Athanasius Kircher and Egyptian Hieroglyphics

The name Athanasius Kircher might be familiar to those involved in Mormon historical scholarship because of his link to Joseph Smith and Joseph Smith’s description of the Liahona, though that’s a topic for another day.

It turns out Joseph Smith is also connected to Kircher through Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Athanasius Kircher was a Jesuit scholar active in the 1600s, long before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and our ability to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The DNA of the Teotihuacan People

In the Mormon church, the Book of Mormon claims the people of ancient America, the Indian and indigenous people, are the descendants of Jews that crossed the Atlantic ocean in ancient history. Multiple DNA studies have already shown this not to be true. However, until very recently the DNA of the Teotihuacan people was still a mystery.

This is an interesting little video explaining that we’ve finally been able to identify the DNA of the Teotihuacan people and guess what? They’re not from Israel either.