The UK Daily Mail published news this week from BYU Professor Kerry Muhlestein that his team in Egypt has uncovered an amazing stash of a million mummies. But today we learn that Muhlestein has followed in famous footsteps in seemingly falsifying all things Egyptian when handled by members of the church.

Newsweek reports today under the headline, "Tale of a Million Mummies Unravels," that Muhlestein's claim is false. Here's an excerpt:

"Dr. Youssef Khalifa, head of the ancient Egypt department at the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, says those findings are also impossible. The ministry first commented on the matter after seeing the story in the Daily Mail, calling it a “rumor.” Khalifa later told The Luxor Times, 'What was published in the newspaper is not true. There are no million mummies'"

http://www.newsweek.com/tale-million-mummies-unravels-293615

Muhlestein's yarn has cost him dearly. The Ministry of Antiquities has decided after 28 years to revoke BYU's permission to work on the site. Seems some folks in the field of Egyptian antiquities get offended when you make stuff up.


Here's the Daily Mail's original article on the find:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2877855/Cemetery-one-MILLION-mummies-unearthed-Egypt-1-500-year-old-desert-necropolis-largest-found.html

Here's the original RfM post on the find:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1461738,1461738

The MoA is in no mood to truck with controversy of any kind in light of the recent Hawass and Mubarak unpleasantness.

When are they going to realize that many BYU so-called "archaeologists" were never professionally trained in that specific science. Thomas Stuart Ferguson, head of the New World Archaeology Foundation, spent 25 fruitless years trying to find Book of Mormon cities was trained as a lawyer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2014 09:58PM by Templar.

...but critics believe that he got his degree so that he could act as a "credible" defender of the Book of Abraham. Muhlestein has become the church's current most vocal BOA apologist. He has made several Youtube videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh0_JF2hqI-4hYEqtrTmIZRAM__uSNnbk

An example of criticism of Muhlestein:

http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014_08_01_archive.html

"Dr. Kara Cooney, a media darling and real Egyptologist at UCLA is quoted (by FAIR no less) as saying: “Mormons are funding PhDs in Egyptology and Biblical Studies and then funding positions at BYU and elsewhere and passing these people off as experts, when they are only ideologically driven researchers, not experts interested in actual evidence.”

I was aware of that fact and never said ALL but only MANY. But does being a trained Egyptologist necessarily mean that person is also qualified in the science and methods of archaeology?

The Theban Mapping Project website states: "The Training in Egyptology for a doctoral degree can take at least eight years of university, both undergraduate and graduate programs, and often much longer. Many university programs offer the opportunity to specialize either in Egyptian language or in art and archaeology of ancient Egypt."

Note that it clearly states "either" / "or".

There seems to be some question as to whether or not the "bodies" were actually "mummies". One would hope an archaeologist (or even Egyptologist for that matter) digging in Egypt would know the difference.

Of course he got his degree to act as a lettered apologist

Thomas Stuart Ferguson used the services of several professional archaeologists when he obtained funding from the Mormon Church to start his New World Archaeological Foundation. He had the means of finding evidence for Nephite, Lamanite, and Jaredite civilizations if they had actually existed.

They're digging in the wrong place

Of course they are digging in the wrong place. Mopologists

insist that it is the other F*ag el-Gamous.

(Had to place the asterisk there because otherwise it was a banned word)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2014 10:49PM by flanders.

dammit !

That line worked so well for Indiana Jones.

...to give himself some "gravitas" in defending the Book of Abraham, but so early in his career, he manages to get BYU booted off of a 28-year-project. I wonder what that will do for his reputation at BYU.

As for the density of the burials---it seems obvious that the site was just a mass grave cemetery for poor people. Nothing special about it.

Muhlestein would have played a large role in courting big donations to BYU from their wealthy supporters. All that money gone, and nothing to show for it. His name is mud.

Delicious...

Thank God they're gone... as one of (I suspect handful) of members/exmo's with an degree in archaeology I knew they were in so way over their head (obvious).

The opportunity to "introduce" finds surreptitiously on a site that extensive also worried me.

As for the site not being interesting because it was poor people, that part is actually really exciting. Most archaeological sites only document the diets, lives, technology, etc of the rich. We have very little insight into the poor (ie majority) of people in history and how they lived. I'm excited to see what they turn up! They being qualified archaeologist of course!

Hear hear!

We'd have so much translated* gibberish to fill the library of congress.

* here we need to accept a broader definition of "translate" since we don't know the exact mechanics of the translation, other than it happened by "the gift and power of God".

This is a great end to a fantastically craptacular year for the real estate empire known commonly as "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints".

Kind of like the cherry on a big turd cake.

Here's an article written by Dr. Muhlestein back in 2012, talking about the work at their site in Egypt.

http://religion.byu.edu/event/egyptian-excavation-exhibit

I love the last paragraph! It's so mormon!!!

I still think the church will use many tithing $$$ to pay off the Egyptians and get BYU back in. My guess is that the Ministry is going public in order to raise the pressure and increase the amount.

Either way, it looks like the Million Mormon Mummy March is off.

Is it wrong of me to find the deep satisfaction that I feel because BYU was ousted?

If anyone can find a video of last month's Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities Scholars Colloquium in Toronto, please post it. I would love to see Muhlestein making his outrageous claim.

So he has trouble with math?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/19/million-mummies-egypt_n_6352698.htm

Why is Muhlestein making such a big deal out of having found the skeleton of a so-called "giant"?

"Why is Muhlestein making such a big deal out of having found the skeleton of a so-called "giant"?

Because Zelph the white Lamanite was a giant too, therefore the Book of Mormon is true.

Children and "giants" and "millions" of mummies that aren't really mummies. Hmmm, does sound more like a collection of low grade bones, as the Ministry of Antiquities explained.

Muhlestein is deluded. He can't be trusted.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/lifestyle/50728442-80/byu-egypt-christian-christianity.html.csp

Excerpt below:

Brigham Young University researchers have unearthed evidence that plants Christianity in Egypt two centuries earlier than many scholars believe.

There, BYU diggers have found a necropolis in which the dead were buried in layerings of graves, leaving a record of how burial practices changed between 350 B.C. and A.D. 500.

As he and his colleagues burrowed into the cemetery, archaeologist C. Wilfred Griggs documented shifts in burials that he believes point to early Christian influences.

Hey, that idea might have a future.

A whole group of trophies modeled on this theme... The Paul H. Dunn awards in separate areas...

Of course Hinckley retired the "Prophet's Category" trophy with his "I'm not sure we teach that" lulu.

Same with Orrin Hatch and the "Lifetime Achievement by a Politician" competition.

Of course there is some brutal competition going on right now in the "Apologetics Division."

Denial C. Peterson and the FAIR crowd are having a tough time going against Rodney Meldrum's Heartland movement

They've even resorted to using DNA science against Meldrum, and I hear Simon Southerton sent Peterson a resumé offering his services as a consultant.

Real Egyptologists do not trust Muhlestein nor any graduates of BYU. This makes me think that even Professor BYU Doofus's claim to have found over 1000 skeletons would have to be checked by an independent source.

"Mormons are funding PhDs in Egyptology and Biblical Studies and then funding positions at BYU and elsewhere and passing these people off as experts, when they are only ideologically driven researchers, not experts interested in actual evidence." -- Dr. Kara Cooney, Egyptologist at UCLA

Dr. Kara Cooney, Egyptologist at UCLA deserves a gigantic hero's trophy for her statement questioning the credibility of the Mormon educational system with "...they are only ideologically driven researchers, not experts interested in actual evidence."

Priceless.