Writing in Ancient Peru

We hear a lot about the Spanish conquistadors destroying the volumes of historic writing of the Maya and Aztec, however, little has been said about ancient writing of the early Peruvians. Most archaeologists and historians claim the early Peruvians were illiterate, and use as a basis that when the Spanish arrived in the Andean area, there was no written language among the Inca—the most advanced American culture at the time.

By comparison, historians point to the situation in Mesoamerica, specifically among the Aztecs, where the immense collection of Mexican writings was destroyed almost entirely by the fanaticism of the Spanish conquerors, and particularly of the Dominican friars who accompanied them. Nothing was saved but a few isolated fragments. According to Juan de Torquemada, a Franciscan friar and head of his Mexico Order, and both a missionary and historian in Spanish colonial Mexico, during the last days of the Mexican native monarchy, "five cities delivered up to the governor sixteen thousand bundles of papers, made of the maguay plant [Agave Americana], and that the whole of these were filled with painted hieroglyphics."

Left: The Aztec Codex Borbonicus—like all pre-Columbian codices, it was originally entirely pictorial in nature (the Spanish descriptions were later added); Right: The burning of the thousands of Aztec writings ended for all time the knowledge of the indigenous people of Mexico. What we have today was written by 17^th and 18^th century authors, mostly of Catholic orders, that felt the Indians’ history was of idolatry and Devil worship

The destruction of all these records led to the history of the indigenous people, and land the Spanish conquered, to be written only by the Catholic Church’s clerics who accompanied the conquistadors—much of which was slanted toward Cortes who was written as a new David that was allowed by God to destroy the Mexican empire because of its idolatry and human sacrifice. What we know today as the history and origins of the indigenous natives of Mesoamerica was in the hands of these friars, priests, and conquerors.

No wonder the Lord made it clear to the Nephites that if the Lamanites (or others) got hold of their sacred records, they would be destroyed. As Enos wrote: the Lamanites “swore in their wrath that, if it were possible, they would destroy our records and us, and also all the traditions of our fathers” (Enos 1:14) and Mormon was told that he: “Should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would destroy them)” (Mormon 6:6). The Lord knew of the Lamanites hatred toward the Nephites, and He well knew of the pious hatred of the conquering and invading Spanish toward anything they did not understand.

Left: The burial of the Nephite records to keep them out of the hands of the Lamanites who would have destroyed them is not unlike the later (Right) burial of the Chinese family records to keep them out of the hands of Mae Tse-tung who destroyed every record he could find

When the Spanish arrived in Central America, they destroyed all writings of the indigenous people, fearing they were works of the Devil. By the time they arrived in South America, there was no Nephite writing left in the Andean area—it had been looted and destroyed by the conquering Lamanites 1100 years earlier.

Two possible sources of Nephite writing might have survived their 385 A.D. annihilation, and that was 1) those who took their writing knowledge and skill northward (Alma 63:6-7) in Hagoth’s ships around 46 B.C., which ended up in Central America, and 2) those who went on another ship toward a different and unknown destination (Alma 63:8), possibly stopping off on Easter Island of the Polynesian chain before moving on further westward into the other South Pacific Islands. As for the Central America destination, we see their evidence there with the same type of magnificent edifices throughout Southern Mexico, the Yucatan, and Guatemala. As for those that stopped off in Easter Island, we see evidence of the stone statues found in Peru and Central America, as well as some similar stonework walls like those in Peru.

Also, on Easter Island, is found a written language that has defied the world’s most accomplished linguists and translators for nearly two hundred years. As for those who went further northward, we find writings of the Hurons, the Iroquois, and the Indians of the Rio del Norte of Louisiana and possibly others that have never been deciphered and probably never will be. Add to that list of those who went westward (Alma 63:8) where a language today called Rongorongo was found written on wooden bark that despite all efforts has escaped being understood and translated.

In Joseph Sabin’s, Dictionary of Books Relating to America, Vol XVII, (New York 1888), now in the Library of Congress, is Mariano Eduardo de Rivero and Dr. Juan Diego de Tschudi, Antiguedades Peruanas, 1851, on page 101: “The Ancient Peruvians possessed two kinds of writing: the one and surely the most ancient consisted of certain hieroglyphic characters; and the other of knots made with strings of various colors. The hieroglyphs, very different from the Mexican ones, were sculptured in stone or engraved on metal.”

The two-volume work by Rivera, the Director of the National Museum in Lima, was called at publication, “A work of great importance on the ethnology and antiquities of Peru. It treats on the history, government, religion, languages, science and arts of the Incas prior to the Spanish invasion and before, and contains the earliest authentic delineation of Ancient Peruvian architecture and other remains. The plates, which comprise upwards of eighty engravings, were executed with great care and were finely colored.” Rivera (Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz), a prominent Peruvian scientist of his day, also wrote Antiquités Péruviennes, which was a Review of the Latin Races in Peru, as well as 13 other volumes between 1821 and 1857.

A sample of the Rongorongo writing, so named in the Rapanui language, which means "to recite, to declaim, to chant out" The original name—or perhaps description—of the script is said to have been kohau motu mo rongorongo, "lines incised for chanting out," shortened to kohau rongorongo or "lines [for] chanting out"

Whether Rongorongo was the ancient Peruvian writing that was brought to Easter Island by Nephite emigrants is not known. It is known through oral tradition, that the legendary founders of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) called Hotu Matu’a or Tu’u ko Iho, brought 67 tablets from their homeland to the island. We also know that the language on the tablets has defied all efforts at interpretation by some of the world’s leading experts. Consequently, it might be suggested that Moroni’s pronouncement “the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language; and because that none other people knoweth our language, therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof” (Mormon 9:34), might relate to the rongorongo script.

The Aruku Kurenga dispalys a skill of the artist that is masterly; all the signs are incised with a freedom, a keen appreciation of proportion, and a vigor that only an expert artist could accomplish. There is a good sense of movement and a harmonious combination of conventionalized and naturalistic elements.