Criticism of Mormonism/Books/By His Own Hand upon Papyrus: A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri/Larson "restoration" of Facsimile 1

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A FAIR Analysis of: By His Own Hand upon Papyrus: A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri A work by author: Charles Larson

An analysis of the Charles M. Larson restoration of Facsimile 1 compared against the original papyrus

Hand versus bird wing

The Larson restoration presumes that the upper hand represented in Facsimile 1 is instead the wing of a bird. There are several elements which disprove this.

• It is clear that the Egyptian artist drew wings in a specific manner, as can be observed by the wing of the bird on the right.
• The two hands have distinct thumbs.
• The assumption that ink spots on the hand represent spots on the birds wing is disproven by close examination of the original, which shows ink traces that indicated that the lines were originally connected.
• It is also clear that the missing ink correlates with cracks in the papyri. Note that the cracks extend across all fingers, and that the ink has flaked off along the cracks.
• Note that the index finger (the one next to the thumb) is continuous in the original, but was broken into two parts in the Larson restoration.

Clothing on the reclining figure: Legs, skirt and phallus

The Larson restoration adds a phallus on the reclining figure. The assumption appears to be that the hash marks on the legs represent breeches. One can also observe this assumption on the Hedlock restoration contained in the Book of Abraham.

• An examination of the original papyrus shows that the legs of the figure were drawn, and that a wraparound Egyptian skirt was then drawn over them. The clothing is not a pair of breeches. This is not event in the Larson image, as the two lines distinguishing the legs and the skirt are merged into a single, fat line.
• It can be seen in the closeup detail that the hash lines of the skirt extend beyond the lines of the leg, intersecting the outer line of the skirt.
• It can also be seen that the skirt is curved, whereas the legs are straight.
• The Larson restoration adds a phallus (which we have chosen to obscure) in the location of the figure's navel, based upon the location of the intersection of the legs and an estimate of where the top of the skirt would appear.

Head of the priest

The head of the priest in the Hedlock restoration appears to simply copy the head of the reclining figure. An examination of the papyrus, however, shows evidence that the head was originally that of Anubis. In this case, the Larson restoration appears to be correct.

• Note that there is a portion of the back of Anubis's headdress visible in the original.
• It is more likely that the back of the headdress showed hair rather than a solid as represented in the Larson image.