Historical archeologist frustrated with "Charlatans" promoting tall tales re. Mound builders

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Palerider
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Historical archeologist frustrated with "Charlatans" promoting tall tales re. Mound builders

Post by Palerider » Tue May 05, 2020 3:54 pm

Thought many of you would find this short article interesting. Especially the reaction of many of the questioners who refuse to accept this historical archeologists answers. Kind of sad to know how the church/members are actually viewed by the rest of the world.

https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200426/ ... ot-go-away
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deacon blues
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Re: Historical archeologist frustrated with "Charlatans" promoting tall tales re. Mound builders

Post by deacon blues » Tue May 05, 2020 4:51 pm

Excellent article. This opening paragraph is very revealing:
"It seems I can no longer give a public program about Ohio’s amazing ancient American Indian mounds without someone in the audience asking me about giants, or the lost tribes of Israel — or even aliens.

I try to address these questions politely and explain that there is no hard evidence that any of these things had anything to do with Ohio’s mounds. Occasionally, if the person asking the question is a true believer, they’ll accuse me of lying and hiding the evidence that would prove me wrong." :o :roll:
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2bizE
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Re: Historical archeologist frustrated with "Charlatans" promoting tall tales re. Mound builders

Post by 2bizE » Tue May 05, 2020 5:38 pm

This is hilarious. Of course the earth mounds were not made by ancient Mormons. Everyone knows they were made by Sasquatches and then protected by native Americans.
~2bizE

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Palerider
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Re: Historical archeologist frustrated with "Charlatans" promoting tall tales re. Mound builders

Post by Palerider » Tue May 05, 2020 6:11 pm

2bizE wrote:
Tue May 05, 2020 5:38 pm
This is hilarious. Of course the earth mounds were not made by ancient Mormons. Everyone knows they were made by Sasquatches and then protected by native Americans.
Actually the Native Americans told the Sasquatches that if they wanted their mounds protected they would have to "do it by yourZelph"...... :roll:

I know.....pretty bad, but I couldn't resist.
"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily."

"Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light."

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Exiled
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Re: Historical archeologist frustrated with "Charlatans" promoting tall tales re. Mound builders

Post by Exiled » Tue May 05, 2020 7:38 pm

Gotta love religion.

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Hagoth
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Re: Historical archeologist frustrated with "Charlatans" promoting tall tales re. Mound builders

Post by Hagoth » Wed May 06, 2020 7:41 am

I think I've mentioned this, but the head archaeologist for the US Forest Service in Utah told me that he gets angry accusations of helping hide things like the giant skeletons from Book of Mormon Heartlanders all the time.

And the earth is probably flat too.
“The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.” -Mark Twain

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Re: Historical archeologist frustrated with "Charlatans" promoting tall tales re. Mound builders

Post by blazerb » Thu May 07, 2020 4:12 am

This is nuts. People feel justified in disconnecting people from their past to justify their crazy theories. Of course the Sasquatch theory is not one of those. I'd like to see the documentary, "Servant of the Sasquatch."

Where do we find giants in the BoM? Arnold Friberg made the Nephites look like a Mister Universe pageant, but at least he made them of normal height, I think.

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Hagoth
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Re: Historical archeologist frustrated with "Charlatans" promoting tall tales re. Mound builders

Post by Hagoth » Thu May 07, 2020 7:57 am

blazerb wrote:
Thu May 07, 2020 4:12 am
Where do we find giants in the BoM?
The only connection I can think of between the giants and the BoM is William Smith's description of the Urim and Thummim as being so large Joseph could only look through one lens at a time. William had apparently heard about the race of giants and assumed they were Nephites. Of course, this doesn't mesh well with Lucy Mack's claims of holding the spectacles and breastplate wrapped in a handkerchief.

I still see Ancient America enthusiasts reaching way back to the statements of "archaeologists" from the mid 1800s as proof of some of these wacky ideas. The problem is that there weren't really any archaeologists then, just hobbyists, treasure hunters, and curious farmers, so wild speculations from those guys sometimes gets mistaken for fact. Some of these tomb raiders claimed to dig up skeletons that measured 8-feet from head to toe. They didn't know about bioturbation and other taphonomic processes that can cause a skeleton to disarticulate and spread apart over time. Now that there are people who understand those things we can no longer find skeletons of giants. Go figure. You can do one of two things, either rationally accept that there were no giants, of assume a conspiracy in which all of the giant skeletons are being hidden by a massive inter-agency cover-up.

That entire chapter of "archaeology" came to an end in 1990 when Cyrus Thomas published his summary of a decade of actual archaeological surveys of the remains of the mound builder cultures and concluded that they were the ancestors of the modern native peoples.

As always, the question is why would anyone go to such lengths to cover up something like the existence of an entire race of giants? In reality, nobody would be more interested in revealing and studying something like that than the very people who are being accused of concealing it. The typical answer seems to be that science is fake and as soon as people start realizing that The Man loses His power over them.
“The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.” -Mark Twain

Jesus: "The Kingdom of God is within you." The Buddha: "Be your own light."

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Palerider
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Re: Historical archeologist frustrated with "Charlatans" promoting tall tales re. Mound builders

Post by Palerider » Thu May 07, 2020 9:14 am

Hagoth wrote:
Thu May 07, 2020 7:57 am
blazerb wrote:
Thu May 07, 2020 4:12 am
Where do we find giants in the BoM?
The only connection I can think of between the giants and the BoM is William Smith's description of the Urim and Thummim as being so large Joseph could only look through one lens at a time. William had apparently heard about the race of giants and assumed they were Nephites. Of course, this doesn't mesh well with Lucy Mack's claims of holding the spectacles and breastplate wrapped in a handkerchief.
And doesn't this just play all sorts of havoc with the size of the stone box in which the plates, sword of Laban, Urim and Thummim and whatever else was supposedly stored in that box....

That would have to have been one big stone box. Nothing like the illustration. Which I'm sure the church had absolutely no control over. :roll:
moroni-buries-plates.jpg
moroni-buries-plates.jpg (43.29 KiB) Viewed 5389 times
"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily."

"Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light."

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blazerb
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Re: Historical archeologist frustrated with "Charlatans" promoting tall tales re. Mound builders

Post by blazerb » Thu May 07, 2020 8:16 pm

Hagoth wrote:
Thu May 07, 2020 7:57 am
As always, the question is why would anyone go to such lengths to cover up something like the existence of an entire race of giants? In reality, nobody would be more interested in revealing and studying something like that than the very people who are being accused of concealing it. The typical answer seems to be that science is fake and as soon as people start realizing that The Man loses His power over them.
It's similar to the accusations of a cover-up regarding flat-earth. The conspiracists tell us that the government is hiding evidence that the earth is flat. "Why?" we ask. The nonsense that follows is not worth sorting out.

I guess on this one, at least someone could say that "They" don't want us to know that our religion is True. Satan has such a hold on their hearts that they want us blind to the proof that is out there, one could argue. Of course, why anyone would pass up the chance at instant fame that evidence of giant hominids would bring is beyond me. If I could show that there was a race of giants, I could not wait to publish. It would be fascinating.

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Re: Historical archeologist frustrated with "Charlatans" promoting tall tales re. Mound builders

Post by moksha » Fri May 08, 2020 12:45 am

Palerider wrote:
Tue May 05, 2020 6:11 pm
Actually the Native Americans told the Sasquatches that if they wanted their mounds protected they would have to "do it by your Zelph"...... :roll:
Some puns are Zelph-inflicted.
Good faith does not require evidence, but it also does not turn a blind eye to that evidence. Otherwise, it becomes misplaced faith.
-- Moksha

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