Magazine
Another Evidence
Title
Another Evidence
Magazine
The Latter Day Saints' Millennial Star
Publication Type
Magazine Article
Year of Publication
1938
Authors
Evans, Richard P. (Primary)
Pagination
674–675
Date Published
27 October 1938
Volume
100
Issue Number
43
Abstract
Having spent most of his life in Shiprock, New Mexico, the author explains the history of the American Indian through his knowledge of the Book of Mormon. He cites a knowledge of the cross symbol among pre-Columbian Indians.
Another Evidence
By Elder Richard P. Evans
ANOTHER link in the great chain of evidence which daily is being unearthed to corroborate the assertions of the Book of Mormon has recently come to light. The accompanying photograph shows a cross which dates back beyond Spanish occupation of North America.
Early in the summer of 1936, a Navajo Indian came into the trading post of William Evans, father of the author, at Shiprock, New Mexico, carrying a large bundle. Upon opening it, the Indian brought forth several faultless pieces of pre-historic pottery, a number of fibre mats and sandals, and a cross, made of reeds and lashed together with a yucca fibre cord. All these relics the Indian had uncovered while excavating an ancient ruin in the badlands some twenty miles west of the trading post. Dry as the tombs of Egypt, the debris of the ruined dwelling had preserved the artifacts perfectly—they bear no sign of deterioration despite their great age.
Until recently, archaeologists were unable to arrive at any definite conclusion about the age of any of the millions of mounds and ruins which cover the American Southwest. Then along came Professor Douglass of the University of Arizona, an eminent archaeologist, who had discovered a system of dating which he called Tree Ring Chronology.
This amazingly efficient and accurate method of dating is very simple, and consists of counting the rings recorded each year in the life of a tree. Not only will a tree leave a ring for each year of its growth, but it will record climatic conditions, indicating a year of abundant moisture by a thick ring, denoting unretardedgrowth, and pointing out a dry, unfavourable season by leaving a correspondingly thin record of its growth.
By devising a drill which would take a sample or “core” from a tree or log, Professor Douglass then travelled extensively over-the Southwest America, taking hundreds of cores from all sizes and ages of trees. Then, back in his laboratory, Professor Douglass began the work of correlating their records, and compiled a master treering chart which extends backward many hundreds of years.
In order to determine the age of any ruin in the Southwest, it is a simple matter to take a core from a beam of the dwelling and locate its corresponding growth marks on the master chart, which will then give the year in which that beam was cut and placed across the walls of the partly finished dwelling.
This system, then, dates the erection of the ruin in which this cross was uncovered back to 1080 A.D., nearly three centuries before the Spanish Conquistadores landed to invade and convert the Americas.
The Book of Mormon declares that Christ came, after His resurrection, and established a church on the American continent, such as He organized on the eastern hemisphere, thus fulfilling a statement of His own. “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” (John 10:16)
Is this not another testimony to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, that the Saviour did visit the Nephites and Lamanites spoken of in the Book? That He would suffer death upon the cross was known to them as evidenced by the inspired predictions of Nephi and King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon. Verily, the Book of Mormon is true.
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