Archaeology and the Book of Mormon

ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BOOK OF MORMON

J.M. SJODAHL

Not long ago an assertion was made to the effect that recent archaeological research accords wonderfully with the historical facts set forth in the Book of Mormon.” It has occurred to me that a further explanation of that statement might not be un­acceptable, in view of the tremendous importance of the subject.

For instance, modern research has called attention to a wide­spread American civilisation that antedated that of the mound builders and the architects of ancient Mexico, Central and South America. It tells us that the mounds known as shell heaps, or kitchen middens, which dot the American coasts all the way round from Maine to California, mark the sites of ancient settle­ments of a race that attained some degree of civilisation “at a period undoubtedly prehistoric, but not necessarily many thou­sands of years old,” as John Fiske puts it. Dr. Dall, who made a special study of the shell heaps on the Aleutian Islands, reached the conclusion that the earliest deposits there are about 3,000 years old, and, as those islands were peopled from the American side (Dr. Brinton, The American Race, p. 20), it is a safe estimate that the earliest shell heaps on the continent date back at least 1,000 years earlier, that time being required for the necessarily slow movement north ward from the original place of settlement, wherever that may have been. But by going back four thousand years Ave reach, almost, the date generally assigned for the build­ing of the tower of Babel, when the Jaredites, according to the Book of Mormon, emigrated from somewhere in Asia to the 'western side of the world. Is this not evidence of accord between the results obtained by archaeological research and the Book of Mormon?

The question is emphasised by all the facts known of the shell heap people. They were fishers, subsisting chiefly on oysters, cockles, mussels and aquatic animals generally. They were also hunters and trappers, living on the products of the chase. They cultivated the land, for they had stone mortars in which to crush the grain. They believed in a hereafter, as evidenced by their tender care of their dead, and they very likely engaged in devas­tating wars, for evidences of cannibalism have been found among the bones unearthed, and it is safe to say that cannibalism is but the twin brother of savage warfare, as history seems to prove. Dr. Foster, judging from the crania examined, concludes that the shell heap people preceded the mound builders and were a different people.

I am making no assertion that cannot be substantiated, but, if the Jaredites were the builders of the settlements of which the earliest shell heaps mark the sites, the accord between the Book of Mormon record of the Jaredites and the conclusions of modern research concerning the shell heap people is almost perfect. The shell heap people have certainly left their bones “scattered in the land northward” (Omni 22), as they were found, mixed with the bones of beast, by the expedition of King Limhi (Mosiah 8:8).

With regard to the present Indians, modern research has come to the conclusion:

That they are one race.

Dr. Brinton includes even the Esquimaux in this classification. His observation is that the entire race is “singularly uniform in its physical traits, and individuals taken from any part of the continent could easily be mistaken for inhabitants of numerous other parts.” He further argues that the culture of the native Americans strongly attests the ethnic unity of the race, and this, he says, applies equally to the ruins and relies of its vanished nations as to the institutions of existing tribes.

The psychic identity of the American Indians, Dr. Brinton further points out, is illustrated in their languages, which, not­withstanding their diversity in lexicography and surface morphology, are strikingly alike in their logical substructure, or what Humboldt calls their “inner form.”

This unity is, finally, indicated by their social institutions, their arts, myths, traditions and religious rites.

Is not the unity of the Indian race the teaching of the Book of Mormon?

That “the primitive lines of emigration, so far as they relate to North America, were probably from the south to the north; nor is there wanting historical evidences of such a movement.”

I quote this from Dr. Foster, Prehistorical Races of the United States, p. 380.

Even regard them as a separate tribe, while others hold that they had formed an empire in Mexico, which was broken up by the Aztecs in the 10th century of our era.

Are not these movements, first from south to north, when the Nephites retreated before Lamanite hordes, and then from north to south, after the battles of Cumorah, as for the first movement, expressly taught in the Book of Mormon, and, as for the second, implied in the flight of Coriantumr to Zarahemla, and the escape of Nephites “into the south countries” (Mormon 6:15)?

That whatever the origin of the Indian civilisation and whatever modifications it may have had, due to cither internal or external causes, it still retains unmistakable marks of its relationship with the civilisations of Asia and Egypt, and especially the Semitic branch of the eastern culture.

This is my own conclusion based on Indian myths and traditions and numerous words of Hebrew and Egyptian origin, as dis­closed by modern research.

Such Indian words as Abnaki, Manta, Scyri, Lainano, Andes, Malqui, lzainal, Eliejeli, Rama, Apa, Ishu, and scores of others are clearly of Asiatic relationship, and many are pure Hebrew or Egyptian.

According to Adair some North American Indians, at a certain festival, sing these mystic words:

“Yo Meshica,

He Meshica,

Va Meshica.”

If this is true we have here a song, or anthem, consisting of the words Yoheva Meshica, almost identical with the Hebrew, Jeho­nounced the word Jehovah, and the correct pronunciation of it was finally lost, and is lost to this day. Possibly these Indians have preserved the pronunciation of it as received from their Lamanite, or Nephite ancestors, in this song, in which the sacred word is found in three syllables between the word Messiah. Adair also claims that he heard Indians sing another song, “Shiluh yo, Shiluh he, Shiluh va,” in which the word Yoheva is found between the word Shiluh, thrice repeated. But Shiluh is evidently the Hebrew, Shiloh, of the Exodus, which also refers to the Messiah, and means “messenger” or perhaps “peace-maker,” referring to the great Prince of Peace.