“Golden Plates on Display in Bulgaria” Excerpt from meridianmagazine.com
The Ancient America Foundation (AAF) is pleased to present AAF Notes: a series of research articles by scholars of Book of Mormon culture and history and reviewed by AAF editors. Visit our website: http://www.ancientamerica.org
The world’s oldest multiple-page book — in the lost Etruscan language — has gone on display in Bulgaria’s National History Museum in Sofia. And something about that book has particular interest for Latter-day Saints.
As is evident from the photograph, this book was created on metal plates that are bound together with metal rings, similar to the original source documents that became the Book of Mormon.

The book dates back to 600 B.C., which is roughly the time that Lehi and his family left Jerusalem.
The small manuscript, which is more than two and a half millennia old, was discovered 60 years ago in a tomb uncovered during digging for a canal along the Strouma River in southwestern Bulgaria. It has now been donated to the museum by its finder, on condition of anonymity.
Reports say the unidentified donor is now 87 years old and lives in acedonia. The authenticity of the book has been confirmed by two experts in Sofia and London, museum director Bojidar Dimitrov said quoted by AFP. The six sheets are believed to be the oldest comprehensive work involving multiple pages, said Elka Penkova, who heads the museum’s archaeological department.
There are around 30 similar pages known in the world, Ms Penkova said, “but they are not linked together in a book”.
The Etruscans — one of Europe’s most mysterious ancient peoples — are believed to have migrated from Lydia, in modern western Turkey, settling in northern and central Italy nearly 3,000 years ago. They were wiped out by the conquering Romans in the fourth century BC, leaving few written records.
AAF note: We wish to thank Jeff Brooks for bringing this very interesting discovery article to our attention. The long debated question about bound metal records existing in the Middle East 2500 years ago as claimed by the Book of Mormon can now be put to rest. Critics should take note and check that item off their list of objections to the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.

They should give these plates to ole Monson and have him translate them through his "power". Then have someone really translate them using real knowledge. It would be interesting to see the spin on that.

I've been hoping someone would find something that would make it possible to learn more about the culture.

We need a Champolion or a Michael Ventris - not some jive-turkey phoney in the Mormon church.

There is anything that can be construed as writing...

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bookofmormonfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/golden-plates-from-bulgaria.jpg&imgrefurl=http://bookofmormonfacts.com/book-of-mormon/golden-plates-display-bulgaria/&h=508&w=380&sz=49&tbnid=ESI8HaRbUSHZRM:&tbnh=260&tbnw=194&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbulgaria%2Bgold%2Bplates%2Bpictures&zoom=1&q=bulgaria+gold+plates+pictures&hl=en&usg=__tsHUiBgBhzS1xLkJGW-LrbK-rNM=&sa=X&ei=hSfUTL23I4i4sQPltrSNCw&ved=0CB0Q9QEwAA

And from no less than Mopologist John Tvedtnes, the gold wafers are about the size of large postage stamps, 5 cm by 4.5 centimeters...

And one more time, my Great Lehi Boatbuilding and Sailing Challenge: Using technology extant circa 600 B.C. construct a seaworthy vessel adequate to hold approximately 20 people and provisions, including water, for an ocean voyage from the Arabian Peninsula to North or South America. Complete said voyage within two years (double the BOM timetable) by making landfall in the New World, via any route, either around Africa and across the Atlantic or across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. No modern navigational aids are permitted...

Steve Benson, wrote, ""I, Nephi, having been born of Bulgarian parents . . ."

LOL.

As an aside, I met Dan Barker in Pocatello on Wednesday. He mentioned that he had a great time performing with you recently. Is the performance available online?

Please advise when this is available....its a treat.

"The long debated question about bound metal records existing in the Middle East 2500 years ago as claimed by the Book of Mormon can now be put to rest."

Well, sure, everyone knows that Bulgaria is in the Middle East!

Ok, so now show me the ring-bound gold plates that comprise the BoM.

Or how about some non BoM plates, written by nephites, or lamanites or jaradites? Were the BoM prohets the only people of the millions that supposedly existed able to write, or have access to gold?

And they used chariots with wheels in Jerusalem but that does not mean they actually existed in the Americas in BoM times.

What Mormons tend to ignore is even if Joe had gold plates there is no proof he translated them into the book of mormon. Since the plates do not exist the mormon church can not prove what was on the plates is what Joe Smith wrote down.

I mean come on he actually had papyrus and what he wrote down was utter nonsense. Why would the gold plates be any different?

Once again this is a prime example of the dishonesty of Mormon apologists. They scour through thousands and thousands of different cultures, and try to find what they consider to be parallels, then say "see, see? this PROVES the BoM is true".

Only problem is it does no such thing.

If the BoM were true, they should be able to make predictions on where to find things, then find them there. Not the other way around. They scour through 99.9% of the evidence that completely debunks their claims, then find the 0.1% that might seem like a parallel, then grab onto it as if it made up the 99%.

The problem is it is a very dishonest approach. It is like shooting an arrow into some trees, then drawing the target around where the arrow happened to land and saying "look, a bulls eye".

The bias of the Ancient America Foundation (AAF) is found in their Mission Statement.
http://www.ancientamerica.org/splash.php3

"Mission Statement:

"The Book of Mormon is an authentic ancient record of real people, real places, real times and real events. It recounts the covenant relationship these people had with their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Within the files of AAF are innumerable evidences derived from professional and paraprofessional researchers of the cultural aspect of the lands and people of Ancient America, Western America, Mesoamerica, Arabia and Polynesia that support the historicity of this sacred record.

"AAF is a non-profit scientific research organization that was organized in 1949 with a mission to disseminate information on archaeological and other cultural discoveries that throw light on the historical claims of the Book of Mormon."


By their own admission, anything contrary to an interpretation that the BOM is "an authentic ancient record of real people, real places, real times and real events" cannot be accepted or reported because it is opposed to their overall mission. In other words, this is purely Mormon apologetics and nothing more.

This is one link I found more interesting:

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Etruscan_language


I dont see why there is LDS rejoicing over them thought. How does little gold plates + Etruscan + Bulgaria = BOM is TWOO

What I want to know is why Moroni took the plates away from JS -maybe he was short on cash, but it would have avoided much speculation on their actual existence.

One of the first things that made me smell lies - the first thing was horses.

One of the "ancient boat people" believers...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Herzl_Gordon

>Untraditional Viewpoints

>Not afraid of scholarly controversy, Gordon challenged traditional theories about Greek and Hebrew cultures. In the 1960s, he declared his examination of Minoan (Cretan) texts corroborated his long-held theory that Greek and Hebrew cultures stemmed from a common Semitic heritage. He asserted that this culture spanned the eastern Mediterranean from Greece to Palestine during the Minoan era.

>Gordon also held that Jews, Phoenicians, and others crossed the Atlantic in antiquity, ultimately arriving in both North and South America. This opinion was based on work on the Bat Creek inscription found in Tennessee and on the Paraiba inscription from Brazil, as well as his assessment of the Los Lunas Decalogue Stone. The authenticity of the Bat Creek Stone has been called into question by American archaeologists Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., and Mary L. Kwas. After examining the archaeological context, the inscription, and the other artefacts associated with it in the articles referenced above, they later argued in American Antiquity (2004) that the inscription was copied from an 1870 Masonic reference book, and is therefore a forgery introduced by the Smithsonian field assistant who found the stone in the nineteenth century. Regarding the Paraiba inscription, F. Cross argued in 1968 (several years prior to publication of Gordon's book on diffusionism) that it was a nineteenth century forgery. Gordon acknowledged the possibility that the Paraiba Inscription could be a forgery.

The Bat Creek Stone has been debunked repeatedly, and no less than Hugh Nibley dismissed the Los Lunas Decalogue Stone (which may have been carved by a member of the Mormon Batallion).

And the grand-daddy of all of their crowd, John L. Sorenson...

http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon606.htm

Oh, well. Never mind. ;o))

Funny, actual civilizations leave artifacts behind....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruscan_civilization

http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/

http://votumsolvit.com/2008/02/07/etruscan-italy-orientalizing-period/

http://www.umass.edu/etruscannews/

http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/mishkin/lombra/etruscan.html

http://www.ancientscripts.com/etruscan.html

http://www.crystalinks.com/etruscans.html

Sigh,

To be a Book of Mormon Arhceologist must be a sad little career with nothing real to find.

These are great links - thanks

It took 62 years for this foundation to find one thing that they claim authenticates the book of mormon. It is interesting that the main purpose of this 62 year old foundation is to find something. We'll scientific, no prejudice here, totally scientific, and can be relied on as much as Jesus Christ speaking directly to us. I give this report as much attention as it deserves. I put it in the shiter 10 minutes ago. Actually I gave it more time than it was worth.

You see if these Bulgarian plates were real then an Angel would have taken them away. We can’t have “real” scripture on metal plates laying around for just anyone to find now can we? As the precedence has been set by Moroni , we “know” this is the case.

(And that folks, is how mopoligist logic used by an anti-mopoligist works……or not)