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The Liahona

Miracles by Small Means

Chapter 8

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CHAPTER 8

Was Knowledge of Magnetic Navigation

“Lost”?

Chapter 8: Could knowledge of magnetic navigation have been "lost"? If so, what were some of

the factors that might have caused this loss? A few factors are worth discussing here.

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Factor #1

Oral Traditions

Factor #1: Oral traditions. From the beginning of the world, a good portion of the population has

been illiterate. Knowledge has been passed down by word of mouth - some informally, and some

by precise memorization. Nevertheless, such tradition becomes suspect by scientists even though

it might eventually be written down. That is because even though the oral tradition might be

correct, it is difficult to verify. So when scholars don't accept oral traditions or legends just

because they can't be verified, history becomes "lost."

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Oral Tradition

Interestingly, the LDS Church has begun to accept oral traditions in regards to genealogical

information.

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Factor #2

Limitations of writing materials and writers

Factor #2: The availability of writing materials, writers, and readers. The amount of information

available from generation to generation is linked with the availability and endurance of writing

materials, the number of people who could or did write things down, and ultimately, the number

of people who read those materials. Some examples of early writing materials are:

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Pottery sherds

Example #1: Pottery sherds. Anciently, people recorded information on clay or ceramic pottery.

Archaeologists have found interesting bits of information on the broken pieces or sherds of this

pottery. Some of these finds have provided evidence for the Book of Mormon story.

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Pottery Shard with L-Y-I (Lehi)

For example, although the personal name Lehi appears in the Book of Mormon, it does not appear

in the Bible. This led early critics to question whether the name was invented by Joseph Smith.

But fortunately, in 1938, a pottery sherd was found at Elath (located on the northern tip of the

Red Sea Gulf of Aqaba) bearing the letters L-H-I for the name of a man. While there is no

consensus as to how Lehi's name was pronounced or written in Hebrew, as vowels are often

deleted from Semitic names, some scholars have translated the inscription L-H-I as "Lay he" and

attributed it to northwest semitic origin, which would correlate with the Book of Mormon

narrative.

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Papyrus scrolls

Example #2: Papyrus scrolls. To both the Phoenicians and the Aztecs, the use of paper was

common. While the Phoenician paper was made with papyrus, the Aztecs manufactured their

paper from leaves like aloe. Yet in both cases, almost everything has perished.

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Parchment (animal skin)

Example #3: Parchment. Parchment is made out of animal skins. Interestingly, in 1980, Tim

Severin, a geography scholar at Oxford University was commissioned by the Sultanate of Oman

to build an accurate replica of an ancient Arab sailing ship and make a 6,000 mile journey from

the Arabian sea to China. One of the problems he noted was that no early Arab sea charts had

survived because the charts were unfortunately written on parchment.

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Gold Plates of King Darius (Persia)

Example #4: Metal plates (gold, brass, silver or copper). This picture shows gold plates that

belonged to King Darius of Persia, which were hid up in a stone box about 500 BC. Such

fortunate finds such as this provide supporting evidence for the Book of Mormon narrative.

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Aztec Codices

Example #5: Codices. In the New World, pre-Columbian records were kept on connected folded

sheets of bark by the natives of Mexico. These were referred to as codices. Unfortunately,

almost none of them survived the decades that followed Columbus.

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Izapa Stela 5

Example #6: Stone. Stone represented a cheap and durable writing material, but it was difficult to

engrave, difficult to move, and even more difficult over time to decipher if the engraved

characters were ideological symbols rather than phonetic symbols. The complex symbolism on

Stela 5 in Mesoamerica reflects cultural origins, a tree of life reaching to the heavens, and

calendar alignments. Different interpretations have been derived by various modern studies--thus

providing a perspective of how knowledge might be preserved yet lost at the same time.

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Garth Norman

It might be interesting to note that one of the world's leading authorities on Stela 5 is Garth

Norman, who is LDS. He has found origin symbolism and dating linking Stela 5 and Izapa with

the Book of Mormon narrative.

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Garth Norman measuring stela

Garth Norman has found evidence of the Middle-eastern cubit as being the standard of measurement.

Norman has also linked the calendar alignments with locations in North America and South America. He

also notes that one of the stela at Izapa is made of lodestone, and that it is oriented toward magnetic north.

All this would support early transoceanic contact.

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King Mosiah translating the stone

It might also be interesting to contemplate whether the ability to interpret symbolic engravings

was the reason why King Mosiah was the only one able to interpret the large engraved stone

brought to him which told of the Jaredites--from their beginnings at the tower to their demise, and

also of one Coriantumr. Mosiah was the only one able to interpret the engravings despite the fact

that Coriantumr, one of the last surviving Jaredite military leaders, had lived with the people of

Zarahemla for nine months; and despite the fact that the people of Zarahemla had apparently

lived among the Jaredites for many decades. (Omni 1:20-21)

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Inca Quipus

Example #7: Quipos. This is a picture of Quipus or a collection of knotted cords used by the

Incas of Peru to keep records. The Incas ruled the west coast of South America from just before

Columbus till just after the Conquest. Before the Incas, the Chavin civilization existed from

about 600 BC to 100 BC, and then the Mochica civilization followed for 1000 years. No written

records are known from either the Chavin or the Mochica civilization. However, the Incas, like

other conquering nations, were known to have destroyed evidences of power from previous

civilizations. This leads us to the next factor.

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Factor #3

Purposeful Destruction

Factor #3: The purposeful destruction of contemporary records. There are any number of

examples to be cited here, when men, or groups, or nations choose to impose their will upon

others and end up destroying much or even all of the information of the conquered people that is

not supportive of the new regime. Records are burned, monuments are destroyed or defaced,

people are killed or enslaved until even languages are lost. This destruction could certainly have

an influence on our understanding of a magnetic compass.

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The Phoenician alphabet was developed around 1200 BC. Ultimately all European alphabets

were derived from the Phoenician alphabet. Ironically, other than some stone inscriptions,

Phoenician texts were almost completely destroyed by the conquering Greeks and Romans.

Although the Phoenicians, who ruled the maritime world for over a millennium, were said to have

possessed an extensive literature, only a single work survives.

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Aztec Calendar Stone

The Meshicas, or Aztecs as the Spanish called them, fell to Cortes in 1521. Within a few short

years the heathen temples were obliterated or buried and valuable records were destroyed or

hidden away. It wasn't until 1790, during excavation of Mexico City' central plaza, called the

Zocalo, that a massive stone disc was unearthed next to the Aztecs Templo Mayor. It was a disk

of carved basalt, 3 feet thick and 12 feet in diameter, weighing 24 tons. Although it's meaning has

remained mysterious through the centuries, most now agree that it offers a graphic representation

of the Meshica cosmos. It represents the Aztec calendar cycles as well as the 5 eras of the earth's

existence, named for the cause of destruction at the end of that period--for example wind or flood.

This Aztec stone marked the last period--the period of the Sun--so-called because at the end of

the period, the earth would be cleansed by Fire.

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The Aztec Calendar Stone as a Compass

Even more pertinent to my writings on the Liahona, the face of the Aztec stone appears as the

face of a directional compass, with a circle equally divided by 8 points on its circumference. Yet

had there not been an excavation, this stone would still be lost.

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Burning of Books -- China

An example of book-burning can be found with the Qin Dynasty, the first "imperial dynasty" of

China, dating from 221 to 207 B.C. They attempted to purge all traces of the old dynasties in

what has come to be referred to as the famous Burning of Books episode. How much knowledge

relative to magnetism was lost when books were burned in China is hard to say.

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Great Library at Alexandria burned

I should note here that destruction can be judged as purposeful even though it might be termed

collateral damage. In this regard, much has been said about the burning of the great Library of

Alexandria, one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. Thousands of

scrolls were lost in 48 BC when Julius Caesar set fire to ships and the fire accidentally spread to

the library complex.

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Ptolemy II & Queen Arsinoe

Since we are on the topic of the losses connected with Alexandria, there is an interesting little-

known story concerning one of the temples there. In 250 BC Ptolemy II, the King of Egypt

deified his Queen Arsinoe by having a temple built for her.

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Iron Statue Was Suspended in Air

Amazingly, Ptolemy's architect Timochares suspended an iron statue of Arsinoe in midair within

the temple without any visible support. He did this by constructing the roof of the temple all of

magnetic lodestone.