Stone Boxes in the Old and New World
by George Potter
What could Joseph Smith, Jr. have known about the ancient tradition of burying sacred items in stone boxes? The Bible says nothing about the subject. Yet, the Prophet recorded that:
“Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box.. The box which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates.”. (Joseph Smith – History 51-52)
In 1998 Richard Wellington found this box in the Wadi Tayyib al-Ism, the canyon we believe is the Valley of Lemuel.
This stone box is on exhibit in the Saudi National Archaeology Museum in Riyadh.
The cover story in the March 2003 edition of the Smithsonian magazine was “Unraveling the Mysteries of Machu Picchu”. Machu Picchu was discovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, yet many of the artifacts he discovered have not been seen, except by scholars for over eight decades. Included in these is a curious box that was buried. The Smithsonian article describes the box thusly: “Bingham unearthed a stone box embellished with geometric motifs, it was likely intended for use in rituals and perhaps contained ceremonial objects[1]”. What do you think?
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[1] Fergus M. Bordewich, “Winter Palace”, Smithsonian, March 2003, 109.
