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IMPORTANCE OF INCENSE

NEW EVIDENCE OF MIGRATION OF BIBLICAL PEOPLES TO THE NEW WORLD


by John L. Sorenson, PhD

Of the many evidences of early contacts between Mesoamerica and the Near East which are coming to light through current research, some of the most striking concern the use of incense. In the Near East,
incense was used ceremonially in ancient times probably to a greater extent than anywhere else in the world except Mesoamerica.

The importance of incense-burning in Hebrew ritual is clear in the Old Testament. Examination of the ideas and practices of these two widely- separated areas, the Near East and Mesoamerica, shows many parallels.
Some of these are: (1). use in periodic temple rites, (2). incensing holy objects and officiates, (3). in divinations, (4). in New Year renewal ceremonies, (5). accompanying sacrifices, etc. In all areas the ascending smoke symbolized prayer rising to heaven. Other details of concept and practice are equally striking. Confirming these
parallels is a remarkable likeness in the incense burners themselves.

Numerous specific details link those found in early highland Guatemalan sites with a type quite common in the Near East about 3000 years ago. Significant is the fact that the likeness is strongest in the earliest examples yet found in Guatemala, dating to perhaps 500 BC, while the same general type had already had a long history in the Near East by then and passed out of fashion soon after.

The complex parallels in ideas, practices, and paraphernalia involving incense in religious practices of both the Near East and Guatemala seems explainable only on the basis of a movement of people from the former area to the latter. Additional evidence of such a connection is seen in the use of the oracle or "seer" stone by peoples of ancient and even modern Mesoamerica, especially Yucatan and Guatemala. The Urim and Thummim of
the Israelites was only one example of widespread use of such stones in the Old World for predicting the future. A certain traditional account from ancient Mexico strongly suggests that one colonizing group arrived there by sea in the distant past, divinely guided by means of a sacred stone.