Horses in the Book of Mormon
Horses were Present but their Remains have not been Found
This is only one possible explanation but I prefer to this since the question about horses in the Book of Mormon usually revolves around a lack of evidence in the archeological record.
Why did horses become extinct in ancient America? After all, if wild horses were present during the Pleistocene period (Ice Age) and thrived once they were re-introduced by the Spaniards, why were they missing when the Spaniards arrived? Darwin asked the same question and today’s scientists still grapple with this question.
At least a few non-Mormon scholars believe that real horses (of a stature smaller than modern horses) may have survived New World extinction. The late British anthropologist, M.F. Ashley Montague, a non-LDS scholar who taught at Harvard, suggested that the horse never became extinct in America. According to Montague, the size of post-Columbian horses provides evidence that the European horses bred with early American horses. (49)
Non-LDS Canadian researcher, Yuri Kuchinsky, also believes that there were pre-Columbian horses. Kuchinsky, however, believes that horses (smaller than our modern horses) were reintroduced into the west coast of the Americas about 2000 years ago from Asians who came by ship. Among Kuchinsky’s evidences for pre-Columbian horses are (1) horse traditions among the Indians that may pre-date the arrival of the Spaniards, (2) supposedly pre-Columbian petroglyphs that appear to depict horses, and (3) noticeable differences between the typical Spanish horse and the much smaller Indian ponies. (50)
Unfortunately, however, such theories are typically seen as fringe among mainstream scholars. Due to the dearth of archaeological support, most scholars continue to believe that horses became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene period. Is it possible that real horses lived in the Americas during Book of Mormon times? And if so, why does there seem to be no archaeological support?
First, it is important to recognize that the Book of Mormon never states or implies that horses roamed the New World in large numbers–in fact, horses are mentioned very infrequently. If small pockets of horses lived in pre-Columbian America, it is possible that they would leave little if any trace in the archaeological record. We know, for example, that the Norsemen probably introduced horses, cows, sheep, goats, and pigs into the Eastern North America in the eleventh century A.D., yet these animals didn’t spread throughout the continent and they left no archeological remains.(51) According to one non-LDS authority on ancient American, the Olmecs had domesticated dogs and turkeys but the damp acidic Mesoamerican soil would have destroyed any remains and any archaeological evidence of such animal domestication.(52)
Even in areas of the world where animals lived in abundance, we sometimes have problems finding archaeological remains. The textual evidence for lions in Israel, for example, suggests that lions were present in Israel from ancient times until at least the sixteenth century AD, yet no lion remains from ancient Israel have ever been found.(53)
In the Bible we read that Abraham had camels while in Egypt, yet archaeologists used to believe that this was an anachronism because camels were supposedly unknown in Egypt until Greek and Roman times. More recently, however, some researchers have shown that camels were used in Egypt from pre-historic times until the present day.(54) In the 4th & 5th centuries AD, the Huns of Central Asia and Eastern Europe had so many horses that estimates suggest that each warrior may have had up to ten horses. Horses were the basis of their wealth and military power. According to a non-LDS leading authority on the zoological record for central Asia, however, we know very little of the Huns’ horses, and not a single usable horse bone has been found in the territory of the whole empire of the Huns.(55) Based on the fact that other–once thriving–animals have disappeared (often with very little trace), it is not unreasonable to suggest that the same thing might have happened with the Nephite “horse.”
The fact is, however, that there does appear to be archaeological support that horses existed in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. In 1957, for instance, at Mayapan (a site corresponding to Book of Mormon lands/times) horse remains were discovered at a depth considered to be pre-Columbian. Likewise, in southwest Yucatan, a non-Mormon archaeologist found what may likely be pre-Columbian horse remains in three caves. Excavations in a cave in the Mayan lowlands in 1978 also turned up horse remains.(56)
Why haven’t pre-Columbian horse remains received greater attention from other scientists? As an article for the Academy of Natural Science explains, such discoveries are typically “either dismissed or ignored by the European scientific community.”(57) The problem may be one of pre-conceived paradigms. Dr. Sorenson recently related the story of a non-LDS archaeologist colleague who was digging at an archaeological dig in Tula and discovered a horse tooth. He took it to his supervisor–the chief archaeologist–who said, “Oh, that’s a modern horse, throw it away” (which he did)–it was never dated.(58)
Dr. John Clark, director of the New World Archaeological Foundation has expressed similar concerns:
The problem is archaeologists get in the same hole that everybody else gets in. If you find a horse–if I’m digging a site and I find a horse bone–if I actually know enough to know that it is a horse bone, because that takes some expertise–my assumption would be that there’s something wrong with my site. And so archaeologists who find a horse bone and say, “Ah! Somebody’s screwing around with my archaeology.” So we would never date it. Why am I going to throw away $600 to date the horse bone when I already know [that they’re modern]? …I think that hole’s screwed up. If I dig a hole and I find plastic in the bottom, I’m not going to run the [radio]carbon, that’s all there is to it. Because …I don’t want to waste the money.(59)
Recently, however, FARMS began a project to date the horse remains that were discovered at digs that date to pre-Columbian times. Acquiring the remains was an extensive job in itself. Some of the reported remains had disappeared, and some of the owners of the remains didn’t want FARMS taking them for dating purposes. Of the remains that FARMS was able to acquire it appears that at least two date to pre-Columbian times. The work is not yet complete, and when I spoke to Dr. Wade Miller–the scientist in charge of the project–he indicated that more work was yet to be done before they had conclusive results. Nevertheless, the prospects look promising.
If it turns out that actual horses were not in existence during Book of Mormon times, we can recognize that they need not be present to understand the use of the term “horse” in the Book of Mormon. If it turns out that actual pre-Columbian horse bones are identified, this would support the Book of Mormon in interesting ways. Actual New World horses may have been smaller than modern horses, possibly only about five-feet high. They may have been used as a food source, and because they were too small to ride, they may have been used to either pull some sort of travois or wheeled cart–but not Ben Hur-style chariots. All of this matches what we find in the Book of Mormon. Horses are never ridden, they may have been used as a food source, and the Nephite text never says that chariots are used in war or even that they were wheeled or ridden.
So while it appears that we may yet have archaeological evidence that actual horses lived during Book of Mormon times, we should also remember that the Nephites may have expanded their term for horse to designate not only real New World horses, but also animals that–to at least some degree–served similar roles.
Notes
(49) Paul R. Cheesman, The World of the Book of Mormon (Bountiful, UT: Horizon Publishers, 1984), 194, 181.
(50) http://www.strangeark.com/nabr/NABR5.pdf
(51) Bennett & William J. Hamblin, “Basic Methodological Problems with the Anti-Mormon Approach to the Geography and Archaeology of the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 2:1 (1993), 193.
(53) John Tvedtnes, “The Nature of Prophets and Prophecy” (unpublished, 1994), 29-30 (copy in author’s possession); Benjamin Urrutia, “Lack of Animal Remains at Bible and Book-of-Mormon Sites,” Newsletter and Proceedings of the Society for Early Historic Archaeology, 150 (August 1982), 3-4.
(54) Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980), 216-17.
(56) Clay E. Ray, “Pre-Columbian Horses from Yucatan,” Journal of Mammalogy 38:2 (1957), 278.
(57) http://www.ansp.org/museum/leidy/paleo/equus.php)
(58) This story was told at the Q&A session following Dr. Sorenson’s presentation, “The Trajectory of Book of Mormon Studies,” 2 August 2007 at the 2007 FAIR Conference; audio and video in author’s possession.
(59) John Clark during Q&A session following Dr. Clark’s presentation, “Archaeology, Relics, and Book of Mormon Belief,” 25 May 2004 at BYU; audio of Q&A in author’s possession.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RE: HORSES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON
https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Horses_in_the_Book_of_Mormon
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