The Book of Mormon talks about horses. “There were beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals…”(1 Nephi 18:25).
Why haven’t archaeologists found ancient horse bones in the lands of the Book of Mormon?
They have!
Archaeologists have found many ancient horse bones dated before Columbus in North America. Here are just a few:
Kentucky State Parks- Big Bone Lick History“The first paleontological site in North America was probably at Big Bone Lick, which is now Big Bone Lick State Park near the Ohio River in Union, Kentucky. A French commander organized a dig there in 1739. Bones retrieved by him were sent to the Natural History Museum in Paris, France. In the 1960’s, the University of Nebraska conducted another dig and several mammal fossils were recovered including: possible wolf and black bear, modern bison, ancient bison, two types of musk ox, American moose, wapiti elk, common Virginia deer, extinct stag moose, caribou, flatheaded peccary, extinct North American horse, possible tapir, American mastodon, woolly mammoth, and two types of giant ground sloth. The most common fossil found at the Big Bone Lick dig was the modern bison.“ http://parks.ky.gov/parks/historicsites/big-bone-lick/history.aspx)
“The greater portion, both of the entire skeletons or extinct animals, and the separate bones, have been taken up from black mud [in Big Bone Lick, Kentucky], about twelve feet below the level of the creek. It is supposed that the bones of mastodons found here could not have belonged to less than one hundred distinct individuals, those of the fossil elephant (E. primigenius), to twenty, besides which, a few bones of a stag, horse, megalonyx, and bison, are stated to have been obtained….In regard to the horse, it may probably have differed from our Equus caballus as much as the zebra or wild ass, in the same manner as that found at Newberne in North Carolina appears to have done” – Charles Lyell, Travels inNorth America in the Years1841-1842, New York: Charles E. Merrill [1909], 139-144. https://archive.org/details/lyellstravelsinn00lyell
“Yvette Running Horse Collin’s recent dissertation, historical documents and oral histories present a compelling new story of the horse in the Americas.
Yvette Running Horse Collin’s recent dissertation (Link below) may have rewritten every natural history book on the shelf. A Lakota/Nakota/Cheyenne scholar, Collin worked within the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Indigenous Studies program to synthesize fossil evidence, historical documents and oral history to present a compelling new story of the horse in the Americas.
The horse was here well before the settlers.
“We have calmly known we’ve always had the horse, way before the settlers came. The Spanish never came through our area, so there’s no way they could have introduced them to us,” reads one quote from a Blackfoot (Nitsitapi) study participant in Collin’s doctoral study.
Columbus didn’t introduce them
The original theory accepted by the Western World was that there were no horses in the Americas prior to Columbus’ arrival in 1492. The Western World concluded that all horses of Native American peoples were, therefore, descendants of horses brought from overseas…
“Columbus brought the first Spanish horse to the Caribbean in 1493,” remarks Collin. “The first documented arrival of horses on the mainland, near what we now call Mexico City, was in 1519. The Spanish took meticulous records of every mare and stallion. The first recorded sighting of Native people with horses, however, was in 1521 and that was in the Carolinas. No Spanish horses were recorded as ‘missing’ during this period. There’s no way Spanish horses could have made it through the dense forest and swampland to the Carolinas and repopulated in just two years.”…
“What they are trying to do is shorten the length of time that we were here to make us not as critical to this place. They say, ‘Native people came over the land bridge.’ Why? Why are they making us as having been from somewhere else? Why couldn’t we have been here? That’s number one. Number two is that Europeans are still credited for bringing the horses and introducing them to Native people. What does that mean? They are telling us over and over again that anything that they consider to be of value in our cultures is still ‘derivative’ of theirs.”…
Collin’s horse programs, ways to visit her museum on the Indigenous horse and the dissertation itself can be found at her website: www.SacredWaySanctuary.org.
This theory was forced to change, however, after paleontology pioneer Joseph Leidy discovered horse skeletons embedded in American soil in the 1830s. They were dated to be the oldest of any found in the world. According to Collin’s dissertation, the American scientific community was outraged and questioned his findings. Ultimately, they were forced to accept the evidence he provided.
Collin finds a parallel between the reaction to these new Western findings and that of the fossil evidence showing horses were always in the Americas…
“The wonderful thing is that we now have Western technology that can provide very accurate dates,” said Collin in a recent interview. “Many studies show that these horses were present after the very same Ice Age that supposedly wiped out them all out. So, the most compelling data to support the Native narrative is actually from a lot of the western scientific measurements that are coming out.”
Collin didn’t stop there, however. She also drew from recorded observations in the diaries and maps created by explorers such as Sir Francis Drake, Sebastian Cabot, and other early Spanish conquistadors. Collin points to the first recorded sighting of horses with Native Peoples in the Carolinas…” Yes world, there were horses in Native culture before the settlers came by Lyla June Johnston
The Relationship Between the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas and the Horse: Deconstructing a Eurocentric Myth
“The fact of the existence of fossil remains of the horse in America has been generally received with a good deal of incredulity, arising, perhaps, from the mere fact being stated of their having been found, often without even mentioning the associate fossils, and in all cases, previous to Mr. Owen,* without describing the specimen…
The remains are by no means infrequent, and according to William Cooper, the author of a paper entitled “‘ Notices of Big-Bone Lick,” in Featherstonhaugh’s “Journal of Geology,”* the first printed notice of them occurs in Mitchell’s “Catalogue of Organic Remains,”t upon referring to which, I find mentioned pp. 7, 8, that a cervical vertebra and teeth of the horse were found associated with the Mastodon, &c., in a tract extending from the base of the Neversink Hills to Bordentown, New Jersey…”
On the Fossil Horse of America. BY JOSEPH LEIDY, M. D.
An Ancient Horse Is Unearthed in a Utah Backyard Paleontologists recently determined that a skeleton discovered during a landscaping project belonged to a horse from the Pleistocene Era.
(Right) An illustration of Haringtonhippus francisci, an extinct horse species that was found in North America during the last ice age. Rick Hunter, a Utah paleontologist, said the horse, whose skeleton was discovered in a Utah backyard, may have looked similar to this.Credit Credit Jorge Blanco
By Laura M. Holson May 3, 2018
The horse had arthritis when it died. It is possible, too, that it had bone cancer in one ankle.
That can happen to any horse once it gets to be a certain age. This one is nearly 16,000 years old.
The skeleton during excavation. Some of the bones were damaged from exposure to the elements.Credit Rick Hunter
Paleontologists last week identified the skeleton of a horse from the ice age in Lehi, Utah — a particularly unusual discovery given that much of the western part of the state was underwater until about 14,000 years ago. Buried for thousands of years beneath seven feet of sandy clay, the remains were discovered only when the Hill family began moving dirt around their backyard to build a retaining wall and plant some grass.
Laura Hill said she and her husband, Bridger, uncovered the skeleton last September, but didn’t think much of it at first. They wondered if it was a cow; Lehi is about 15 miles from Provo and was once mostly farmland that hugged the edges of nearby Utah Lake. She consulted a neighbor, a geology professor at Brigham Young University, who examined the bones, and guessed they were from a horse from the Pleistocene Era. Entire Article Here
Hagerman “Horse” – Equus simplicidens
“What makes the Hagerman Horse so important? First, the discovery from Hagerman is the largest sample of this extinct species from one locality. Over two hundred individuals of both sexes and all ages were recovered by the Smithsonian. Included are complete skeletons as well as skulls, jaws and detached bones. They were about the size of the present day Arabian horse, and had a single toe (hoof). Vertebrate paleontologists must often work with single, isolated bones or teeth. So it is often difficult to assign them to an already described species when differences in sex or age of an individual are taken into consideration. The large number of individuals recovered at the Hagerman Horse Quarry simplifies this problem here.
Despite the popular use of the name, Hagerman Horse, it is actually more closely related to the zebras. Although we don’t have fossil evidence of stripes, the pattern of the chewing surfaces of the teeth and details of the skull and rest of the skeleton indicate that this animal was more closely related to the living Grevy’s Zebra of Africa than to horses. So the next time you’re at the zoo, take a good look at the zebras on display and you’ll have an opportunity to see a close relative of one of the earliest residents of the Hagerman area.
Many different scientific names have been applied to this horse. James W. Gidley, the Smithsonian paleontologist, who led the initial excavations at Hagerman in 1929, felt that the horse being uncovered was different enough in its skeleton that it represented a new species distinct from any other known fossil horse. He proposed the name Plesippus shoshonensis. By placing the Hagerman horse in the genus Plesippus, he considered it to be closely related to another fossil species, Plesippus simplicidens, from Texas. Although another horse, Equus idahoensis, had been described from elsewhere in this region, Dr. Gidley considered his new species to be more primitive. Since the early work of Gidley, many other studies on fossil horses have been made and the consensus is that the horse at Hagerman does belong in the modern genus Equus and that it is the same as the extinct species from Texas, simplicidens. So today most paleontologists refer to the Hagerman Horse by the scientific name of Equus simplicidens.
The Hagerman Horse also has the distinction of being the earliest record of Equus, the genus that includes all modern horses, donkeys, and zebras.
Even though the species found at Hagerman, Equus simplicidens, is known from elsewhere such as Nebraska, Florida, and Texas, all of the other records are much younger, making the sample from Hagerman the oldest.” This article originally appeared in The Fossil Record, March 1993Article Here
Identification of Horse Exploitation by Clovis Hunters Based on Protein Analysis Brian Kooyman, Margaret E. Newman, Christine Cluney, Murray Lobb, Shayne Tolman, Paul McNeil and L. V. Hills American Antiquity Vol. 66, No. 4 (Oct., 2001), pp. 686-691
Abstract
Positive results were obtained from protein residue analysis on three Clovis points from Wally’s Beach, southwestern Alberta. Two tested positive for Equus, the third for a bovid, probably Bison or Bootherium. All genera are present in the site remains. This finding clearly demonstrates use of Equus by Clovis hunters. Four 14C dates indicate that the site was in use between 11,000 and 11,300 B.P. Article Here
“According to most leading scholars in history, anthropology and geography, none of the Native Tribes had horses until after Columbus. “On the contrary,” say elders of the Plains Indian Tribes, “our ancestors always had horses.”
“Indeed, the oldest surviving travel account of an overseas explorer in the American Southwest comes from the Afghani Buddhist Monk, Hui Shen. He sailed to the West Coast of Fu Sang during the 5th century AD. According to the monk, the Native People of Fu Sang (or ancient Mexico) had both horses and wagons. If we jump over to the East Coast, we find a similar account dating to the 13th century. According to Bjorn of Iceland, he fell overboard while landing his dory in the Atlantic surf. He was rescued by a party of Celtic Natives, or Welsh Colonists, “riding on horseback.”
“Everywhere that explorers traveled along the Eastern Seaboard of North America during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, they reported seeing Indians (or Welsh settlers) riding horses. When John Cabot landed along the East Coast in 1497, he reported seeing “the dung of draft animals” (such as horses and cattle). The Natives presumably kept their livestock “out of sight” due to quite reasonable fears that alien visitors who landed along their shores might take cattle for a festive evening meal. When Jacques Cartier explored the region of Quebec in 1535, his Native host informed him that there was a tribe in the Far West where the Indians rode on horses.”
“On the other hand, none of the Coastal Tribes in the Northeast that were known to French, English, and Dutch explorers in the 16th century raised horses or cattle. However, when Colonial Pioneers crossed the Appalachian Mountains on their way into Kentucky and Tennessee in the 17th century, they encountered Shawnee, Cherokee, and Chickasaw Tribes that had an exceptional breed of horses. Their smooth walking gait made them attractive for trade and theft. These smooth-gaited horses were called “Chickasaws.” Similar smooth-gaited horses in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida were called “Seminole ponies” or “prairie ponies.” One Colonial trader noted that the Eastern Forest Horse was “different” from European breeds. They were so-common along the Frontier that settlers said they were “pests,” because they wandered into farmyards and munched on garden vegetables…”
Horses of the Eastern Woodlands “American Indian Tribes that were situated along the Eastern Seaboard consisted mostly of Nordic, Germanic, Iberian, Mediterranean, and African refugees. Carthaginians fled mostly to South America when they left behind their cities in 146 BC in order to escape the Roman Legions. The withdrawal of Roman troops from Britain in the 5th century left the Welsh cities and farmlands at the mercy of invading Angles and Saxons. During this onslaught, King Arthur turned to the Western Land of Refuge as a sanctuary for his beleaguered kin. An account of the Arthurian Colony was known to Mercator who wrote a testimonial to John Dee in 1577 (Taylor, 1956, 56-68). According to Mercator, the expedition consisted of 1,800 men and 400 women. They were sent overseas in the Year 530. Of the twelve ships that comprised the colonial fleet, five were lost in a storm; but the rest of the vessels, their occupants, and many farm animals made it safely to port along the shores of Delaware. A Colony of New Albion (or “New England”) was established. During the Medieval Warm Period, the Colony prospered; and the population of Welsh immigrants grew to many thousands of individuals and many thousands of horses, cattle, and assorted pigs, goats, chickens, and sheep. This introduction of Celtic farm animals probably included the band of horseback riding Irish who rescued “Bjorn of Iceland” from the surf along the shores of Nova Scotia in about 1250 AD. The tale was recorded a century later by some Icelandic monks; but historians don’t like any stories about sailors who beat Columbus; so it is rarely mentioned.” http://marcopoloinseattle.com/Documents/Indian%20Horses%20before%20Colmbus.html
Ancient American Magazine Published by Wayne May • Issue Number 95 Were There Horses in the Americas before Columbus? by Dr. Steven E. Jones
“This letter is in response to a request from Wayne May for information regarding my research on early horses (Equus) in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. This interim material is shared in order to encourage a wider community to join in the task of gathering further evidence regarding pre-Columbian horses in the Americas, including a request for photos of pictographs, petroglyphs, and engravings which may represent pre-Columbian horses…
The samples in this study can be divided into two categories according to their origins, Mexico and the United States. Forty-five Equus samples were obtained in Mexico. Based on AMS dating, there was one sample from the Ice Age period and six from the post-Columbus period. Other samples had insufficient collagen in the bone to permit dating; collagen protein locks in carbon- 14, permitting accurate C-14 dating. Thus, the laboratories require a certain minimum amount of collagen in order to proceed with the dating. There were no Equus samples found in this study in Mesoamerica for the time interval 14,700 BC to 1650 AD. By contrast, in North America there are found Equus samples which do indeed appear in the time frame between the last ice age and the arrival of Columbus. The first of these was found in Pratt Cave near El Paso, Texas, by Prof. Ernest Lundelius of Texas A&M University…
In conclusion, using state-of the- art dating methods, we along with other researchers have found radiometrically- dated evidence for the existence of horses in North America long after the last ice age and before the arrival of Columbus. These data challenge the existing paradigm. Further DNA analyses will provide additional data and insights.”
Professor Steven E. Jones Professor Steven Jones was a full Professor of Physics at Brigham Young University, where he served for over 21 years before his early retirement in 2007. He conducted doctoral research at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and received his Ph.D. in Physics from Vanderbilt University in 1978. He received his B.S. degree in Physics from Brigham Young University in 1973, where he held a David O. McKay Presidential Scholarship. His research interests include studies in archaeometry, fusion, and solar energy. He has published papers in Nature, Scientific American, and Physical Review Letters. He taught an advanced class on Archaeometry (Physics 513R) and published “Archaeometry Applied to Olmec Iron-ore Beads,” BYU Studies 37, no. 4 (Oct. 1998),pp.128-142.
“In the Milwaukee Public Museum there is the skull of a mustang excavated in 1936 by W.C. McKern from a mound on Spencer Lake in NW Wisconsin (47BT2), and vouched for by McKern in the _Wisconsin Archaeologist_, Vol. 45, #2 (June 1964), pp. 118-120. Says McKern , “there remains no reasonable question as to the legitimacy of the horse skull that we found as a burial association placed in the mound by its builders.”
C-14 dates on stuff from the mound are all pre-Columbian:
AD 890 +/- 65 AD 760 +/- 60 AD 750 +/- 60 AD 900 +/- 50
(—U. Wis. in _RadioCarbon_ vol. 9 (1967), pp. 530, 538-9.)
AD 580 +/- 110 AD 530 +/- 150 AD 490 +/- 120 AD 1100 +/- 100
(—U. Mich. in _RadioCarbon_ Vol. 10 (1968), pp. 61, 72-73.)
(Stuff is a technical term including charcoal, charred wood, and charred bone. I think these dates are uncalibrated, but that would not qualitatively change them.)
So the record, such as it is, is that the skull was associated with the burial mound, and the mound was pre-Columbian. At present one can only conclude that the horse was pre-Columbian.”
United States Department of the Interior National Park Service Big Bone Lick Archaeological District Union, KY Boone County 12,000 B.C. to A.D. 1950 Cultural Affiliation: Fort Ancient, Woodland, and Archaic Property Owner: Kentucky Department of Parks Download article here: https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/fa5f134d-121d-4301-8d92-db6b65ec7acd
Introduction “Big Bone Lick State Park (boundary expansion) covers approximately 512 acres along Big Bone Creek, a tributary to the Ohio River, in Boone County, Kentucky. The district contains twenty-four archaeological sites and lies along a major prehistoric and historic travel route following buffalo trails to the mineral springs at Big Bone Lick. State Park, between the Bluegrass region and the Ohio River. Twenty one of the 24 sites discussed below are contributing (see Table 1). Three archaeological sites located within the district (Sites 15Be441, 15Be443 and 15Be446) are noncontributing. In addition, 4 of the 21 contributing sites fall within the previously listed NRHP Big Bone Lick State Park. Table 1 lists the documented archaeological sites within the Big Bone Lick State Park (boundary expansion) with information regarding site type, time/cultural period,\ integrity, and significance status. The sites within the Big Bone Lick State Park (boundary expansion) are Miller (15Bel), 15Bel8, 15Be265, 15Be266, 15Be267, 15Be268, 15Be269, 15Be270, 15Be271, Glacken (15Be272), 15Be273, Buffalo Rise (15Be440), 15Be441, Upson Downs (15Be442), 15Be443, 15Be444, Baker Cemetery (15Be445), Metcalf Flats (15Be446), Matchless Day (15Be447), Hot Letter (15Be448), 15Be449, 15Be450, 15Be451, and 15Be452. The archaeological district also contains one of the richest deposits of Pleistocene megafauna remains in the world. An area of 80 acres within the archaeological district is already listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This area includes sites 15Bel8, 15Be268, 15Be269, and 15Be270. The sites within the Big Bone Lick State Park (boundary expansion) contain components from the Early Archaic, Late Archaic, Early Woodland, Middle Woodland, Late Woodland, Late Prehistoric, and historic periods. In addition, Tankersley (1982) reports the presence of Paleoindian materials in the form of surface finds and states that there is a good probability that stratified Paleoindian deposits might be in the vicinity of Big Bone Lick State Park. With cultural material ranging from the Paleoindian to the historic period, the Big Bone Lick State Park (boundary expansion) contains evidence of human use of the saline springs at the site over the past 12,000 years…”
“Thomas Jefferson had taken an interest in Big Bone Lick after hearing of the large collections of huge bones taken from the site, and began corresponding with General George Rogers Clark, then stationed in Kentucky, concerning the lick (Jillson 1936). These correspondences appear to have caused confusion about who went to Big Bone Lick to collect specimens for Jefferson. Although George Rogers Clark knew the area and had been to Big Bone Lick, it was his younger brother, William Clark, recently returned from his exploration of the northwest, who visited Big Bone Lick to collect fossils for the President in 1807 (Jillson 1936, 1936; Stokes and Lowthert 1998).”
“Located at the junction of Big Bone Creek and Gum Branch, Site 15Be270 was identified by Ken Tankersley (1981). The remains of an elephant of the genus Mammut were identified at the site in 1981. The site is listed as containing Paleoindian and historic components and is part of the original Big Bone Lick State Park National Register District. From 1962 to 1966, teams from the University of Nebraska excavated an 24.2 x 97 m (80 by 130 ft) area designed KEN-1 in the southern end of what was later designated Site 15Be270. Faunal materials were documented in three zones (A, B, and C) between 2.1 and 4.5 m (7 and 15 ft) below the ground surface in KEN- 1 (Lowthert 1998; Schultz et al. 1967). Zone A (2.1 to 2.6 m – 7 to 8.5 ft) contained the remains of domesticated animals (dog, pig, cow, and horse), modern bison, and white-tail deer, along with “fragments of crockery and china, bricks, worked building stones, hand hewn wood, logs and branches of trees, seeds, and occasional reworked bones of extinct animals” (Schultz et al. 1967). Zone A was interpreted as dating to the nineteenth century. Zone B extended from 2.6 to 3.3 m (8.5 to 11 ft) and included the remains of American Elk and modern bison and deer. Prehistoric artifacts dating to the Middle Woodland were recovered from Zone B and are curated at the Behringer-Crawford Museum in Covington, Kentucky (Lowthert 1998). Schultz et al. (1967) observed that “the bones of the modern bison are very abundant at this level and are associated with wood, roots, nuts, leaves, broken shells of large mullosks, and pieces of flint.” The deepest stratigraphic layer documented in KEN-3 (Zone C), extended from 3.3 to 4.8 m (11 to over 16 ft) (Schultz et al. 1967). The remains of the following animals were recovered from Zone C: giant ground sloth, mastodon, large bison, musk ox, giant moose-like deer, caribou, and horse. Lowthert (1998) notes that artifacts recovered from the interface between Zones B and C in unit KEN-3 date to the Late Archaic while artifacts diagnostic of the Early Archaic were recovered from Zone C.”
Section 7 page 3 “Pleistocene mammal species recovered at Big Bone Lick State Park include Megolonyx jeffersoni, Mylodon harlani (giant ground sloth), Equus complicatus (horse), Tapirus haysii, Odocoileus virginianus, Cervus canadensis, Cervales scotti (giant moose-like deer), Alces americanus, Rangifer caribou, Bootherium bombiferons (musk ox), Symbon cavifrons, Bison antiquus (large bison), Bison bison (modern bison),Mammut americanus (mastadon), Elaphas primigenius, and Elaphas columbi (Jillson 1968). OnlyOdoco
ileus virginianus, the whitetail deer, occurs naturally in this area today, and only Odocoileus virginianus, Cervus canadensis (the wapiti or American Elk), Rangifer caribou (the woodland caribou), and Bison bison (modern bison) survive anywhere.”
Section 7 page 9 “From 1962 to 1966, teams from the University of Nebraska excavated an 24.2 x 97 m (80 by 130 ft) area designed KEN-1 in the southern end of what was later designated Site 15Be270. Faunal materials were documented in three zones (A, B, and C) between 2.1 and 4.5 m (7 and 15 ft) below the ground surface in KEN-1 (Lowthert 1998; Schultz et al. 1967). Zone A (2.1 to 2.6 m – 7 to 8.5 ft) contained the remains of domesticated animals (dog, pig, cow, and horse), modern bison, and white-tail deer, along with “fragments of crockery and china, bricks, worked building stones, hand hewn wood, logs and branches of trees, seeds, and occasional reworked bones of extinct animals” (Schultz et al. 1967). Zone A was interpreted as dating to the nineteenth century. Zone B extended from 2.6 to 3.3 m (8.5 to 11 ft) and included the remains of American Elk and modern bison and deer. Prehistoric artifacts dating to the Middle Woodland were recovered from Zone B and are curated at the Behringer Crawford Museum in Covington, Kentucky (Lowthert 1998). Schultz et al. (1967) observed that “the bones of the modern bison are very abundant at this level and are associated with wood, roots, nuts, leaves, broken shells of large mullosks, and pieces of flint.” The deepest stratigraphic layer documented in KEN-3 (Zone C), extended from 3.3 to 4.8 m (11 to over 16 ft) (Schultz et al. 1967). The remains of the following animals were recovered from Zone C: giant ground sloth, mastodon, large bison, musk ox, giant moose-like deer, caribou, and horse. Lowthert (1998) notes that artifacts recovered from the interface between Zones B and C in unit KEN-3 date to the Late Archaic while artifacts diagnostic of the Early Archaic were recovered from Zone C.”
Section 8 page 2 “Big Bone Lick State Park (boundary expansion) falls within the Northern Bluegrass Section of the Bluegrass Management Area, and contains more than half of the Paleoindian sites reported for that management area (Pollack 1990). The possibility of in situ Paleoindian deposits at Big Bone Lick, particularly in association with Pleistocene megafaunal remains, provides a unique opportunity to address research questions essential to our understanding of Paleo-Indian culture. The Paleoindian period archaeological deposits at Big Bone Lick State Park have the potential to answer questions regarding which Late Pleistocene megafaunal species were contemporary with Paleoindian cultures in Kentucky. This may aid in determining the time of extirpation or extinction for Late Pleistocene large herbivores, especially mammoth, mastodon, bison, and horse.”
Milton R Hunter:
“According to Hunter and Ferguson, the claim made by the Book of Mormon that horses were on this continent and used in ancient America for purposes similar to the uses we make of them today finds strong support in the numerous fossil remains of horses that have been obtained from the asphalt deposits of Rancho La Brea in southern California. Of course, it is claimed that those fossil remains pre-date Book of Mormon times. However, there is no logical reason for believing, since horses were here prior to the arrival of the Jaredites and the Nephites, that horses could not have still been in America during the period in which those ancient civilizations flourished. . . . We could do no better at this point in dealing with this subject than to quote from an official publication of the Los Angeles County Museum on the subject of the existence of horses in early times in America:
The presence of herds of horses in the vicinity of the asphalt deposits during the period of accumulation is clearly testified to by the numerous remains of these mammals found at Rancho La Brea. While many individuals are recorded in the collections, all of them belong to a single species, the extinct western horse (Equus occidentalis Leidy). In stage of evolution and in general body structure this type resembles the modern horse, although differing from it in a number of specific details. Standing on the average about 14 1/2 hands (4 feet, 10 inches) at the withers, this animal was of the height of a modern Arab horse. It was, however, of considerably heavier build . . .
Horses were among the more common types of hoofed mammals on the North American continent during Pleistocene time and several distinct species have been described from fossil remains. The abundance and widespread distribution of horses in North America make the apparent disappearance of the group in this region prior to the advent of the white man an added and an unusual feature of their long and eventful career.”
[Milton R. Hunter and Thomas Stuart Ferguson, Ancient America and The Book of Mormon, pp. 312-313] As quoted in The Ancient America Foundation (AAF)
As you research ancient horses in North America, you will find may sources that discuss their presence. Truth is out there somewhere as you continue to search. We believe when the Book of Mormon says horses, the prophets mean horses. We feel the Book of Mormon events happened in the Promised Land of the United States, and supporting truths will be found. The most important thing about the Book of Mormon is we know it is true by the Spirit. But, these secondary evidences speak to our head to add to that strong witness of the Spirit.
Visit the Annotated Book of Mormon page 37 seen below. Purchase here!
The Survival of Horses in Pre-Columbian America Many people believe that the horse completely disappeared from North America, where it evolved, prior to the arrival of Europeans. But what if it did not? Great Article here:
Kentucky State Parks- Big Bone Lick History“The first paleontological site in North America was probably at Big Bone Lick, which is now Big Bone Lick State Park near the Ohio River in Union, Kentucky. A French commander organized a dig there in 1739. Bones retrieved by him were sent to the Natural History Museum in Paris, France. In the 1960’s, the University of Nebraska conducted another dig and several mammal fossils were recovered including: possible wolf and black bear, modern bison, ancient bison, two types of musk ox, American moose, wapiti elk, common Virginia deer, extinct stag moose, caribou, flatheaded peccary, extinct North American horse, possible tapir, American mastodon, woolly mammoth, and two types of giant ground sloth. The most common fossil found at the Big Bone Lick dig was the modern bison.“ http://parks.ky.gov/parks/historicsites/big-bone-lick/history.aspx)
Paleontologists recently determined that a skeleton discovered during a landscaping project belonged to a horse from the Pleistocene Era.
“What makes the Hagerman Horse so important? First, the discovery from Hagerman is the largest sample of this extinct species from one locality. Over two hundred individuals of both sexes and all ages were recovered by the Smithsonian. Included are complete skeletons as well as skulls, jaws and detached bones. They were about the size of the present day Arabian horse, and had a single toe (hoof). Vertebrate paleontologists must often work with single, isolated bones or teeth. So it is often difficult to assign them to an already described species when differences in sex or age of an individual are taken into consideration. The large number of individuals recovered at the Hagerman Horse Quarry simplifies this problem here.
