Anachronisms and archaeological findings 📚
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Horses:
The Book of Mormon mentions horses in five incidences, and are portrayed as being in the forest upon first arrival of the Nephites, “raise(d)”, “fed”, “prepared” (in conjunction with chariots), used for food, and being “useful unto man” (1 Nephi 18:25, Enos 1:21, Alma 18:9,10,12, Alma 20:6, 3 Nephi 3:22, 3 Nephi 4:4, and Ether 9:19).
Problem:
Horses in the America are considered to have become extinct between 10,000 and 7,600 years ago, and did not reappear there until the Spaniards brought them from Europe.
Fossil records, archaeological proofs, and historical documents report that horses persisted continuously in the Iberian Peninsula since the Pleistocene and were taken to the American continent (New World) in the 15th century. To investigate the variation within the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region of Iberian and New World horse breeds, to analyze their relationships, and to test the historical origin of New World horses, a total of 153 samples, representing 30 Iberian and New World breeds, were analyzed by sequencing mtDNA control region fragments. Fifty-four haplotypes were found and assigned to seven haplogroups. Reduced levels of variation found for the Menorquina, Sorraia, and Sulphur Mustang breeds are consistent with experienced bottlenecks or limited number of founders. For all diversity indices, Iberian breeds showed higher diversity values than South American and North American breeds. Although, the results show that the Iberian and New World breeds stem from multiple origins, we present a set of genetic data revealing a high frequency of Iberian haplotypes in New World breeds, which is consistent with historical documentation.
Ancient DNA reveals late survival of mammoth and horse in interior Alaska: Causes of late Quaternary extinctions of large mammals (“megafauna”) continue to be debated, especially for continental losses, because spatial and temporal patterns of extinction are poorly known. Accurate latest appearance dates (LADs) for such taxa are critical for interpreting the process of extinction. The extinction of woolly mammoth and horse in northwestern North America is currently placed at 15,000–13,000 calendar years before present (yr BP), based on LADs from dating surveys of macrofossils (bones and teeth). Advantages of using macrofossils to estimate when a species became extinct are offset, however, by the improbability of finding and dating the remains of the last-surviving members of populations that were restricted in numbers or confined to refugia. Here we report an alternative approach to detect ‘ghost ranges’ of dwindling populations, based on recovery of ancient DNA from perennially frozen and securely dated sediments (sedaDNA). In such contexts, sedaDNA can reveal the molecular presence of species that appear absent in the macrofossil record. We show that woolly mammoth and horse persisted in interior Alaska until at least 10,500 yr BP, several thousands of years later than indicated from macrofossil surveys. These results contradict claims that Holocene survival of mammoths in Beringia was restricted to ecologically isolated high-latitude islands. More importantly, our finding that mammoth and horse overlapped with humans for several millennia in the region where people initially entered the Americas challenges theories that megafaunal extinction occurred within centuries of human arrival or were due to an extraterrestrial impact in the late Pleistocene.
John L. Sorenson tries to argue that New World horses survived in the Pleistocene-Holocene transisition, it’s refuted here: https://web.archive.org/web/20081028232330/http://farms.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=16&num=1&id=531.
- Elephants: Elephants were mentioned once around 2500 BCE in the Book of Ether. However, they became extinct in 10,000 BCE.
- Problem: They were extinct in 10,000 BCE. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04016-x
Mammoths only survived until at least 6,600 BCE.
Apparently, only a small amount of mammoths survied on an island in Alaska until 3700 BCE.
Mormon apologists try to change the animal. For the horses, a few scholars tried to change the horse into a tapir.
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Cows/Cattle: Enos 1:21, 1 Nephi 18:25, Ether 9:18 refers to cows/cattle in the New World. Ether 9:18 seems to refer that ‘cattle’ and ‘cows’ were different.
Problem:
Again, there was no evidence that Old World cattle inhabited the New World prior to 16th century CE: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3498335/
Nearly five centuries since cattle were first brought to the Americas, Creoles still show a strong and predominant signature of their Iberian ancestors. Creole breeds differ widely from each other, both in genetic structure and influences from other breeds. Efforts are needed to avoid their extinction or further genetic erosion, which would compromise centuries of selective adaptation to a wide range of environmental conditions.
There is currently no archaeological evidence of American bison having been domesticated:
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Sheep: (Mosiah 14:5-7, Mosiah 15:6, Mosiah 26:20-21, Alma 5:37-39, 59-60, Alma 25:12, Helaman 15:13, 3 Nephi 14:15, 3 Nephi 15:17, 21, 24, 3 Nephi 16:1, 3, 3 Nephi 18:31, 3 Nephi 20:16, 3 Nephi 21:12) all mention sheep. They’re absent from the list of animals in the New World upon the arrival of Nephites (1 Nephi 18:25).
Ether 9:18 has them at 2300 BCE. 3 Nephi 4:7 at 21 CE.
Problem: Sheep were only introduced to the Americas in 1493.
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Goats: Goats are mentioned 3 times (1 Ne. 18: 25, Enos 1: 21, Ether 9: 18). The Book of Mormon has them between 2500 BCE and 400 CE. 2/3 of the verses differienate “wild goats” and “goats” so it indicates that there’s two varieties.
Problem: Again, domesticated goats were only introduced on the American continent in the 15th century. 1000 years after the conclusion of the book of Mormon and 2000 years after the goats were mentioned in the book of Mormon.
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Swine: Swine (like a pig) are mentioned twice (3 Nephi 14:6, Ether 9:17–18).
Problem: There is no archaeological evidence for swine in the pre-Columbian New World. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1006340?origin=crossref, has the earliest reference of pigs in the New World at 1547 in Brazil.
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Barley/Wheat: Barley is mentioned 3 times, wheat is mentioned once (See Alma 11: 7, 15; Mosiah 7: 22; Mosiah 9:9), they place it at 2nd-1st century BCE.
Problem: Barley/Wheat only made it to be the New World after 1492. John A. Price, “The Book of Mormon vs Anthropological Prehistory,” The Indian Historian 7 (Summer, 1974): 35-40. Quotes:
“The aboriginal New World did not have wheat, barley, cows, oxen…”
“No Native Americans made grape wine or wheat bread…”
“The Jaredites and Nephites are portrayed as having plow agriculture and wheat and barley” […] “but nothing remotely resembling this kind of culture has ever been found, either archaeologically or ethnographically, in the aboriginal New World.”
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Silk: Silk is mentioned 4 times (Alma 1:29, Alma 4:6, Ether 9:17, Ether 10:24).
Problem: Silk was unknown in pre-Columbian America.
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Chariots or wheeled vehicles: Book of Mormon references “chariots” being used twice in the New World (Alma 18:9-10,12, Alma 20:6, 3 Nephi 3:22).
Problem: The wheel was unknown in pre-Columbian times. Clark Wissler, the Curator of Ethnography at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, noted: “we see that the prevailing mode of land transport in the New World was by human carrier. The wheel was unknown in pre-Columbian times.”
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Iron and steel: Book of Mormon mentions “steel” and “iron” several times (see 1 Nephi 16:18, 2 Nephi 5:15, Jarom 1:8, Ether 7:9).
Problem: Obviously, there is meteoric iron, but there is no evidence of iron being hardened to make steel in the New World in ancient times. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080129125405.htm
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0305440306001397 The emergence of archaeological interest in native copper in the mid-1800s developed in concert with explanations that privileged the Lake Superior area over other potential sources of copper. Most scholars have thus assumed that when copper artifacts first appeared in Northeastern North America, they arrived as finished implements or were locally made from Lake Superior raw materials. Procurement models that point to Lake Superior as the sole source of native copper have been widely accepted in the absence of systematic large-scale testing. This article evaluates the dominant model for native copper procurement and presents trace element data derived from instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) to determine whether hunter-gatherers in the Northeast utilized one dominant source of copper or in fact exploited a number of geological deposits. I specifically report on the chemical characterization of copper from 13 discrete geological deposits and 18 archaeological sites dating to the Late Archaic (ca. 5000–3000 B.P.) and Early Woodland (ca. 3000–2000 B.P.) periods to suggest that the dominant model for native copper procurement is oversimplified.
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Metal swords, which had “rusted”: The Book of Mormon refers to “swords” and their use in battle (2 Nephi 5:14), it also states that they were rusted at the end of the Jaredites’ battle (Mosiah 8:11).
Problem: Seems to refer to it being made out of steel, though apologists will argue something else.
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Cimeters: It’s mentioned in the book of Mormon 8 times, from 500 BCE to 51 BCE (Enos 1:20, Mosiah 9:16, Mosiah 10:8, Alma 2:12, Alma 27:29, Alma 43:18, 20, 37, Alma 44:8, Alma 60:2, Helaman 1:14).
Problem: This was hundreds of years before the term “scimitar” was coined. The word “cimiter” is considered an anachronism since the word was never used by the Hebrews (from which the Book of Mormon peoples came) or any other civilization prior to 450 AD. B. H. Roberts noted:
“The word [cimiter] is of oriental and uncertain origin and appears in various forms. How it came to be introduced into the speech and writings of the Nephites, and how not used in the other Hebrew literature at an earlier date, is so far as I know, unaccountable. The earliest use of the word I have found is in Gibbon, where referring to the alleged incident of finding the sword of Mars for Attila, he there calls that sword of Mars ‘cimiter’; but that was about 450 A.D.” – Roberts 1992, pp. 112
Scimitars probably appeared around the Turko-Mongol nomads.
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Use of metal as an exchange: Book of Mormon details a system of measures used by the societies (Alma 11).
Problem: The overall use of metal is very limited. Coe 2002, p. 132 “[W]ell into Colonial times the beans served as a form of money in regional markets.”
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Knowledge of Hebrew and Egyptian languages: The Book of Mormon states that the Nephite people had a language in roots of Hebrew and Egyptian, and writing part of the original text of the book of Mormon in an unknown language called “Reformed Egyptian”. A transcript of some of the characters of this language has been preserved in what had previously been erroneously identified as the “Anthon Transcript” but is now known as the “Caractors document”.
Problem: Fifteen examples of distinct scripts have been identified in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, many from a single inscription. While Maya contains cartouches and is a form of hieroglyphic script like Egyptian, no further resemblance to Hebrew or Egyptian hieroglyphs has been identified. Additionally, professional linguists and Egyptologists do not consider the Caractors document to contain any legitimate ancient writing. Edward H. Ashment called the characters of the transcript “hieroglyphics of the Micmac Indians of northeastern North America”. (https://sunstone.org/issue-details/?in=21).
The Smithsonian Institution has noted, “Reports of findings of ancient Egyptian Hebrew, and other Old World writings in the New World in pre-Columbian contexts have frequently appeared in newspapers, magazines, and sensational books. None of these claims has stood up to examination by reputable scholars. No inscriptions using Old World forms of writing have been shown to have occurred in any part of the Americas before 1492 except for a few Norse rune stones which have been found in Greenland.”
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Smithsonian institution on the book of Mormon:
