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This from Allen J. Christensen, an expert in three of the Mayan languages in the New World. Notice the important view that we *still* have no idea what the actual name of the ancient city is, but the name we have right now stems from our own era, 1936. This is the nature of the names for the cities all over Mesoamerica. WIthout knowing what their names are, and since so much was destroyed, how are we to tell *when* we have found something significant for the Book of Mormon? This is just one of the serious differences with the Book of Mormon as opposed to the Biblical names. It is just the fundamental nature of the situation that is so vastly different. We have to take into account the differences like what we read below before we can pronounce much of anything concerning either the finding, or the lack of archaeology for or against the Book of Mormon.

My own limited field of work is in the area of highland Maya languages, of which there are at least thirty-two. Each of these is really a separate language within the larger family of Maya languages—something like Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian, which are somewhat related based on common roots but are certainly not mutually intelligible. I work with three highland Maya languages (K'iche', Kaqchikel, and Tz'utujil). This does not, however, qualify me to work seriously in any of the other twenty-nine Maya dialects.

The ruins of Kaminaljuyú are certainly of the proper date to qualify as a Book of Mormon community, its major occupation dating from approximately 400 BC–AD 400. But the identification based on the name itself is wholly improper. Kaminaljuyú is a straightforward K'iche'-Maya language name meaning "hill of the dead." However, we do not know what the city's name was anciently. The name Kaminaljuyú was coined by a Guatemalan archaeologist and scholar, J. Antonio Villacorta C., in 1936 when the first mounds were excavated and it became obvious that the remains of a major city lay beneath them. The major mound was previously known as Quita Sombrero (Spanish for "take off the hat"), or by one of the Spanish names of the farms on which the ruins stood—Finca La Majada, Las Charcas, or La Esperanza. Although one complex text inscribed on a stone altar from ancient Kaminaljuyú has been uncovered, it is impossible at this point to read it because of the paucity of related texts and the absence of a Rosetta Stone–like key to its structure and language. It is therefore impossible to know until further texts are uncovered what the ancient inhabitants of this site called themselves or their city.

WildBlueYonder wrote:also, if memory serves me right, Maya is written with common glyphs, so a "Rosetta stone" would only be needed to show pronunciation diffs &/or diff concepts, or did Dr. Linda Schele's, Yuri Valentinovich Knorosov's, et al's work go to naught?
see below:
http://www.utexas.edu/opa/news/99new...aya990302.html
http://muweb.millersville.edu/~colum...art/COE-01.ART

more stuff:
http://www.civilization.ca/civil/maya/mmc04eng.html
http://www.jaguar-sun.com/calendr.html

this Allen?:
http://www.mesoweb.com/features/fabric/interview.html

Allen Christenson has had an unusually varied preparation for his work as an art historian; a journey which takes in teaching, dentistry, Maya linguistics and shamanism!

”
so are you Kerry Shirts or Allen Christenson?

could you put quotes around others work? is the body of this post from you or "Allen J. Christenson"? are you the one that speaks 3 Maya languages or is it Allen?

No, no, I'm sorry for the confusion. It is Allen Christensen who is familiar with three Mesaomaerican lnaguages, not myself. And yes I am Kerry Shirts, not Allen Christensen. Sorry to confuse you, that's my fault. I shall put quotes around stuff next time. I am learning how to work this board, so please forgive the gaffe!

Looks like the issue is, Shirts simply didn't put his reference in a quote box. He clearly cited his source, however, when he said in the first sentence there "This from Allen J. Christensen."

bcspace wrote: This is one of those outrageous claims I was telling Harmony about that drives people into our Church...

This is one of those outrageous claims I was telling Harmony about that drives people into our Church...

And you know this because of your extensive research? You are, after all, such a careful and thorough researcher you'd never make claims based on limited, biased evidence, now would you?

bcspace wrote:

This is one of those outrageous claims I was telling Harmony about that drives people into our Church...

And you know this because of your extensive research? You are, after all, such a careful and thorough researcher you'd never make claims based on limited, biased evidence, now would you?

Never claimed anything but personal experience on that issue (Harmony's) which is pretty much all you guys are giving at the moment. Where is the simple research required to prove KS plagarized which is the claim Scratch has made by spreading it?

LifeOnaPlate wrote:What did you think of Scratch's overall thread, Guy?