an analysis of the padilla gold plates

Transcription

1 an analyi of the padilla gold plate ray T matheny the padilla gold piate plate5 are well known in LD church ar- chaeological anthropological circle where they have been the ub- chaeological ject of publication paper 2 dicuion and firthand examination they have become an exciting topic and have often been ued in miionary endeavor a an example of empirical evidence for the authenticity of the book of mormon if authentic thee twelve potage tamp ize plate repreent the mot ignificant archaeological evidence of the book of mormon yet to appear if not authentic they are an embarraing fraud thu they deerve careful examination the following article will examine the circumtance of he choe to take the plate becaue the writing on them intereted him the original padilla collection conited of twelve plate five of which were turned over to joe davila 4 and even were retained by paper preented at the twenty fourth annual ympoium on the archaeology of the cripture brigham young univerity october 974 ray T matheny i profeor of archaeology and anthropology at brigham young univerity metallurgit claify heet a being under 3 inch in thickne and plate a being over 8 inch therefore the padilla plate hould be referred to a heet of gold tock ince they are about 2 a thick a plate M well Ja jakeman kernan and ray T matheny gold plate from mexico newletter and proceeding of the EHA number 787 january 96 ee alo the following unpublihed manucript joe davila A tudy of the amuzgu gold plate 3 july 963 paul R cheeman A report on the gold plate found in mexico 97 paul R cheeman ray T matheny and bruce louthan A report on the gold plate found in mexico 973 all in the poeion of paul R cheeman BYU religion department in a letter to paul R cheeman 26 june 97 dr padilla tated that the tomb wa located and emptied of it content between 952 and 956 by himelf and everal friend he declined to give the location of the ite but ubequently informed dr cheeman that it wa in the tate of guerrero joe octavio davila morale obtained five mall hinged plate from dr padilla in about 96 hi report ee fn an 2 tate care tarc that padilla dug at the ite of piedra del rey near the village of amuzgu oaxaca in 957 davila wa unaware when he received the plate that even other incribed plate exited 2 their reported dicovery their phyical decription their apparent mean of production and the content of their engraving in an attempt to determine their hitoric value the plate were reportedly found in a tomb in guerrero mexico which wa excavated by dr jeu padilla orozco and hi companion ometime between 952 and dr padilla now a phyician in mexico claim that many other gold object were found and ditributed among other men participating in the tomb excavation but

2 all twelve plate have now been examined by the au-7 dr padilla thor circumtance OF DICOVERY in january 97 dr padilla diplayed for dr paul cheeman and me ome of the plate and other artifact reportedly taken from the guerrero tomb thee conited of numerou mall object including an array of jade bead haped like calabahe abahe hort tube and round form all drilled for tringing alo found were carved hell tone receptacle carved obidian and jade earpool jade labret lauret ornament worn in a perforation in the lip monochrome pottery with cacabel upport lit type bell like opening projectile point miniature pottery veel and copper bell all of which appeared to be of late date for meoamerica Meoamerica abent from the collection were polychrome pottery veel which may have been old the aemblage in general i of the pot claic period AD 9 2 and trongly upport padilla claim that the material wa taken from a tomb in guerrero the only object conpicuouly different from thoe normally found in tomb in the area are the gold plate PHYICAL decription OF THE PLATE general decription of the plate the plate are bright gold in color but the maller one in davila poeion how a light copperih hue when turned to different angle in the light the plate are of everal ize.52 X.669 five plate.787 X.945 two plate five plate conit of mall rectangle of gold heet for which I do not have dimenion all plate meaured are thin ranging from oli oll. to.25 in thickne more exact notation on individual ize warrant the careful appraial that follow the maller five plate et ha a hinge attached on one edge o that the plate fit together like a bracelet when trung by wire or thread each plate ha ymbol engraved on it ome on one other on both ide ize and layout of the plate the remarkable accuracy of layout and preciion manufacture of the plate provide evidence of their date of origin the plate are laid out a near perfect rectangle plate 8 i.585 and.58 in it width meaured at each end and and.682 in it length thi i only.5 difference in it width and oii oll. difference in length which are remarkably mall deviation from rectangularity for a handmade item table wa contructed for five plate number 828 to check whether thi mall deviation wa accidental or not 22

3 TABLE I manufacturing deviance to produce a rectangular form for five of the padilla plate deviation for rectangularity plate no length width 8 oii oli average deviation from perfect rectangle ool ooi plate and 2 exhibit deviance conidering the length perceptible only to ophiticated modern meauring device plate 8 and 9 how deviance detectable only when the dimenion in quetion i checked againt known tandard edge with a perpendicular bae or perfectly flat urface by uch tool a an engine divided quare and urface plate the quetion of how thee gold plate were acribed out and cut i an important one to explore becaue it will alo tell u omething about the tool available to the maker I know of nothing made in antiquity either in the old or new world that approache the rec- tangularity achieved by the maker of the padilla plate figure I how on one edge of plate the mark of the fine toothed aw which wa ued in cutting the metal thi method of figure plate howing aw mark identified a having been produced by a modern jeweler fine toothed aw 23

4 cutting i neceary to prevent thin heet metal from being ditorted a it i when cut with hear awing leave a flat urface next to the cut edge hear often drag unwanted metal to one edge which mut be trimmed off and ditorted edge mut be hammered flat figure 2 figure 2 plate 9 howing aw mark on one edge which match thoe found on plate how that plate 9 wa alo cut with a aw figure 3 how that one edge of plate wa filed to it final dimenion which left groove mark in long line on the edge figure 3 one edge of plate howing that it wa filed to ize note file mark running lengthwie on the edge 24

5 plate 8 9 and contitute a et made up into plate thickne a bracelet thee plate were meaured with a micrometer at five point free from engraving the comparative reult are hown in table 2 the plate average.25 in thickne and how an average difference in thickne of.8 the latter meaurement i uch a mall quantity that to manufacture a et of gold plate by hand method within thee minute tolerance i truly a marvelou achievement 5 TABLE 2 manufacturing deviance in thickne hinged et three of the padilla plate hin kne for maximum plate no average thickne plate no difference average thickne 8 average difference plate no for all plate no for all ince the human eye cannot detect uch mall difference in thickne a thoe noted for the mall plate examined above one mut conclude that a ophiticated meauring device wa required to produce a gold heet in cloe tolerance the larger plate were alo meaured and the reult are hown in table 3 the average thickne for both plate i.24 and the average difference in thickne between the two i.6 according to r joe davila plate 2 wa examined by dr daniel C worlton about 962 davila quote worlton a aying thee gold plate were hammered flat the thickne of the plate varied in light to illutrate how mall the variance are I meaured head hair ample from three european decent individual and found the maximum difference wa 6 or three time the thickne difference meaured on plate place piate 8 9 and 25

6 I wonder if worlton exam- of my own meaurement of plate 2 ined a different plate than plate 2 6 TABLE 3 manufacturing deviance in thickne for two of the padilla plate difference in plate no average thickne thickne it hould be clear that our ophiticated meaurement how we are dealing with gold heet that ha been manufactured by the mot precie mean known the plate were cut out of a gold heet tock that give every indication of having been manufactured on a metal roller pre and not by any known hand method the heet metal roller pre wa invented by leonardo da vinci in the ixteenth century and wa not generally ued in europe until the nineteenth century quantitative analyi plate and 2 have been analyzed quantitatively at brigham young univerity in provo utah and by dr maurice D lambert of richland wahington analyi by the atomic aborption method at brigham young univerity howed plate to be made up of 89 gold 2 ilver 9 copper a mall amount of zinc and iron plu trace of other element lambert teting uing xray X pectography pectrography how plate 2 a probable companion to plate to be compoed of gold 35 5 ilver and 4 copper only three element were teted for and they accounted for 56 loo of the plate compoition thee method then produced gro reult with coniderable dicrepancy in analyi of the two plate the aumption that becaue of the cloe thickne dimenion that both plate and 2 came from the ame gold heet tock may thu be in error we mut either reject the analye or aume that 6ee aee ee davila A tudy of the amuzgu gold plate hand hammered gold heet i necearily of unequal thickne becaue of the method ued in making it and it doe have a rough urface dr worlton either did not examine plate 2 very cloely did not ue a micrometer or examined a crude duplicate of the plate that I have examined 26

7 two gold heet tock of identical thickne were ued in the manufacture of plate and 2 7 depite thee dicrepancie the gold in the padilla plate i con- iderably purer than the gold of mot new world artifact for example poitively identified gold foil from peru when checked by the atomic aborption method howed about 479b gold ilver 23 copper and maller amount of zinc and iron plu trace of everal other element nonethele thee analye do not provide concluive information at thi time and indicate the need for further quantitative analyi ANCIENT goldworking GOLD WORKING IN THE NEW WORLD to place the preceding comment on the hape and compoition of the plate in context it i deirable to review the hitorical background of mexican metallurgy it i well known that metallurgy wa practiced in mexico during early claic time8 AD 2 6 and perhap earlier 9 the development of metallurgical technique in outh america i reported recently by clair C patteron patterono Patteron patteronbo ono to have been a tepwie dicovery of technique going back to 8 BC pecifically the earliet known technology for working gold in thenew henew world alo come from outh america in the province of anda huayla department of apurimac Apu at the ite of waywaka waydaka Waywaka where gold foil and a metalworker tool kit were found joel groman report of thi find implication are that the ue of metal wa already well etablihed in peru by the initial period complicated tt it i not likely that different tock could be found of identical thickne even modern manufac turing tolerance allow ome variation between run of production heet the following location and chronological cheme apply lowland maya country coniting of the yucatan peninula gulf coat region including the mexican tate care tare of campeche campiche Cam tabaco chiapa and veracruz the peten peren of guatemala britih hondura and part pan of hondura the maya culture of the pat have been divided into the following chronological cheme pre claic maya before the time of chrit proto claic B C A D 2 early claic AD 2 6 late claic 6 9 pot claic 9 2 proto prow prom hitoric 2 5 9john ajohn L orenon reconideration of early metal in Meo meoamerica meoamenca unpublihed manucript 972 in the poeion of orenon BYU general education department clair C patteron the development of arenic copper alloy in peru during middle horizon time paper delivered to the ociety for american archaeology 37th annual meeting may 972 patteron preent evidence for the development of metallurgy in peru in tage between 8 BC and A D 5 he ay the peruvian did not dicover the principle of the bellow ulfide melling melting or ilver cupolation cupolanon joel groman the beginning of metallurgy in outh central highland of peru paper delivered to the ociety for american archaeology 37th annual meeting may 972 the initial period i preumed to mean food production economy ca3 BCc 27

8 metal treatment were known in later peru that equalled led the bet technology of the old world craftmen 2 gold heet wa made by cating variou quantitie of gold ilver and copper into ingot ingol which contained numerou impuritie including trace of other element the cat ingot wa then made into heet by repeated hammering and annealing thi wa the only known proce of making thin metal heet in the new world thick heet metal called plate wa cat with ancient technology but example of thi type are rare the hammering and annealing proce produced a thin but uneven heet metal marked by numerou pock bock ee figure 4 made by the hammer and anvil examination of the padilla plate how no uch hammer pockmark but only lightly cratched mooth urface figure 4 gold foil from peru which ha been hammered to the deired thickne by tone tool note the rough pocked cocked appearance of the urface CRIPT LAYOUT AND ENGRAVING it i the engraving on the plate however that give them their book of mormon implication the padilla plate labelled 8 2 have engraved character on both ide laid out in a conitent ymmetry 2 2heather N lechtman ancient method of gilding ilver example from the old and the new world in cience and archaeology ed robert H brill cambridge ma MIT pre 97 and the gilding of metal in precolumbian Pre peru in application of cience in examination of art ed william J young boton mueum of fine art

9 five character can be read acro for the width and five for the length howing twentyfive character for each ide of each plate ee figure 5 the complex engraved character are mall meauring.65 to.84 the mallet character i.27 uch fine engraving probably required the ue of a magnifying gla during the engraving proce the engraving technique wa analyzed by don J chritenen of la vega nevada a profeional jewellen jeweller and engraver who aert that modern method were ued in engraving the figure 5 one ide of plate howing the ymmetry of character numbering five acro and five down plate 8 2 each exhibit thi peculiar ymmetry 29

10 plate chd chri chrl metal plate piate and in attaching the hinge onto the heet metal 3 chad tenen note that the heet metal i uniform in hardne and thickne and the attached hinge have been made with modern tubing die the hinge themelve have been attached to the plate4 by a plate 4 oft older which on plate 9 how a crack at the point of attachment ee figure 6 thi oft older can only be a lead bae probably mixed with tin which melt at around 35 F no other ue of oft older ha been found from pre columbian america only an alloyed type i known it wa made of gold copper and ometime ilver which melt at about 5 5 F 5 figure 6 note crack in oft older on the right ide of the hinge where it i attached to the plate hingeattachment on plate 9 conj lydon lldon donjj chritenen ofmm jchritenen J chntenen chitenen & on jeweler la vega nevada we have examined the mall gold and ilver alloyed plate you have numbered 3 preent century roller to obtain the uniform thickne and hardne alo the attached partial hinge i a tube of recent tubing die the engraving i done by hand uing teel engraving tool thi type of work could be done by anyone who i familiar with hand engraving at thi time it i my belief and undertanding that ancient engraving wa done by the method we preently call chaing that i by uing a tool and a mallet to propel the rool cool tool rooi in cutting the character the engraving in quetion wa not produced in thi to ray T matheny in our opinion thi i of fairly recent manufacture they would have been rolled out on fairly modem manner the edge of the plate appear to have been cut with a modem jeweler aw there are what appear to be aw or file mark on ome of the edge i 3 mm thi i a the thickne of the plate i tandard thickne in modern upply it i my opinion baed on the above evidence that the plate i a modem modern one made to look old and i not of ancient origin 4cylindrical Cylindrical hinge in near perfect ymmetry made in uch mall ize could only have been formed by a hard metal die and mandrel it i inconceivable that a metalmith mecal could have rolled gold heet to uch ymmetry a i repreented here by the tool available in pre columbian time I D T eabyjr ancient american goldmith natural hitory 65 october

11 ANALYI OF THE ENGRAVEN character art motif on the plate preent a curiou mixture of aztec maya and anthon trancript likenee plate 3 how five anthon trancript like ymbol at the bottom and an anthropomorphic head with croll poitioned over the character the head motif i alo found on a gold dik taken from the acred well at chichen itza yucatan mexico figure 3c figure 7a aa 6 the art tyle found on the gold dik i rendered in typical lowland maya curvilinear deign and i in particular noted for the pot claic period of the yucatan peninula 7the rendering on padilla plate 3 i crude in comparion to the dik found at chichen itza in that it tend to reduce the aethetic curvilinearity of the maya deign to more angular line figure 7b ab figure 7a aa part of an art motif found on a gold dik taken from the acred weill wellat chichen itza yucatan mexico after lothrop 952 figure 3c 7b ab ame motif found on padilla plate 3 amuel K lothrop metal from the cenote cenore benote of acrifice chichen Iitza irza arza yucatan memoir of the peabody mueum harvard univerity ilothrop call thi particular deign a maya one with the exception of the mall hatched line which he how to be a toltec characteritic ee lothrop metal from the cenote benote of acrifice p 32 3

12 rw vrr p 95 eler after ca c mexico yucatan 6 IF plate fio nio fil mema itza mera I padilla chichen on z at found lintel motif wooden ommo ame a on ab 8b wik irk found belll motif alg art mgt an of mael part mmel aa 8a figure

13 plate 6 ha three panel howing art motif nearly identical to 8 thoe found on a carved wooden lintel at chichen itza figure 8 again the deign i a crude rendering in comparion to the wooden lintel carving though the different cale mut be conidered thi lintel i dated to the pot claic occupation of the yucatan peninula plate 2 how a tree pictograph that i practically identical to that found on the aztec codex borbonicu Borbo which i dated to the ixteenth century other ymbol are interpered with the tree deign that are like thoe found on the anthon trancript the fourth et of ymbol are thoe identified a the anthon trancript there i an abundance of thee ymbol throughout all of the plate and everal other ymbol not aociated with the anthon trancript which i a copy of ymbol taken from the book of mormon plate by joeph mith martin harri then took the trancript to dr charle anthon and aked him to verify their authenticity the correpondence of the incription on the padilla plate to thoe of the anthon trancript are remarkable and thoe correpondence deerve very cloe analyi in checking on a poible ource for the anthon ymbol I wa told by dr gareth W lowe field director of the new world arc- chaeological foundation that the mexican miion had ued a tract in the early 96 entitled el libro de mormon la hitoria de la ame7 america ante de colon alt lake city deeret new pre nd in thi tract p 5 figure 9a aa the top four line of the anthon trancript were reproduced by an artit drawing not a photocopy of the original the bottom three line of the trancript were not reproduced in the tract checking the poibility that omeone had copied thee top four line a a bae for the ymbol ued in the padilla plate I broke down the entire et of anthon ymbol into baic element occurring ingly and in compound ee figure uing the crowley numbering ytem ee figure II 9 the ingle element did not need to be repeated to qualify ymbol that appear to be imilar to one another are lited a variant It iedward ledward redward eler geamnelte abhandlunger 5 graz autria akademiche ruck verlarantalt verlaranralt 96 p 283 ariel L crowley about the book of momon mormon nomon alt lake city deert new pre 96 crowleyr Crow fine work i well known hence the ue of hi numbered character it hould be noted that number and 99 are arc miing from crowleyr Crow ytem alo there i ome diagreement on the total number of eparately rarely rendered character for intance crowley number 36 and 37 would be a ingle ymbol to me compare the photocopy of the anthon trancript figure 9b ab 33

14 k va v3 v c cf C f C de 2 unknownc N libro 3 c aint zal nal can M cumm orig ol c la Can rt mormon Q inow zow G i r dal day zal N mez del eel K c f J by Q the 4 oma cha ohm de jf ql al 5 t latter C A A r bea t planchat plancha I plan emm la ek profeta 2 5 reproduced ta t3 libro to of el u believed fr it entitled jeu trancript colon church de anthon ey J Jf kauy aly chrit 6 r 3 J al 9 i IL 5 ry de trancript of Y f A tract A N N g o i J 3 L el ado copiado por miion ij & rv zae the zao r copi e ante ge morm6n tere omorman caractere rt 3 4 x I a 3 3aj 4j U y 74y v j 7i i carac 5 mc lo mcm toy moy tov t I t6 ta J a L A anthon & T hit- e y g of lineilij ilrj reorganized eme mexican america the emo of zae aa la aw the 3 four gol for mor de photocopy by ap KV hom top tcp artit oria held rv t wal 4 zao 4 A Z y i t F i 4 r yt l I 7 t j aa 9a ab 9b 7 f 3 c 5 r Q 7 Q 4 4 an fn f eli cli de AJ figure v wr r 5 p- E facimile ID 6

15 for example crowley number 4 i regarded a the ame a number 39 j i but in reality thee may have been eparate mor pheme cheme compound were regarded a aemblage of element which may be made up of infixe andor affixe appended to a baic element an example of the ue of an infix may be found by referring to the crowley number and 4 which how the ue of a a baic element without appendage but then eeing it ued a part of a compound infix in number 3 7 and 3 and in other an example of an affix may be found in crowley number 4 where the ymbol i appended by the affixe making a complete aemblage of but no element crocut another following thee imple rule allow u to make a reaonable breakdown of the anthon trancript and to ee at leat the limited number of ymbol ued ingly and in combination thi wa not an attempt to make a linguitic analyi of the anthon trancript I leave thi to epigrapher but it i a ueful device to iolate all poible component of ymbol available to anyone wihing to reproduce it further no claim i made that the element breakdown i complete it wa made a a matter of convenience for thi tudy uing thi method ninety five element and compound were dicerned which were ued a ymbol having ome preumed meaning of thee thirty ix are ingle occurring element many of which alo appear a part of compound ymbol ixty two are compound coniting of element noted above there are everal intance where ome of the element of the compound appear only in one compound ymbol and not ingly for example crowley number 2 coniting of element and can be conidered to make up a compound A it i only a ample of one or more of the writing ytem probably taken from a ingle text found on the gold plate from which joeph mith tranlated we would expect the anthon trancript to be an incomplete et of ymbol which i what we think to be the cae method of comparion of the anthon ymbol with thoe of the padilla plate wa to ue the above decribed element and compound lit placed in vertical column figure with the ymbol that appear on each numbered plate hown to the right in repective column autograph copie of each plate2 in an enlarged form were 2oautograph copie of the ymbol found on each plate were made by william adam jr a cholar of emitic language 35

16 elgg ate P a dog pad log i 2 2 ale ate alm d P 2 by ra r number in preent c in preent Q on wex mex ioell X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X ement E a cement ro number compound i compound wff aff wll qa q4 ae xe ap 6p J l tn LJ wm m 8 f I nf H c ma ba mam JC cdc kwo 6 lwo JC A 4 o crowley number ate PQ a pod pad ne preent Q & 2 2 e OJ 2 co 2 ma by g 9 b mam gam 2 number n g preent mexican a tract i X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X ement 6 E compound number H compound wem wm a 8 aff T TR73 r J 6 ih 6 cement E wem wm nf c bam ba mam 5 n tcccrf 9 fa c 3 3 ey 3 crow kolh number kokh kom 28 lom 2728 ha h3 ken 27 36

17 eft my u ate i P ame the amo 5 iu pom pod mom ce nev cov In ohe ate ohm 2 eal par emr affixe eal par eol P 8 n bat bal but preent ii meble entin melle preentia preentin a dumm Pre dumo gemel ement gegel number L oem ome inl 78 c rt t by n a a rt b appear CL tat3 CL mch and mcq C oae can oak ci rt eoh pact ex x M d ompoun lue number f CO 78 jcompound M ap 3p 5 K ymbol E infixe io on c of ed w ID U Q labe Q 3 number a cement EC crowley plate eg am wff aff aft N C number j a rt 3 which E Z identification iwlm al 3 G yi C nf c vj t L odo olo ago are mgo ilymbol ma mam ba J L U a c - e moal aoma oeck crow c compound 5 element 49- w c iu t 2 e e number number abdi pbdi Q Q b t- e3 belled 2j t3 n 98 plate ai 5i 2 2 ia i2 to baic 2 la by Q Q tat3 aoa moa mam gam c c mab gab IL C preentn j n preent a ement gan can gam czj Ecaj a element crowley wex mex xen a tract compound number number X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X compound go N 4 rc woko quo IZZ cement u formiii i into C igcompound u 2 gabelled labelled appended bbb amt amm a- rt C trancript t ago are mgo H ta J column ebfe U rt 2 xem wff aff wlk 2 nom mom Q i fie till r c mam ba mom 5 5- rt c element J anthon 3 lao the aae 5 baic of c E ame the amoc under U appear & ymbol p ll mec mez g 3 j ITT I 6 co H U 9 J j ar r tratr IJ l lew 24 leg ga g breakdown numbered H hand 3 fal ffl C C U figure

18 ued againt the ymbol lit of the anthon trancript looking either for ingle element that tood alone or for compound A total of thirty eight anthon trancript like ymbol appear on the padilla plate of thee twenty three are compound and fifteen are ingle ymbol recognizably the ame or greatly imilar to the trancript rendered by joeph mith 2 everal of the compound ymbol are complex aemblage of up to ten part which would eem to rule out accidental duplication how do we account for the fact that o large a number of the anthon trancript ymbol appear on the padilla plate in almot identical tyle recall the mexican miionary tract that ha the top four line of the anthon trancript reproduced by an artit figure 9a aa an analyi of thee four line of ymbol and thoe found on the padilla plate reveal a curiou fact 669 occur on the plate an 66 occuron analyi of ymbol found on the bottom three line of the anthon trancript how that of thoe ymbol that were not already diplayed in the top four line of the miionary tract only three one only in part are found on the padilla plate forty that do not appear in the top four line do not appear on the padilla plate if even one complicated compound ymbol from the bottom three line of the anthon trancript appeared on the padilla plate one would be forced to conider ome ource other than the miionary tract but ince the only ymbol that can be correlated are a imple dah a dot and one zigzag zag line element number 64 then we mut look at thee a being purely accidental correpondence concluion ince dr padilla ha provided tetimony concerning when how and where the plate were found and ha maintained over the pat thirteen year that thi tory i true the plate were invetigated from the point of view that they were genuine each quetion that wa generated about the technology of the plate during the in- vetigation wa treated in uch a way a to dicover the nature of the tool and technique of their manufacture layout and cutting of the plate were remarkably accurate to ay the leat A flat urface perpendicular reference and preciion meauring device were required in addition the plate were cut by a fine toothed aw a type commonly employed by jeweler today dean C jeee ha identified the handwriting of the anthon trancript a that ofjoeph mith jr however thi ha been challenged 38

19 c6 lol N J ift I 9 gli 9 tt a f cajai iol or Lr3 3 egl egi 9 j av 5v rato I av 7v V 9 q Y obi g K 9 8 go V 8 a N I 9 V 9 alti L 8 6 N 69f dil all 5 lil ill lii ogi6 6 & igl igi z6 c6 t a r antl intl I 6 96 v 5 a f gil V q 66 3 q 95 loz lor 5o i r i jaj3 2 goz cal rol i 69 akol antol w 9 CN 4 N loz LOI 9 r goz zt mgt mzgt gat t6ct bat 6at j f 2 ort crt I rt lw T 4 M ci ti arz trz eel N 9czi 9zi fll r U J j c k f c V LV p 7 jl p t all eli I m giz 9an al i anz LIZ i atl 99 iwg btl 6tl V cwg 67 t P i alti P flti B mig mir i ozz f I 5v a r p ct J j acl zcl ZLI 2 EV N KI xx izz u lu v 39

20 thee intrument were not available to ancient american metallurgit and were available to old world craftmen only in relatively recent time the production of gold alloy heet with the cloe tolerance of thickne of the padilla plate i mot certainly a modern achievement the method of engraving i alo a modern one requiring finely made hardened teel tool the making of cylindrical hinge in uch perfect ymmetry i alo atonihing a i the fact that they were oldered by a technique known only in recent time the copied art motif from the wooden lintel located at chichen itza and from the gold dik taken from the acred well of the ame archaeological ite are clumy attempt to portray authenticity it i highly unlikely that thee motif being individual work of art hould be duplicated in another medium by another culture at another location at another time further the copying of the aztec ymbol from the codex borbonicu Borbo wa an act of little ingenuity it i difficult to imagine a written medium howing writing ymbol ued from the book of mormon period which cloed at AD 42 according to pratt chronology mixed with ymbol ued over year later by the aztec azteca and yet another of the claic maya period the cript ued for the plate clearly wa in part copied from the mexican miionary tract which upplied a large percentage of the total number of ymbol ued not only wa the artit apparently unaware that the bottom three line of the anthon trancript were not printed on the mexican tract but he alo failed to undertand the clutering of ymbol that occur in any language in hi indicriminate ditribution of the anthon figure 22 additionally we mut conider that the anthon trancript wa written with a quill pen or equivalent thi i evident in the fact that the ymbol begin with a thin line then widen on the curvilinear troke thu when we ee the anthon trancript duplicated on metal or other media with the ame curvilinear troke we upect that it i a copy from the pen and ink rendition without a change in artitic tyle uch a rendition in itelf contitute ground for rejection it i my opinion that the padilla plate are not authentic becaue of any one of the major technological anachronim given above but given all of the factor conidered the cae againt the authenticity of the padilla plate hould be cloed once and for all 22 22william adam jr cryptographic analyi of the padilla plate unpublihed manucript march 973 adam comment on the padilla plate ugget that the artit of the plate eem to have gotten mixed up in the direction the ymbol hould appear ome ymbol and clutering of ymbol are rendered backward M in the poeion of paul R cheeman BYU religion department 4