Saturday, November 24, 2012

What is the Basis for the Land of Promise? Part IV

Continuing from the last post, where the first sixteen points that have to be the basis of locating the current location of the Book of Mormon Land of Promise were listed, we continue here with the  seventeenth and further topics:
 17) The Land of Promise must lay in a northward-southward direction, with the major lands and geographical areas north or south of one another as Mormon describes (Alma 22:27-35). North is north and south is south, and Nephi knew the four cardinal directions, the four ordinal directions, plus the eight further divisions of the compass. When he described the Lehi Colony’s direction as south-southeast (1 Nephi 16:13), he was describing one of the sixteen further divisions (south being cardinal, southeast being ordinal, and south-southeast being the further division). He described this about a land in which he had never been (along the Red Sea), plus he had in his possession the Liahona, which has been described as a ball or director, “which being interpreted is a compass“ (Alma 37:38). In addition, the Nephites were pastoral people, living at, but not in, Jerusalem (1 Nephi 1:13), and as such would have known much about the stars, equinoxes, and solstices—they would have known when to plant and when to harvest, etc., and as such, understood star location and movement. As an example, all stars appear to lie on the imaginary Celestial Sphere, and because of the rotation of the Earth, it appears to rotate around an axis passing through the North and South poles of the Earth. This axis intersects the Celestial Sphere at the North and South Celestial poles, which appear to the observer to lie directly above due North and South respectively on the horizon. In either Hemisphere, observations of the night sky show that the visible stars appear to be moving in circular paths, caused by the rotation of the Earth. The Northern Celestial pole is currently (but not permanently) within a fraction of one degree of the bright North Star (Polaris)—though its exact position changes over thousands of years due to the precession of the equinoxes. It is only visible during fair weather at night to those in the Northern Hemisphere, and can be located via the Big Dipper. While there is no "southern pole star," an adequate substitute is the constellation Crux (Southern Cross), which lies at the intersection of (a) the line along the long axis of Crux and (b) a line perpendicularly bisecting the line joining the "Pointers" (Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri).
The Southern Cross can be seen as brilliant cross in the southern sky
The point is, no matter the hemisphere, directions could be known and understood by pastoral people whose livelihood and often pure existence is dependent upon such knowledge. Lastly, during their journeying for 8 years in the wilderness, two years or so at Bountiful, and the weeks or months of their oceanic voyage, these pastoral people would have understood the movement of the Sun and stars, and made the slow adjustment in the heavens of their reading the signs to know and understand where they were in relation to the cardinal points of the compass. Thus, it can be said, that the terms “northward” and “southward” were well known and understood by them and their descendants throughout the thousand year history of the scriptural record, which places lands, cities, and geographical areas, such as the “narrow neck” and the four seas, in their proper and exact locations from one another. Consequently, any Land of Promise site must, without question, and without altering, skewing or changing the scriptural record, agree with the directions listed in its pages.
18) There must be a record of extensive and qualified metallurgy in the Land of Promise, for they found all manner of ore, gold, silver and copper (1 Nephi 18:25), and having an abundance of precious materials and things (Alma 1:29), and Nephi, who had been taught by the Lord, taught his people how to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores which were in great abundance (2 Nephi 5:15). With this abundance of, and interest in, precious metals and building, one would expect the Book of Mormon lands to have plentiful evidence regarding these ores and their workmanship. It is well known that the evidence in Mesoamerica is that they did not have metallurgy until around 800 A.D., but was practiced in Peru around 900 B.C., including a variety of techniques such as alloying, gilding, casting, the lost-wax process, soldering, and filigree work. Most effort, however, was put into developing the working of precious metals—gold and silver. By 600 BC metal working techniques such as casting, hammering, repoussé, riveting, wire drawing, and cire perdue had been mastered in Peru. Metallurgical techniques continued to evolve over the centuries to the arrival of the Spanish who, by the way, were amazed at the metallurgy techniques employed and the artifacts found. They considered it some of the best metal art in existence, and archaeologists agree that the ancient Peruvians had a long heritage as metallurgists, for over a thousand years before the Inca, and was unparalleled by any other culture anywhere in the Americas.
The Peruvians have a long heritage of metallurgy.  According to the chronicles of the early Spaniards who invaded the Andes, the Conquerors were amazed at the quality of work done in precious metals, such as gold and silver dating far back into pre-Columbian times
19. Throughout the scriptural record there is mention of fine-twined linen, silk and other material with which the Nephites adorned themselves (Mosiah 10:5; Alma 1:29; 4:6; Helaman 6:13; Ether 9:17; 10:24). While records of North and Central America do not show early use of advanced textile capability, practically all the aboriginal techniques of weaving were known in ancient Peru, and both cotton and the wool of the llama and the alpaca were extensively used. Textiles are better preserved in the south coast than they are in the north, and it appears that elaborate weaving was a specialty of the south coast at all times, and part of the south coast tradition. Tapestry, brocade, double cloth, gauze, warp stripes and weft stripes are all common, and twill was known, but no textiles of this time have been preserved in the wet climate of the highlands, though spindle whorls and statues representing clothed figures give indirect evidence of their manufacture. 
Left: A sample of modern tight-weaving found in Peru. Right: A Peruvian weaving similar to those done anciently.  The Spaniards, when they arrived in the 16th Century, were astonished by the level of expert weaving they found in the Andes
The fine quality of many of the fabrics depends on the selection and spinning of the fibers, at which the Peruvians were adept.  The early Peruvians were masters at twined-weft and looped textiles, achieving over 200 weft per inch and in some cases exceeding two hundred and fifty—one ancient tapestry was found to have as many as 500 two-ply wool wefts to the inch in some places, whereas the best that Medieval Europe attempted was about 100.  Dyeing was another important factor, and it is surprising to realize that the great range of colors found at Paracas was produced by combinations of only three vegetable dyes, indigo, red and yellow to orange-brown, with the natural colors of cotton and alpaca wool, using where necessary an alum mordant. The twills that have been found indicate the use of three heddles instead of one, and modern analogies suggest a similar arrangement for making double cloth.  The width which can be woven by a single weaver on such a loom does not exceed about 2 ft 6 in., and the discovery of fabrics up to I7-feet wide was a puzzle, until some modern Peruvian weavers provided the clue by recalling that their mothers used to work wide looms of the same type in teams, sitting side by side. The material used by the ancient Peruvians was wool from the alpaca and the llama, with some from sheep, to create the fine textiles they were capable of making.  The cotton and wool used in weaving was traded between coastal and highland people, so the two were often combined in weaving. In fact, it is reported that textile production was truly revolutionary among the Chavin who introduced an astonishing range of new techniques and materials that became the foundation for later Peruvian textile evolution.
(See the next post, “What is the Basis for the Land of Promise? Part V,” for more of the basis to determine the present location of the Book of Mormon Land of Promise based first, on the scriptural record)

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