There’s an interesting story over at Heavenly Ascents about a few ancient lead plates with Hebraic writings discovered in Jordan. They may be authentic, though further tests are needed. They may date to the first century A.D. [Sorry, but these may be fraudulent. See Update 2 below.]
The PaleoJudaica blog offers a copy of a press release about the cache of metal plates from Jordan. Any of you have updated information to share?
For some reason, part of me is always excited to learn about ancient writings on metal plates that have been preserved over the centuries. Guess I’m just into metal.
Update 1, April 3, 2011: More interesting coverage on the topic emphasizes that some of the 70 tiny books are sealed with lead wire. See the article, “Could this be the biggest find since the Dead Sea Scrolls? Seventy metal books found in cave in Jordan could change our view of Biblical history” at MailOnline. Check out the photos (two reduced samples are below). I look forward to further information–and hope these are actually authentic, unlike the Padilla Plates or the Michigan plates of slate that garnered interest for a while.
Update 2, April 3, 2011: These may be fraudulent. Daniell McClellan raises a serious issue linking them to another recent fraud. Thanks to OpenMinded for giving me this lead on the bogus lead.
Update 3, April 7, 2011: Also see an excellent discussion at An LDS Guide to Mesoamerica. Kudos to Daniel Johnson.
Yea, heard about this one over at Exploring Our Matrix (I'd send a few links, but I'd probably get shot down by the spam filters! I recommend Googling it).
From what I've heard, this isn't the first time this story has come up. Seems as though they're finding this to be potentially credible, though.
I sure hope so!
Also, at this one scholarly blog site, some people are cracking jokes about it. I think the last time this came up, it had a bad reputation: http://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/the-complete-press-release-concerning-the-discovery-of-the-jesus-tablets/
(spam filter again 🙁 )
Jeff, just found an article you might be interested in.
Google search: "Texas find suggests earlier settlers in N. America, Chicago Tribune"
There'll be a paper published in the journal Science soon about it, so I'll take a look at that at the university library.
Speaking of ancient writings on metal plates, I don't know if you've blogged about tumbaga. Read about tumbaga on Wikipedia; then read 1 Nephi 18:25 followed by 1 Nephi 19:1; and then recall Joseph Smith's description of the plates as having "the appearance of gold".
The German “newspaper” BILD brings us the story of German Mathematician Joachim Rittstieg, who studied the Mayan Codices and thinks he found the location of some lost gold treasure. This treasure consists of 2156 golden tablets on which the Maya inscribed their laws. The tablets are located in the old capital of the Maya Empire – Atlan. The location is revealed on page 52 of the Dresden Codex. The town Atlan was located where is now the lake Izabal in eastern Guatemala. It was destroyed October 30th 666 BC during an earthquake
My apologies for not having read your blog often lately to know whether this is repetitive or not, but I thought you might enjoy viewing this video from the FAIR Conference which focuses on the geography of the Book of Mormon.
Update: a scholar from Oxford found these plates to be a forgery. Ironic, right?
(google search lead plates Daniel McClellan for the post)
Thanks, OpenMinded. Appreciate it. Daniel McClellan makes a good point that could spell doom for the authenticity of these plates. He's a BYU alumnus, by the way. Sharp guy.