Hugh W. Nibley

Hugh Winder Nibley (March 27, 1910 – February 24, 2005) was an American author, Mormon apologist, and professor at Brigham Young University. His works—which mainly attempt to demonstrate archaeological, linguistic, and historical evidence for the claims of Joseph Smith, Jr.—although not official positions of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), are highly regarded within the LDS community.

A prolific author and professor of Biblical and Mormon scripture at BYU, he was fluent in numerous languages,^[2] including Classical Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian, Coptic, Arabic, German, French, English, Italian, and Spanish. He studied Dutch and Russian during World War II. He also studied Old Bulgarian and Old English, and his fluency in Old Norse was reportedly sufficient to enable him to read an entire encyclopedia in Norwegian.^{[citation needed]}

Nibley wrote and lectured on LDS scripture and doctrinal topics, publishing many articles in LDS Church magazines. His An Approach to the Book of Mormon was adopted in 1957 as a religious lesson manual by the LDS Church.

Here is what he had to say about "Los Lunas":

Lecture 30: Mosiah 6
Hugh W. Nibley
Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute

Question: The Phoenicians were ship people. Is it possible that the Mulekites had some connection with them?

Answer: Remember, if Lehi wanted to do business, he would do it either through Sidon, or he could do it through Tyre. But Sidon was the main port at that time. It's a very interesting thing that the Phoenicians controlled Sidon at that time. They didn't always, but at that time they controlled Sidon. And there were the Philistines at the same time. They were the coast people too. Of course, the Phoenicians spoke a language just like Hebrew, and they were the great ship people too. The alphabet and other things are attributed to the Phoenicians because they got around so much. They got around all over the place in Phoenician ships. You've heard of Cyrus Gordon. The Phoenicians came here, and you can find Phoenician inscriptions in Brazil, etc. In fact, I went down to see what was supposed to be a big Phoenician inscription (I think it was faked) on a rock at Los Lunas in New Mexico, where the ancient turquoise mines were. There was an inscription there and it was perfectly good Phoenician, but I thought somebody may have faked it. There was a bad mistake; somebody had gone over the letters recently with a sharp tool and they were all fresh cut. If they had left them alone so [the experts] could use the lighting etc., then you could see. But that can be decided. So the Phoenicians got around too. Barry Fell, the Harvard marine biologist, has all sorts of crackpot theories about the Libyans coming over here, etc. But actually there were Kon Tiki and the Ra. Heyerdahl's voyages were to show that the trip could be made in either direction, on either the Pacific or the Atlantic. He crossed from Egypt in a reed boat; imagine a boat made of nothing but rushes. We are told that Lehi's ship was a more solid structure than that, but these things are all right.

http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=117&chapid=1350