The Absolute Necessity of Matching Scripture – Part IV

Continuation of the list of items regarding the matching of the scriptural record: 1 thru 13 are in the previous posts. Here we continue with 14 below:

When the Spanish conquerors entered Cuzco, they described the city and surroundings very well including a tower on the hill overlooking the city, next to a palace they called a temple, both at the time being extant, though later torn down by them as works of the devil

 

(14) Temple Tower. “Now I, being old, did confer the kingdom upon one of my sons; therefore, I say no more. And may the Lord bless my people” (Mosiah 20:22). The son king Zeniff conferred the kingdom upon was named Noah, who is described as: “he did not walk in the ways of his father. For behold, he did not keep the commandments of God, but he did walk after the desires of his own heart” (Mosiah 11:1-2).

In those desires, he laid a tax of one-fifth on all that the Nephites owned that lived in the Land of Nephi, and built many elegant and spacious buildings; which he ornamented 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; he also built a tower near the temple; yea, a very high tower, even so high that he could stand upon the top thereof and overlook the land of Shilom, and also the land of Shemlon, which was possessed by the Lamanites; and he could even look over all the land round about” (Mosiah 12:12). This tower was built on the hill north of the land Shilom, which had been a resort for the children of Nephi at the time they fled out of the land” (Mosiah 11:13).

This tower, being so high that one could stand on the top level and look out over the lands around the City of Nephi, would not have been made of wood. Obviously, it was made of stone, probably cut and dressed, for stability, and should have left some remains in the Land of Promise that could be seen today.

There is no such indication in the Heartland or Great Lakes locations of any type of tower, its foundation or markings in the ground. Nor do we find any in Mesoamerica, despite the numerous buildings there—none that could be considered a tower, or one near a “temple.”

The tower, showing (top) the entire complex with the foundations all around the tower of the ancient temple, fortress and small storage and support buildings

 

Peru. The main precinct of Sacsayhuaman is made up of three large terraces, whose plots were leveled and flattened. Several buildings and three big towers were erected on these terraces. To the east side was located the tower called Paucar Marca (Precious Precinct), in the middle was the tower Sallac Marca (Precinct with Water) and to the west was the main tower, shown here, Muyuq Marca (Round Precinct). The first two had rectangular floors. Today there are only a few slight vestiges of the first two towers, and only the extension and large foundations of the third tower survived. These remains indicate that it was a circuar construction of a round tower. This tower ended up in a triangular ceiling with great slant over a top lookout opening so the viewer could see 360º.

These towers were so impressive to the Spanish that the chronicler Garsilaso wrote about them. Having been born in Cuzco, in the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru, to an Inca noblewoman or Princess named Palla Chimpu Ocllo and a Spanish Captain and conquistador named Sebastian Garcilaso de la Vega y Vargas, he played among the buildings at Sacsayhuaman as a child, even within the labyrinth of tunnels and rooms beneath. Known as El Inca or Inca Garcilaso de la Vega Spanish, he was a chronicler who wrote that on the top of the three "walls" or "bulwarks" there were three strong towers disposed in a triangle.

Bombyx mori, the domestic silk moth, is the closest relative of Bombyx mandarina, the wild silk moth which is the primary producer of silk

 

(15) Silks and Linen. Silk comes from the Asian moth Bombyx mori.” This blind, flightless moth, species lays 500 or more eggs in four to six days and dies soon after—one hundred of such eggs weigh only one gram. From one ounce of eggs come about 30,000 worms which eat a ton of mulberry leaves and produce twelve pounds of raw silk. Today, all silkworm moths live only in captivity, having been domesticated so that they can no longer survive independently in nature. All wild populations are extinct, although presumably old relatives exist in Asia. In addition, silks are produced by several other insects, the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants), and is sometimes used in nest construction. Other types of arthropods produce silk, most notably various arachnids, such as spiders.

Today, we understand that “silk is commonly understood to mean the material that is created from the cocoon of the Bombyx mori”; however, in Book of Mormon times, silk was a cloth or fabric made from other sources.

Peru. In the Andes are the Bombycidae and wild Saturniidae, and from such, were able to develop the finest fabrics. Also, in some of the vicuna woolen goods the yarn was so fine and the weaving so exquisite that, according to Alfred Joseph Deberle, authority on South America, and author of The History of South America,” and Edward P. Lanning, author of Peru Before the Incas, the cloth had the appearance of silk so that when some were sent back to the Spanish court they were pronounced finer than silk.

In addition, in Ecuador, the unique Kapok tree and its fibrous material obtained from the silk-cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra of the order Malvales and the family Malvaceae), which is native to Mexico, Central America, northern South America, and numerous other tropical areas), including the Ceiba species of the Andes where it is used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species including the leaf-miner Bucculatrix ceibae which feeds exclusively on the genus.

The silk cotton or ceiba (kapok) tree with a buttressed trunk with a high canopy 

 

Some trees can grow to 230 feet tall or more, with a straight, largely branchless trunk that culminates in a huge, spreading canopy, and buttress roots that can be taller than a grown person. These trees have a silky down that invests the seeds, that before the silkworm was known in the Western Hemisphere, it was used for making silk thread and weaving into silk cloth.

As for linen, European archives still yield detailed descriptions of these products of Peruvian looms, which were the first of their kind to reach Europe. The early Spanish chroniclers, amazed at finding such fine textiles, mentioned in their reports the unusual nature of these cloths, the richness of their colors and the superior quality of their dyes. Fabrics from Peru at the time of the conquest, were highly admired by the Spanish invaders

(16) North-South. Mormon, in his insert to explain the location of both the Land of Nephi and the Land of Zarahemla in relation to each other, and also Bountiful and Desolation, is laid out by him in a north-south direction in no uncertain terms. He states that the Narrow Strip of Wilderness, which ran from the West Sea to the East Sea and separated the Land of Nephi on the South and the Land of Zarahemla on the North. In addition, he states that the Land of Desolation is on the north and the Land of Bountiful: “Thus the land on the northward was called Desolation, and the land on the southward was called Bountiful” (Alma 22:31).

This is quite different from the layout of Mesoamerica, and also of the Heartland and Great Lakes. However, Peru is quite different and matches Mormon’s description.

Peru. The Land of Promise in Peru matches Mormon’s description perfectly, as can be found in numerous articles in this bog as well as in the book: Lehi Never Saw Mesoamerica.

 

(See the next post, “The Absolute Necessity of Matching Scripture – Part V,” for the continuation of the list of items regarding the matching of the scriptural record)