Questions That Have to be Answered About the Land of Promise – Part VI

Continuing with the last post where the first twenty-three questions were asked and answered. The following begins with question twenty-four:

Question 24: “Where is there copper, gold and silver in single units and in “abundant” quantity?”

Answer: Copper, of course, is found throughout North, Central and South America, though by far the largest copper deposits are found in Chile and Peru of South America. Despite the fact that the continental U.S. is 12 times larger than Chile, Chile out-produces the U.S. 5.3 to 1.3 million tonnes; with Peru at 1.26 million tonnes. Combined, Chile and Peru produce 6.58 million tonnes of copper annually, which is more than the next 18 countries combined! In addition, Peru is the 6^th largest gold producing country, with only the U.S. producing more in the Western Hemisphere, and Peru the largest producer of silver in the world, Mexico second, and Chile seventh. Mesoamerica, on the other hand, is near the bottom of world production and deposits of gold, silver and copper. 

As for combined ore, containing gold, silver and copper, by far the largest deposits in the Western Hemisphere are found in Peru and Chile. By comparison, in the northeastern U.S., there is no significant gold deposits in Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, or Vermont, and Pennsylvania produces only 2 metric tonnes of the 12,970 metric tonnes produced in the entire U.S.; in silver, New Hampshire and New Jersey produce none, Maine 8, Pennsylvania 14, Vermont 16, and New York 61 for a total of 99 metric tonnes out of the country’s total of 167,636 metric tonnes; and in copper, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York none, Maine 13, Vermont 51, and Pennsylvania 260 for a total of 324 metric tonnes out of the country’s total of 91,371 metric tonnes. There are no such deposits of these three ores in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island, West Virginia or Ohio, and small amounts in Michigan and Illinois. By comparison, these 14 northeastern states are about one-third larger in land area than Chile, yet Chile has out-produced these states in gold 40 tonnes to 2 (Peru 164); in silver 1301 tonnes to 99 (Peru 3854); and in Copper 3,356,600 tonnes to 324 (Peru 1,107,789). Like the old advertisement slogan, “Show me the beef!” we should perhaps say to Great Lakes, eastern U.S., and heartland theorists, “Show me the ore!”

Question 25: “Where is the earliest evidence of an advanced culture living in the Western Hemisphere?”

Answer: According to Agarwall and Stout, at Paloma, just south of Lima in the Andean foothills, archaeologists have discovered remnants of the oldest known village in the Americas—a village inhabited during the early first millennium B.C. The remains of ancient Peruvian peoples have been found along many watercourses across the desert—Paracas, Nazca, Moche, and a host of others.  And, most important, the arid sands have preserved their fascinating artifacts. In a 1982 National Geographic article, it is claimed that after the second millennium B.C. the population on the Peruvian coast expanded very quickly.  Cultivated crops appeared and the first major public building on the Peruvian coast was at Chuquitanta, made of cobblestone and dated between 2,500 and 1,800 B.C. Agriculture began in the area by at least 4,000 BC and there are numerous ruins of advanced cities dating back to 1,300 B.C. Along the central and north coast of Peru, the earliest monumental architecture and the earliest complex societies in the Americas are evidenced. The monuments of the region represent an important archaeological record of early socio-political organization and the development of polities in the Americas. "The monuments are our primary evidence of the earliest expressions of complexity along the Peruvian Coast." And about 1600 B.C. stone buildings were erected at Kotosh, but it was only about 900 B.C. when the first high culture appeared in Peru. Compare this with the dates found for the earliest notable civilization development in Mesoamerica, which is about a thousand years later, and in the eastern U.S. not until after 1000 A.D.

Pre-Inca Peruvians were building stone walls such as these as early as 500 BC showing in some cases an engineering ability unequaled today.  Left: Using the lintel over a trapezoid doorway, Center: An extensive wall of huge blocks, still showing the extensions used to move them, and Right: One of the walls showing their ability to shape massive rocks with such precision without mortar of any kind has puzzled engineers and masons the world over for centuries

Question 26: “Where is evidence of the cruelty and devastating attacks to the remaining Lamanites when the Spanish and Europeans arrived equivalent to that described in 1 Nephi 13:14, 30-31; 15:17, and that they would be scattered, smitten, and nearly destroyed by God’s wrath through the Europeans?”

Answer: While the North American Indians were treated first with respect in the early colonial period of the Europeans in North America, and later with scorn and disdain, the first Spanish invaders in Central and South America devastated three great civilizations of the Aztec, Mayan and Inca cultures, putting entire regions under their absolute control. Yet, nothing in Central America comes close to the total annihilation of a culture, and the destruction, suppression and subjugation of a people through the conquest, enslavement, and total vanquishing of the Inca and Andean people by Pizarro and his conquistadors. For centuries after the Spanish invasion, the indigenous people of the Andes have been totally subdued, under the brutal and absolute control of the Spanish and later European emigrants, driven into the mountains where they have barely eked out a living and survived. In fact, according to G. Whitfield Ray in 1951 book, The American Indian--Who is He? “the discovery of America was the occasion of the greatest outburst of reckless cruelty and greed known to history.  Spain has the unenviable credit of having destroyed two great civilizations, that of Mexico and Guatemala and that of the Andes, making their conquest the most inglorious in all human history. The ignoble defeat of a native people, whose achievements and society were far superior to that of Spain, not only ruined a people for all time, but drowned and destroyed all the past of their culture, heritage, and history.  "The Spaniards made accursed the name of man and thrice-accursed the name of God.” This people of the Western Hemisphere, which had accomplished so much in their thousands of years of history, were first discovered, then exterminated by a newer and upstart race arrogating to themselves the right to do so. Tens of thousands were starved to death, outright murdered, or in other ways killed, their royalty and nobles reduced to beggary and slavery. Once the Spanish conquest was accomplished, the Indians’ future was behind them.  Many were captured and burned to death, becoming withered leaves clinging to a dead tree.  Time for them only reaches backward. There never was such a state of moral degradation as existed in South America after the conquest. Nor could any such conquest ever be made again—no such destruction of a race is today conceivable unless in some future age aliens from space were to swoop down upon our then effete civilization and wipe it out.

Question 27: “What evidence is there of advanced textiles dating to B.C. times in the area of the Land of Promise?”

Answer: This was answered in a recent post, but the use of advanced textiles anciently have been found in the Andean area, especially in Peru dating well back into B.C. times. These were so advanced that the Spanish invaders were astounded by the quality, including the silk fabrics they found, and compared them favorably with Spanish quality fabrics.

Question 28: “What evidence is there of advanced metallurgy dating to B.C. times in the area of the Land of Promise?”

Answer: This was also answered in a recent post, but advanced Metallurgy has been found dating back to early B.C. times in the Andean area, though nothing in Mesoamerica before 600 to 800 A.D., and none in the Great Lakes, eastern U.S. or Heartland until well into the A.D. period. In fact, the Spanish conquerors were so amazed at the intricate designs and use of metallurgy that they compared it favorably with anything found in Europe.