“Hard” Evidence of Ancient American Horses
BMAF
December, 2015
“Hard” Evidence of Ancient American Horses
By Daniel Johnson
Modified excerpts from the article in BYU Studies, vol. 54, no. 3 (2015)
The suggestion of horses and chariots in pre–Columbian America has long been an easy target for critics of the Book of Mormon. In spite of difficulties in defending this claim and although the evidence is incomplete, the geological and archaeological records do provide support for horses and even wheeled vehicles in ancient America. Much of this evidence is not questionable or even that new, but critics and faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are unaware of it. Several valid arguments are worth considering.
Several theories that attempt to address the issue of pre–Columbian horses are examined in this article, some of which are mutually exclusive. Therefore, not all can be correct. Evidence presented in this article includes (1) archaeological evidence for large animals used for draft and transportation; (2) wheeled artifacts showing a person or animal riding on an obviously artificial wheeled platform; (3) the possibility that Book of Mormon peoples referred to native animals such as the Baird’s tapir with names such as horse that they were familiar with; (4) early accounts suggesting that Native Americans had horses too early for them to come from strays that escaped the Spanish conquistadors, especially since the Spanish kept very careful records of their horses; (5) the prevalence of the pinto or piebald horse among Native Americans and its relative absence among Spanish expeditions; (6) images in Mesoamerican art that might depict horses; (7) evidence that horses survived far longer after the last ice age than previously thought; and (8) the question of the Bashkir Curly.
Although available valid evidence is worth considering, the question of horses in the Book of Mormon has not been decisively answered and may never be resolved to anyone’s complete satisfaction. Hard evidence will go only so far in dealing with this and other related issues. Much of the information presented in this article is not new; some data have been known for over a century. The information should be common knowledge, but sadly it is not.
The issue of horses in the Book of Mormon is still used by critics of the Church of Jesus Christ as a means of attack and by some of its own members as justification for their loss of faith in the Book of Mormon and, subsequently, the religion itself. This situation is lamentable, for it is often based on a foundation of ignorance. The same question is still being thrown about, with an apparent disregard of the latest (or even some of the earliest) scientific knowledge on the subject. Those who wish to defend the authenticity of Latter-day Saint scripture can easily educate themselves to improve the quality of the debate.
The teachings contained in the Book of Mormon carry much more weight for the modern world than whether Nephites and Lamanites really had horses. But it is a valid question, and it deserves a thoughtful response. A possible and certainly reasonable answer is based on the theory that horses as people today recognize them did indeed inhabit the ancient lands known to peoples in the Book of Mormon during the relevant time periods. Likely, science today would classify them as the Western Horse and the Mexican Horse, whose remains have been found in the Americas. They were used in a manner not explicitly stated by those who kept the Book of Mormon record. Sometime after AD 26 (3 Nephi 6:1), their numbers began to dwindle in the original Book of Mormon lands through warfare, predation, ecological changes, or other unknown events. Any surviving populations were pushed to the extreme north and south, and their existence was forgotten by subsequent cultures inhabiting the original areas, such as the Maya, Toltecs, Aztecs, and many others who did not understand this “new” animal reintroduced by the Spanish Conquest.
Small pockets of horses may have continued to survive in remote enough locations in North and South America that they were not discovered until centuries after initial European contact and were thought to have descended entirely from Old World horses reintroduced to this continent in modern times. This is a solid hypothesis based on sound, up-to-date scientific research, which excludes controversial claims. However, it is by no means the only possible answer.
Book of Mormon analysts must admit that logical reasons exist for the lack of incontrovertible evidence for ancient horses or other “proofs” of the Book of Mormon. Its readers will probably never find an ancient gold plate written in reformed Egyptian saying, “Welcome to Zarahemla,” and signed by King Benjamin. If that were the case, faith in the Book of Mormon would be unnecessary. Latter-day Saints may long for proof, and their opponents may demand it, but Alma’s words to the Zoramites may be particularly relevant to these kinds of issues today: “Yea, there are many who do say: If thou wilt show unto us a sign from heaven, then we shall know of a surety; then we shall believe. Now I ask, is this faith? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for if a man knoweth a thing he hath no cause to believe, for he knoweth it. . . . And now, behold, I say unto you, and I would that ye should remember, that God is merciful unto all who believe on his name; therefore he desireth, in the first place, that ye should believe, yea, even on his word” (Alma 32:17–32; emphasis added).
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