The Book of Mormon uses some form of the word "seal" more than two dozen times. Writings are sealed to come forth unadulterated at a later date
1 Nephi 14:26,
2 Nephi 26:17. Writings are sealed to keep them hidden from unworthy readers
2 Nephi 27:7-8. Writings are sealed to place them in divine hands for safekeeping
2 Nephi 30:3. Things are sealed or bound and then later loosed
2 Nephi 30:17. Prophets seal their words as testimony that will be used later in court proceedings
2 Nephi 33:15. Righteous people can be sealed to God
Mosiah 5:15. Martyrdom seals the truthfulness of a prophet's words
Mosiah 17:20. Wicked people can be sealed to Satan
Alma 34:35. Priesthood power can seal things reciprocally on earth and in heaven
Helaman 10:7. Authors personally sealed epistles delivered to political rivals.
3 Nephi 3:5. Accompanying objects could be sealed along with writings
Ether 3:22-23. Writings, Interpretation of writings, and holy objects could all be sealed together
Ether 4:5. Sealing physical objects was a caching, archival or repository function
Ether 5:1. Sealing was an act of completion or finality
Moroni 10:2.
The act of sealing something, particularly writing, was important enough in the Nephite worldview that it would not be surprising to find seals in the Mesoamerican archaeological record, and we do. This collection of roller stamps or cylinder seals is housed in the Snite Museum on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The seals were used to make impressions in plastic materials such as wax or clay, and to ink patterns on paper, skin or fabric. Most of these seals came from a single cache at the Olmec site of Las Bocas, Puebla.
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| Olmec Cylinder Seal with Net Design, Unknown Provenience |
This seal has an image of the sun god in profile.
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| Olmec Roller Seal from Las Bocas, Puebla ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC |
This seal shows the stylized earth monster.
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| Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Pubela, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC |
Seal with floral motif.
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| Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC |
Seal with serpent and Venus symbols.
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| Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC |
Seal with net and serrated panel.
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| Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC |
Seal with flaming eyebrow motif.
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| Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC |
Seal with opposed paws design.
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| Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC |
Seal with waves and checkerboard motif.
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| Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC |
Seal with serrated lines and squares.
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| Late Classic Veracruz Roller Seal, ca. AD 600 - 900 |
Seal with harpy eagle symbolism.
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| Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC |
Seal with triangles and arcs.
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| Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC |
Seal with stylized toads.
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| Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC |
Even more germane to the Book of Mormon is this ceramic bowl depicting a bound, tied, or sealed screen-fold codex.
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Olmec Earthenware Pot, Tlapacoya, Mexico, Mexico
Ayotla Phase, ca. 1,500 - 1,300 BC |
This map shows the locations of Las Bocas, Puebla and Tlapacoya, Estado de Mexico.
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| Locations of Tlapacoya and Las Bocas |
Cylinder Seals were used extensively in Mesopotamia where nearly every elite person carried one around their neck or attached to their arm. In that culture, a seal was used much like a person's signature nowadays. Some cylinder seals had handles like a rolling pin. Others had concave surfaces on either end for holding between one's fingers. Most were hollow in the center so a stick or cord could be inserted as an axle. In Mesoamerica, cylinder seals are known from Yucatan, Patzcuaro (Michoacan), Xochimilco (Mexico City), and Tlatilco (Mexico City). Tim Tucker, working for BYU's
New World Archaeological Foundation, excavated a cache of cylinder seals inside a stone box at Chiapa de Corzo. See Thomas A. Lee,
The Artifacts of Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico (Provo: BYU New World Archaeological Foundation Paper #26, 1969). Other cylinder seals have been found at Tres Zapotes, La Venta, and Kaminaljuyu.
