Lands of Appropriate Scale -- Part IX

In the last post, we covered 17 points in the scripture that not only do not match anything in Mesoamerica, but are totally ignored by those theorists when touting their model as the only one that matches the record.

So let’s take a look at those 17 items as they apply to the Andean area of South America:

1. The cureloms and cumoms (Ether 9:19). The Andean area has two such animals in the Alpaca and the Llama—both are “beasts of burden” like the elephant and with the other animals mentioned “All of which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms.“ The alpaca and llama are indigenous to the Andean area back into B.C. times, and are of more value there than any other animals.

2. Neas and Sheum (Mosiah 9:9). The Andean area has two super grains in the quinoa and the kiwichi that are especially high in protein and very valuable. Both are indigenuous to the Andean area and have a long history back into B.C. times.

3. Ziff (Mosiah 11:3). We do not know exactly that this ziff was the metal Bismuth, but both are described and used the same manner as a decorative metal—“and he ornamented them with fine work of wood, and of all manner of precious things, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of brass, and of ziff, and of copper” (Mosiah 11:8). Bismuth was used extensively in ancient times in Peru as a decorative metal, and today the Andean area is one of the world’s leading exporters of the metal.

4. Gold, silver and copper as a single ore (1 Nephi 18:25). “Both gold and silver and copper” describe a single ore, and these three (2 precious metals and one not a precious metal), are found in single ore throughout Chile and Peru, and rarely anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere. Both Chile and Peru are large exporters of copper that is mined by using the gold and silver content to pay for the operations of extracting the copper.

5. Growing of wheat and barley (Mosiah 9:9). The Mediterranean Climate around the 30º south latitude in Chile is the only perfect location in the entire Western Hemisphere to have grown seeds brought from Jerusalem in 600 B.C. Wheat and barley grow there in profusion and have for centuries.

6. Working in metal and precious metals (2 Nephi 5:15). While there is no evidence of this anywhere in Central America, the antiquity of extensive and very excellent usage is found throughout Peru and Ecuador far into B.C. times.

7. Coins (Alma 11:3-20). No coins have been found in the ground throughout Central America, but loads of ancient pre-Columbian coins have been found in Peru, Chile and Ecuador.

8. Forts or resorts (Alma 48:5,8). The ruins found throughout Mesoamerica, though impressive, seldom show signs of fortified fortresses. However, throughout Peru such fortresses and mountain forts are scattered along nearly every pass, valley and coastal region. Many of these fortresses, like that of Kuelap, were ingeniously designed to keep attacking forces from gaining entrance.

9. Plants and herbs to cure fever (Alma 46:40). The only cure for malaria and such fevers in the entire world prior to synthetics developed in the mid-twentieth century, was the natural quinine of the cinchona plant of the Andean area. The bark of the cinchona was harvested for its quinine and other medicinal properties from early B.C. times, reaching Europe by returning conquistadores in the 1500s.

10. The Land of Promise was an island (2 Nephi 10:20). At one time anciently, geological studies show that the area to the east of the present Andes mountains was under water except for a small area of Guiana and another in south eastern Argentina. The entire current flood plain of the Amazon is still right at or barely above sea level, and tests from the deep sea drilling rig, the Glomar Challenger, showed that the Panama isthmus was in recent times under water and not connected to South America above sea level.

(See the next post, “Lands of Appropriate Scale – Part X,” for the last seven items of comparison)