Incense Burning in the Near East and Mesoamerica
BMAF, division of Book of Mormon Central
May, 2016
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Of the many evidences of early contacts between Mesoamerica and the Near East which are coming to light through current research, some of the most striking concern the use of incense. In the Near East, incense was used ceremonially in ancient times probably to a greater extent than anywhere else in the world except Mesoamerica.
The importance of incense-burning in Hebrew ritual is clear in the Old Testament. Examination of the ideas and practices of these two widely- separated areas, the Near East and Mesoamerica, shows many parallels. Some of these are: (1). use in periodic temple rites, (2). incensing holy objects and officiates, (3). in divinations, (4). in New Year renewal ceremonies, (5). accompanying sacrifices, etc. In all areas the ascending smoke symbolized prayer rising to heaven. Other details of concept and practice are equally striking. Confirming these parallels is a remarkable likeness in the incense burners themselves.
Guatemalan sites with a type quite common in the Near East about 3000 years ago. Significant is the fact that the likeness is strongest in the earliest examples yet found in Guatemala, dating to perhaps 500 BC, while the same general type had already had a long history in the Near East by then and passed out of fashion soon after.
The complex parallels in ideas, practices, and paraphernalia involving incense in religious practices of both the Near East and Guatemala seems explainable only on the basis of a movement of people from the former area to the latter.
Additional evidence of such a connection is seen in the use of the
oracle or "seer" stone by peoples of ancient and even modern
Mesoamerica, especially Yucatan and Guatemala. The Urim and Thummim of the Israelites was only one example of widespread use of such stones in the Old World for predicting the future. A certain traditional account from ancient Mexico strongly suggests that one colonizing group arrived there by sea in the distant past, divinely guided by means of a sacred stone.
John L. Sorenson is an emeritus professor of anthropology at Brigham Young University and the author of An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon as well as many other books and articles on the Book of Mormon and archaeology.
Sorenson first did archaeological work in Mesoamerica while pursuing a masters degree at BYU. From January until June 1953 he was involved in the New World Archaeological Foundation's (NWAF) initial fieldwork in the state of Tabasco in Mexico.
Sorenson holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. He began teaching at BYU in 1963, and he later established BYU's anthropology department. He also served as head of Social Sciences for General Research Corporation based in Santa Barbara, California, and was the founder of Bonneville Research Corporation.
He has served as editor of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies and authored or co-authored some 200 books and articles including Mormon's Codex: An Ancient American Book (2013), An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (1985), Transoceanic Culture Contacts between the Old and New Worlds in Pre-Columbian Times: A Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography (with Martin Raish, 1988), Images of Ancient America: Visualizing Book of Mormon Life (1998), Mormon’s Map (2000), and World Trade and Biological Exchanges before 1492 (with Carl L. Johannessen, 2004).
While being a proponent of the historicity of the Book of Mormon, Sorenson has also attacked the poor scholarship that some have used in defending the Book of Mormon.