Shout Out to Shulem!

[Shulem]

I'm certainly willing to read through whatever sources you recommend to help pin the time frame down.

A very good reference:

Full text of "SAGA OF THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM"

[Shulem]

Considering the possibility that the sketch doodling on the paper backing may have occurred in Nauvoo (rather than Ohio) makes better sense *IF* Smith did in fact remove the papyrus jackal head from the vignette of Facsimile No. 1, BECAUSE in Nauvoo he was initiated heavily into the Masonic Order. Would Smith had known about Anubis having Masonic associations back in Ohio? Probably not. It's reasonable to assume that Smith had full access to Masonic books and manuals in Nauvoo when he assumed new responsibilities in the Order.

Oh my. It never occurred to me that the doodling may have happened after Kirtland -- looking so fresh and vibrant that it overlaid the glue and paper in such magnitude that even Hauglid wondered if it was as late as the 20th century. One thing we can be sure is that the doodling is NOT conventional Egyptology or drawn by someone with an understanding of Egyptian conventions. It is the doodling of an ignorant artist.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

I wonder if that’s a masonic all-seeing eye above the priest representing god? I was trying to figure out if it was Ra or Horus watching Anubis prepare the body. The sketch of the eye seems cleaner than that of the priest or Abraham. You might be onto something in that there are two ‘eras’ of penciling on the document.

[Shulem]

Which also leads me to think that *IF* the doodling occurred in Nauvoo and *IF* the jackal head was removed from the glued papyrus to accommodate the doodling of the priest's head, then it can be reasoned that the head was torn out for the same reason that the nose was scraped off the lead plate because both persons looked the SAME on the papyrus of Facsimiles 1 & 3, and according to Freemasonry, Anubis was the Dog-star, not a slave.

Oh my. Could it be?

Lem-baby, u there, gurl?

[Lem]

Which also leads me to think that *IF* the doodling occurred in Nauvoo and *IF* the jackal head was removed from the glued papyrus to accommodate the doodling of the priest's head, then it can be reasoned that the head was torn out for the same reason that the nose was scraped off the lead plate because both persons looked the SAME on the papyrus of Facsimiles 1 & 3, and according to Freemasonry, Anubis was the Dog-star, not a slave.

Oh my. Could it be?

Lem-baby, u there, gurl?

Here and present. You gave me a reading assignment, remember? and I am ON IT.

I'll have to read up on the masonic connection, also. My only question at this point, the 'forward facing priest with knife' sketch must have been there at least in 1841-2, in order for the two eyewitness accounts to mention it, right? Already, under glass, If I recall correctly? Or were their descriptions purely based on the descriptions shown with mounted papyrus?

[Lem]

I wonder if that’s a masonic all-seeing eye above the priest representing god? I was trying to figure out if it was Ra or Horus watching Anubis prepare the body. The sketch of the eye seems cleaner than that of the priest or Abraham. You might be onto something in that there are two ‘eras’ of penciling on the document.

I call it the Warren Aston UFO sketch (!), but yes, it does seem like something was started there, but not finished, at least on that surface.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

[Shulem]

Here and present. You gave me a reading assignment, remember? and I am ON IT.

I'll have to read up on the masonic connection, also. My only question at this point, the 'forward facing priest with knife' sketch must have been there at least in 1841-2, in order for the two eyewitness accounts to mention it, right? Already, under glass, If I recall correctly? Or were their descriptions purely based on the descriptions shown with mounted papyrus?

Yes, the sketching of the priest's head and knife must have been there in order for eyewitnesses to be able to describe that they actually saw such things. There is nothing more to my knowledge anywhere in the corpus of church records that shows the priest and knife other than Facsimile No. 1, published via the metal plate in 1842. So, that's why I deduce that they had to have seen the sketches on the paper backing. The only objects taken from the papyrus vignette of Facsimile No. 1 and transferred into Smith's personal records are two images:

1. Ba bird.............................(Fig. 1. The Angel of the Lord)
2. Qebehsenuef god................(Fig. 5. The idolatrous god of Elkenah)

Both images are in the upper right hand corner, here:

Notebook of Copied Characters, circa Early July 1835

[Shulem]

[Shulem]

But that's NOT to say that another sketch of the vignette of Facsimile No. 1 did not exist, perhaps there was another sketch, but it's long since missing and nobody today knows about it. The Hypocephalus was a unique article in Smith's collection, a single item, and it was officially sketched on paper and remains safe to this day in the Kirtland Egyptian Papers. But as I mentioned above the only surviving sketches that remain of Abraham's sacrifice scene are one of the gods and the Ba-bird (located at top right in this link). You'd think that any and all official sketches would have remained in Church hands, safe, within the papers and notebooks kept by the First Presidency. The papyrus, however, was sold and and lost forever except for the fragments that turned up in the New York Metropolitan Museum and subsequently returned to the Church in 1967. But for all we know, there is more papyrus out there in some vault or attic drawer, tucked away and lost in obscurity of time.

Could Joseph Fielding Smith hid up or destroyed evidence to this effect? We know that Joseph Fielding Smith hid the First Vision account written in Joseph's own hand. So, I wouldn't put it past the old bastard to have hidden or destroyed other records. I think that I'm being entirely reasonable in making a supposition to accuse him of that kind of wrong doing.

Or maybe Joseph Smith himself got rid of sketches showing jackal headed Anubis?