30 years.  

William A. Benscoter, a newspaper man took it upon himself to figure out what they were doing.  He discovered that Scotford's sons as well as son-in-law were busy manufacturing relics.  A fellow boarder told Benscoter that hammering went on day and night.  

Etta Riley, step daughter of Scotford signed an affidavit saying she had seen her stepfather manufacture plates of slate, copper and clay.  This affidavit was signed in 1911 but was not available until some years later.

Several archeologists of the time declared the relics fakes, but Scotford continued to find them.  Officially between 1890-1920 3000-9000 relics were found in 17 counties.

James E. Talmage of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints participated in a dig.  He studied the artifacts and declared them to be fake as early as 1811.  Father James Savage had collected many of the relics, and upon his death bequeathed them to Notre Dame.  Milton R. Hunter, A member of the seventy, later was able to acquire this collection from Notre Dame, and then he purchased the Soper collection.  Together they became the Soper/Savage collection of over 1300 pieces.  Upon Hunter's death he gave them to BYU.  For years at Notre Dame, and again at BYU the relics were stored but not examined.  

Henriette Mertz is an independent researcher.  During World War II she worked in cartography.  She started the artifacts as a challenge.  At first she was very skeptical.  She studied the Michigan artifacts for over 25 years and concluded they were from a religious sect living in the Americas after the time of Christ, third or fourth century C.E.  She did not study the Soper/Savage collection which was in storage but other artifacts. She wrote a book, "The Mystic Symbol" which renewed interest in the relics.

Wayne May who publishes the Ancient American Magazine which supports diffusionist ideas, (interaction between old and new worlds) believes that among the fraudulent relics are some which are not and can help explain early American history.  Much of his believe comes from listening to Native Americans.  He has in his personal collection an oil lamp which is not customary to Native Americans but was found in West Virginia.  He also points to the Glade Bergen thesis on the languages in the Michigan tablets.  The symbols show similarities to other writing symbols such as the Kinderhook plates, South America Egyptian, semitic, Byblos and Mediterranean.  

David Allen Deal has also studied the language of the relics.  He has written a few books and several articles.  He interprets the mystic symbol as YHW, the Hebrew word for Jehovah.  He has also found Messiah on the plates.  Further he has deciphered some of the theology, which was not prevalent when the plates were found.  He also noted a calendar, and wwas able to interpret enough to observe an eclipse, which matches the calendar of past eclipses.  There is also a meteor that happenned during the eclipse and is on the ancient calendar.

Dr. Richard Stamps, professor of archeology at Oakland University was called into to look at the Soper/Savage collection at BYU.  He noticed tool marks on the relics which indicated to him they were frauds.  The clay was molded modernly, the slate appeared to be parts from slate sinks form the time, and the copper also appeared industrial.  It was also smelted and Stamps did not know of any history of smelting among Native Americans.  His conclusion is that he did not see any artifact which he felt might be genuine.  He concluded the artifacts did not fit in Michigan prehistory.  

Thermoluminescence is a way of dating some objects.  Dr. Carl Lipo from University of California Long Beach tested the clay tablet deciphered in part by Deal and determined to be from 1895-1910 plus or minus 10 years.

It would seem that this may bring an end to the claim for these artifacts.  However the tested artifact may be an outlier.  Some claim that the relics began to show up as early as 1850.  And how could the language have been copied?  Did the have a real artifact from which to copy.  How could the eclipse have been determined based on an old calendar?  

Unfortunately Scotford making fakes, polluted what is out there.  There are some where great care was taken, that were not hammered with a chisel.  How to know which are real and which are fake is muddied by the actions of the forgers.

Book of Mormon External Evidence: Engravings of Prehistoric Specimens, a Book Review

 This book is available on-line.  

Engravings of Prehistoric Specimens from Michigan, U.S.A., copyright 1910 by Rudolph Etzenhouser, Engravers' Certificate, The originals from which the accompanying reproductions were made have been carefully inspected by us.  We certify that the halftones are accurate reproductions of the prehistoric originals.  Van Leyen and Henzler, Detroit, Michigan.  John Bornman and Sons, Printers, Detroit.

Etzenhouser was a member of the Reorganized church who became interested in what is known as the Michigan relics.  It is good we have this book, because most of the relics are unavailable at this point.  Many of the relics were in possession of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at one point but more recently were given by the church to the state of Michigan where the books came from.  

There is much controversy about the relics; and expert opinion that they are frauds.  The relics depict scenes fro the Bible and appear to be of ancient construct.  These scenes include Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, Noah, Moses, Jesus and others.  There are some which are nothing but old writings.  Others sho battle and weapons.  Most were found in the early 1900s.  However Wayne May contends that there were some found as early as 1846.  They mostly include the mystic symbol which has come to be interpreted as Jo He Va.

The relics were found in a widespread area in Michigan, 27 counties.  James O. Scotford first found a relic in 1890 while digging a post hole.  He later found many more such relics over the next 20 years.  Daniel E. Soper joined him in his efforts.  Later the step daughter of Scotford signed an affidavit the Scotford was manufacturing the relics.  Wayne May's contention is that some of the relics may be fake--particularly those made of clay; but the finding of relics predated Scotford, and the quantity would not allow for Scotford to have planted them all.  He feels most are actual artifacts.  He further contends that Scotford required a pattern, so he must have found an original artifact and copied this.

The pictures in the book, scanned to the internet, are not very good.  Better pictures are available on line.