Continuing
from the previous post regarding the animals the Nephites found in the Land of
Promise when they landed, and called: “cow and the ox, and the ass and the
horse, and the goat and the wild goat (1 Nephi 18:25), but archaeology claims
have not been found in the Americas.
As staated in the previous post,
while horses are mentioned in Nephi and Enos, they do not appear again in the
scriptural record until Ammon is
feeding the horses of the Lamanite king (Alma 18:9), which were used to draw
chariots (Alma 18:9-10;20:6).
These
five incidences of the word “horse” suggests only their use with chariots—again
we do not know if they were ever ridden as the later Europeans did, or even if
anyone had horses below the status of the king or his royal entourage, after
Enos’ time, though when the horse is mentioned in 3 Nephi, it is first mentioned in connection to chariots (3 Nepih 3:22), but then later, it is not, but mentioned along with cattle and flocks of every kind (3 Nephi 4:4), and in connection with Nephites in general, so at least at that time it might be suggested that horses were had by the people and not just royalty.
On the other hand, there
are no other animals that have ever been identified with chariots throughout
history—so when Joseph said horses, he knew what he was talking about. It is
interesting that member apologists consider themselves more knowledgeable than
Joseph. Nor do we have any evidence that the Lamanites used horses for riding
until they saw the Europeans riding them in their lands after the Spanish
conquistadors arrived.
To discuss either of these
two point is mere speculation.
Later, as mentioned above, during the war with
the Robbers, Lachoneus called all Nephites to gather into a central location
and to bring their horses and their chariots, as well as other animals (3 Nephi
3:22), which they did (3 Nephi 4:4), and later, after defeating the Robbers,
the Nephites returned home with their horses (3 Nephi 6:1).
Critics claim that “Horses
are mentioned eleven times in the Book of Mormon in the context of its New
World setting,” however, this is not true. On three of these occasions, the
horse is related to other lands (2 Nephi 12:7;15:28) in quoting Isaiah; and
once used regarding Gentiles in the latter days (3 Nephi 21:14). Obviously,
critics do not read the scriptural record, so really have no idea what is being
discussed.
However, the point is, the
horse is never mentioned in the entire scriptural record as a means of
transportation other than pulling a chariot. Horse is mentioned only once in
the Ether record, and in connection with beasts of burden; only once in 1st
Nephi as being found in the land; only once in Enos as an animal being raised;
mentioned six times in Alma regarding Lamanite horses used with chariots at the
level of the king; and three times in 3 Nephi regarding the bunching of the
Nephites to fight off the Robbers, one of these times connected with chariots.
In all, horses are mentioned 12 times in the era of the Jaredites and Nephites,
and 3 times regarding other peoples and lands. But not once is the horse mentioned
as being ridden by man.
So let us turn to the
question, why would we think that horses would have survived the eleven hundred
years after the Nephites were wiped out. Except for a king’s use, the horse was
never mentioned among the Lamanites in any way, including their movements,
wars, battles, escapes, etc. Thus, we cannot assume the horse was ever used for
anything but either a beast of burden, or for meat as other flocks and herds
were raised. Now since the Lamanites ate beasts they caught in the wilderness,
and during the constant wars among themselves that lasted at least four decades
after the Nephites were annihilated, it would seem likely that anything edible
was consumed by the Lamanites who never grew or herded any animals of which we
are aware.
Like the cattle and cow in
an earlier post, it is likely they, along with the horse, were eaten out of
existence by the Lamanites who foraged in the wilderness for their food and
would have had no use of such animals for anything else.
Unlike the plains Indians
of the U.S., after seeing the Spaniards riding horses, they also rode them once
they acquired them; however, the natives of Central and South America were not riding
horses when the Spaniards arrived. Their lack of such mobility led to their
easy conquest. Obviously, had their ancestors over the earlier eleven hundred
years had use for horses to ride, they still would have existed at the time of
the Spaniards.
According
to scientists, among the main causes hypothesized by paleontologists are
natural climate change and overkill by humans, who appeared during this epoch.
A variant of this last possibility is the second-order predation hypothesis,
which focuses more on the indirect damage caused by over-competition with
nonhuman predators, i.e., wild animals, carnivorous beasts, killed off the
horses and other domesticated animals because they were easier to catch and kill. The spread of disease is also discussed
as a possible reason. And we have also suggested that the Lamanites, needing
food during their extensive wars, killed off the domesticated animals during
their mindless civil wars because of their readily availability as opposed to having to trap and run down wild beasts.
Another problem of scientific
identification is the lack of objectivity. Obviously, the principle of any
science is for the scientist to be objective in his or her work, yet that is
rarely the case. William G. Dever, Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology and
Anthropology at the University of Arizona and Distinguished Professor of Near
Eastern Archaeology at Lycoming College in Pennsylvania, writes in one of his
books that “not since the death of 19th century positivism has any
respectable historian been naïve enough to think that they could be entirely
objective.”
Just as obviously, is that the
conclusions of many archaeologists will slant towards their personal
ideologies, and how they present artifacts will also be influenced by the same
attitude. Thus if a person is opposed to the Book of Mormon, or convinced that
horses became extinct in the Americas after 10,000 B.C. and did not exist here
before the Spaniards’ arrival, it can be accurately assumed that their
‘interpretation’ of the physical evidence will alter the reality of that
artifact and change the meaning of the artifact to something closer to their
own personal beliefs.
Thus, in the Andean area of South
America, though we find numerous influences of Israel and Egypt, as has been
shown in earlier posts, findings will not be considered in light of that
information, and pre-Columbian horse remains in South America as well as
elsewhere in the Americas, will also not be considered.
Another
reason more is not known about the horse and other extinct animals in the
Americas is that their remains are much less likely to be preserved and also
less likely to be found when they are. In general, organisms do not preserve
well after death in subtropical and tropical environments, like in Middle
America. This is because of a high rate of decay in them. Even bone decomposes
very quickly. Therefore all evidence of previous life is soon destroyed. Another
problem is that in these environments vegetation usually thickly covers
sediments that might contain fossils. This makes them very difficult to find
when they do exist. One exception is caves. Here organisms stand a much better
chance of preservation in humid regions. The caves found in the Yucatan Peninsula,
as an example, have produced some rare and important finds. Both extinct
and extant faunas have been discovered with human artifacts.
There
are a few post-Pleistocene, pre-Columbian dates for horses that have come to
light in the past several years. A recent discovery in southern California
serves as an example. Philip Ireland reported, “Archaeologists working against
the clock in Carlsbad have unearthed another nearly intact skeleton of a horse
that may have lived and died 50 years before the Spanish began their conquest
of California.” In this article it was said remains of another horse and a
burro (ass) were buried at the same level (Philip Ireland,
“Centuries-old bones of horses unearthed in Carlsbad, California,” North County Times, July 17, 2005).
A
pre-Columbian date was given for horses found in Colorado, providing an age of
1260 to 1400 A.D. A second date on horse bone from a cave in the Yucatan has
been dated between 1230 and 1300 A.D. (Steven E. Jones and Wade E. Miller, “State-of-the-art physical
analysis of archaeological finds and historical artifacts: pre-Columbian
horses in the Americas,” July 30, 2004). Of the 18 successful dates, 12 were
found to be post-Columbian, 3 dated to the last Ice Age. The remaining three
yielded dates that were post-Pleistocene and pre-Columbian (Pratt Cave, Texas,
Wolf Spider Cave Colorado 1260-1400 A.D.., and Cozumel Island, Mexico 1230-1300).
The
dated find from Carlsbad, California,
shows that some horses still survived in western North America even at the time
Spaniards first reintroduced them in 1493!
Dr. Steven
E. Jones, a retired physicist from Brigham Young University, writes about the
American horse findings in the Americas, stating: “The first of these was found
in Pratt Cave near El Paso, Texas, by Prof. Ernest Lundelius of Texas A&M
University. Prof. Lundelius responded to my inquiries and provided a horse bone
from Pratt Cave which dated to 6020 – 5890 B.C. This date is well since the
last ice age, into the time frame when all American horses should have been
absent according to the prevailing paradigm” (Jones, “Horses in America Before
Columbus,” The Lost History of Ancient
America, New Page Books, 2016, Edited by Frank Joseph).
According
to Ricardo Velázquez-Valadez, “a good number of bone instruments were found
directly associated with remains of Pleistocene megafauna, principally the
horse (Equus conversidens) and animals now extinct.” These had an age of
1805 B.C. (± 150 years) showing that the horse existed in the Americas during
the time of both the Jaredites and the Nephites.
Positive
post-Pleistocene to pre-Columbian ages for horses in America are admittedly few,
but they are not non-existent, and more continue to be added as more field work is accomplished. How many
it will take to convince the major body of scientists, especially
paleontologists and archaeologists, to accept this new paradigm is unknown.
However, there are more horse specimens from Mesoamerica and South America that
are presently being run for additional radiocarbon ages by a relatively small
number of professionals who are interested in the subject.
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