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Why is there no Archaeological or Historical Remains of the Book of Mormon From Mesoamerica?

Research by Kerry A. Shirts

Usually a person who asks this is wondering why Zarahemla or other ancient Nephite cities have not been found, especially since the Book of Momron discusses flourishing civilizations on the face of the whole earth. The impression usually left by critics is that there is absolutely nothing in Mesoamerica hinting at anything near like what is described anywhere in the Book of Mormon. This, however is a seriously flawed approach. There are many things in ancient Mesoamerica which ring bells for the Book of Mormon. Here we see the discussion of metalsmiths in Mesoamerica.....

The Book of Mormon does not give specific details as to the location of sites, and even if it did, all but a few pre-Classic names in Mesoamerica are unknown to scholars today. According to Michael D. Coe of Yale University, because it has only been in recent years that we could actually read most of the glyphs, nobody has yet named a site directly from its glyphic name in the Maya area. [Correspondence from Coe to Wirth, 10 December 1990.[1] In other words, we don't have complete information on Mesoamerican society anciently, but we have discovered some very interesting correlations with the Book of Mormon which rule out that there is nothing in the Book of Mormon that correlates with Ancient America. In fact, the idea of coins in the Book of Mormon has been discussed before now. What is most interesting is "Only in the past half a millennium have coins universally come to replace weight as the standard medium of exchange. Even after the invention of coinage in Lydia in the seventh century B.C., most economic transactions continued to be based on weight, not on the coins themselves. Since coins were frequently clipped, shaved, or worn, stamping coins was used to establish the purity of the metal being weighed, but was not necessarily accepted as a guarantee of the weight of the coin itself. The fact that there were no coins in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica fits quite nicely with the Book of Mormon, which mentions weights rather than coins as money—a situation which would have been counter-intuitive for Joseph Smith in the early nineteenth century." [On this topic see F.A.R.M.S. Staff, "Weights and Measures in the Time of Mosiah II," F.A.R.M.S. paper, 1983. Numerous authentic Old World pre-Columbian coins have been found in the New World, some of which may indicate trans-Atlantic contacts. Although he does not necessarily accept pre-Columbian contacts as an explanation for the coins, Jeremiah F. Epstein provide an extensive catalog in "Pre-Columbian Old World Coins in America: An Examination of the Evidence," Current Anthropology 21 (February 1980): 1–20; F.A.R.M.S. reprint available.[2]

Another interesting thing about Mesoamerica is metals. The latest discussion was Matheny's argument against John Sorenson's ideas on metals in the Book of Mormon. But Sorenson's reply is simply masterful and ought to be wider understood and known.

In her treatment of metals (pp. 283–84), she [Matheny] gives no hint of recognition that words for "metal" existed in nearly all the Mesoamerican languages which linguists reconstruct as going back to Book of Mormon times. In An Ancient American Setting I had said, "comparative linguistics shows that metals must have been known, and presumably used, at least as early as 1500 B.C. That date extends back to the time of the Jaredites, for which so far we have not a single specimen of actual metal. Does it not seem likely that specimens are going to be found someday?"[Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting, 279–80. In addition to the documentation provided on this point in An Ancient American Setting for Proto-Mayan, Proto-Mixtecan, and Proto-Mixe-Zoquean, now see in addition, on the occurrence of words for metal in Proto-Mayan, Proto-Huavean, and Proto-Otomanguean, Roberto Escalante, "El vocabulario cultural de las lenguas de Mesoamérica," in La Validez Teórica del Concepto Mesoamérica (XIX Mesa Redonda de la Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, México: S. M. A. e INAH, Serie Antropológica, 1990), 155–65.] Instead of acknowledging this significant information, she gets hung up with a narrow view of archaeology, insisting that, "No evidence has been found that metallurgy was practiced by the Olmec civilization" (p. 288). By "evidence" she means physical remains, ignoring the names for metals.

She goes on, "[If metals were used by Book of Mormon peoples in Mesoamerica] somewhere there should be the mining localities and their associated tools, processing localities and the remains of the metal objects that were produced" (p. 288). Indeed there should be. Meanwhile, until archaeologists figure out how to find and identify those remains, there is the undeniable presence of a term for metal in the language widely considered that of the Olmecs, Proto-Mixe-Zoquean, [L. Campbell and T. Kaufman, "A Linguistic Look at the Olmecs," American Antiquity 4 (1976): 80–89.] as well as in all other major proto-languages of early Mesoamerica. Is linguistic evidence to be excluded from the study of archaeology when it is inconvenient? Shouldn’t we be trying to shed maximum light instead of defend status quo interpretations?

She makes much of the fact that metal processing sites are known in the civilized portions of the Old World (p. 284). But as recently as fifty years ago the same lack of narrowly "archaeological" evidences for metal processing prevailed in the eastern hemisphere as for Mesoamerica now. But vastly more archaeology has been done in the central portions of the Old World—probably more in a single year than gets done in a decade in Mesoamerica. Experts have looked more, and they have found more (there was no doubt more to be found anyhow). Eventually many more "traces of such ancient metallurgy" will be found in Mesoamerica, for, as the names witness, some metal obviously was in early use. [Note that Ross Hassig relies on linguistic evidence—"the Maya word for sling going back as far as 1000 B.C."—to counter the lack of archaeological evidence for that weapon in the Maya area; see Ross Hassig, War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 205, n. 51.]

We may not need to find "new" specimens or sites as much as we need to reassess old ones, few of which have received more than limited attention by qualified experts. E. J. Neiburger recently applied xeroradiography to artifacts of the Old Copper Complex of Minnesota, where it has always been supposed that only cold-hammering of nuggets was used in making the more than 20,000 copper artifacts known from around the Great Lakes area. His study found, to the surprise of nearly all archaeologists, that some of the artifacts appear to have been cast, and at least one "provides firm evidence of casting." [See E. J. Neiburger, cited in John L. Sorenson, "Metals and Metallurgy Relating to the Book of Mormon Text," F.A.R.M.S. paper, 1992, 39, with abstracts.] "Excavated," if it is clear, does not mean "studied properly"—in Minnesota or in Mesoamerica.

John L. Sorenson, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, p.321-322

All this is no more a problem for the Book of Mormon than for ancient Mesoamerica and, indeed, the Americas generally. The West Indies area—where the Spanish conquistadors laid hands on so much "gold" that their appetite for it became insatiable and led them to the mainland—had yielded a total of only nine archaeological specimens of any kind of metal as of two decades ago. [Warwick Bray, "Ancient American Metal-smiths," Royal Anthropological Institute, Proceedings for 1971 (London, 1972), 25–26.] Daniel Rubín de la Borbolla made the same point about the weak representation in museums of what the Spanish records emphasize was a great deal of Tarascan "gold." [Daniel Rubín de la Borbolla, "Orfebrería tarasca," Cuadernos Americanos 3/15 (May–June 1944): 127–38.] Bray emphasizes for the Americas generally "how inadequately the archaeological discoveries reflect the actual [ancient] situation" regarding metalworking. But he puts the onus of clarification on the archaeologists rather than casting doubt on the accuracy of historical traditions: "If we are ever to get an accurate picture of aboriginal metal technology, archaeologists must be persuaded to look for foundry sites."[Bray, "Ancient American Metal-smiths," 26–27.] Unfortunately Spanish eyewitness accounts show that such craft sites were small, unobvious and apparently rarely located within the types of settlements routinely investigated by archaeologists. Compare the statement by Earle R. Caley and Dudley T. Easby, Jr.: "Direct archaeological evidence of smelting operations is rare in pre-Conquest Peru and unknown in Mexico for all practical purposes." [Earle R. Caley and Dudley T. Easby, Jr., "New Evidences of Tin Smelting and the Use of Metallic Tin in Pre-Conquest Mexico," Actas y Memorias, 35a. Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, México 1962, vol.1 (México, 1964), 508.] That does not mean there were no smelting operations—quite surely there were—but that their locations have yet to be discovered due to inadequacies of archaeological strategy and technique.

Matheny also states that "complex technological processes generally leave traces in the archaeological record" (p. 284). While logically that is true, in reality little useful information has been recovered so far by Mesoamerican archaeologists about most "complex processes," not just metals. Obsidian working is an example—though not particularly "complex"—where archaeologists, by minute examination of the artifacts and waste fragments produced by ancient and experimental flint-knappers, have achieved considerable knowledge of the methods used. But how stone monument carving, textile manufacturing and dyeing, wood carving, jewelry crafting and many other processes were conceived and performed is known only imperfectly, and that virtually never by the discovery or excavation of workshop sites. Thus Matheny’s rhetorical expectation that archaeology should reveal direct evidence of technical methods is out of touch with the realities of today’s archaeology. Again, this is not a "Book of Mormon problem" but one for professional archaeologists broadly.

It is a mistake to look for complications where there is no need (p. 285). Yes, brass is an "alloyed metal," usually intentionally made by mixing copper and zinc, yet sometimes the alloy results from smelting ore which naturally contains both copper and zinc, hence mention of "brass" objects does not necessarily imply "a sophisticated development of non-ferrous . . . metallurgy among the Jaredites" but perhaps only a modest knowledge. The Book of Mormon text says almost nothing about metallurgical techniques, and what is said need not be interpreted as involving particularly complex operations. Consider the case of Peru, whose museums display abundant metal artifacts, yet Bray emphasizes the "rudimentary nature" of the equipment and methods used for processing, while Peruvian miners, he says, employed only "the simplest possible technology."[Bray, "Ancient American Metal-smiths," 30, 32.] A lesson that Matheny needs to learn from this case and others like it in her discussion is that problems and explanations, in archaeology as well as in reading the Book of Mormon text, are best phrased in terms no more complicated than necessary.

Still, even limited by a metalworking technology that was quite basic, Mesoamerican smiths eventually produced a lot of metal and crafted it with great skill. For example, Cortez was given whole bars of gold when he landed in Veracruz. But of the "immense riches" and "huge quantities . . . of golden objects" the Spaniards found, "the number [surviving in American museums] is negligible compared to the great quantity" sent by the Spaniards to Europe, where "most of the metal objects were melted and made into bars." [Eduardo Noguera, "Minor Arts in the Central Valleys," in G. F. Ekholm and I. Bernal, eds., Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 10, Archaeology of Northern Mesoamerica (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971), 266–67.] Estimates are that at least 350 kilograms of silver and 4,000 kgs. of gold were looted from Mexico at the time of the Conquest, and 61,000 kgs. of silver and 8,000 of gold from Peru. [Bray, "Ancient American Metal-smiths," 32.]

Despite the simple means they employed, the metalworkers did remarkable work. Albrecht Dürer, the son of a European goldsmith, saw Aztec metal artifacts in Brussels in 1520, and praised the results roundly: "I have never in all my days seen anything that so delighted my heart as these things. For I saw amazing objects and I marvelled at the subtle ingenuity of the men in these distant lands." [Warwick Bray, "Gold-working in Ancient America," Gold Bulletin 11/4 (1978): 136.] Clearly the "curious workmen, who did work all kinds of ore," among the Nephites (Helaman 6:11) or the like among the Jaredites, need not have had "a sophisticated development of . . . metallurgy" nor have involved "complex technological processes," as Matheny puts it, beyond what the Aztecs knew. By exaggerated language she has made a technological mountain out of a molehill.

The principle of avoiding unneeded complications applies also to the reading of texts, here with reference to the "abundant" metals reported by the Nephites. "Abundant" is what anthropol ogists call an "emic" concept, a word whose meaning has to be construed in the culture’s own terms. The statement in 1 Nephi 18:25 on discovering ores refers to a point in time when Lehi’s party had just landed. Those men available to explore could not have exceeded ten in number.[See John L. Sorenson, "The Composition of Lehi’s Family," in John M. Lundquist and Stephen D. Ricks, eds., By Study and Also by Faith: Essays in Honor of Hugh W. Nibley, 2 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and F.A.R.M.S., 1990), 2:194–95.] Consequently their search for and discoveries of ores would only have been cursory and local, extending at the maximum 25 miles from the landing site. The same caution applies to interpreting "great abundance" in 2 Nephi 5:15 and "abound" in Jacob 2:12 and Jarom 1:8).59 Those expressions reflect the viewpoint of small communities, perhaps a single village. We must not distort the record by transforming the "emic" sense of "abundance" in the minds of the first few Lehites and Nephites into "etic" (i.e., objective, geological) abundance on a scale of hundreds of miles throughout Mesoamerica.[3]

Endnotes

1. Diane E. Wirth, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, p.251, reviewing

Stephen Williams, Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

2. William J. Hamblin, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, p.259.

3. John L. Sorenson, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Vol 6, p.320ff.