Although historians and archaeologists consider the book to be an anachronistic invention of joseph smith, many members of the church of jesus christ of latterday saints and other denominations of the latter day saint movement believe that it describes ancient historical events in the americas. Underwater archaeology and the book of mormon in sorensons mormon s codex. Tres zapotes is close to where the final jaredite and nephite battles are. It comes with an optional explanatory booklet entitled book of mormon mesoamerican historic geography, and is available online in time for christmas. A student of mayan history and a believer of the church must not assume that these parallels represent church doctrine or get defensive when evidence points against writings in the book of mormon. Mesoamerican archaeology and book of mormon connections. He said there was no publisher for the book yet, but hoped to find one soon. Aztec art mesoamerican mayan ruins book of mormon a whole new world dream vacations continents the magicians places to travel. This claim, as well as all claims to historical authenticity of the book of mormon, are rejected by nonlatter day saint historians and scientists. For example, he criticizes sorensons comment that the cows, asses, and swine of the book of mormon might be mesoamerican animals such as deer, tapirs, and peccaries. Even before the book of mormon was published, mormonism was linked to the moundbuilder civilizations of north america. Book of mormon and dna studies gospel topics essay. John gee, two notes on egyptian script, journal of book of mormon studies, vol. Garth norman, who has advanced degrees in both archaeology and ancient scripture.
The first of these peoples, called jaredites, are supposed to have come to the hitherto. The book of mormon and mesoamerican archeology book of. Review of book of mormon geographymesoamerican historic geography 2006, by v. It comes with an optional explanatory booklet entitled book of mormon mesoamerican historic geography, and is available online. Book of mormon geography jeff lindsays site and the. Hutchinsons criticism of john sorensons work on book of mormon geography is a gross oversimplification and the problems he claims to identify are mostly nonexistent. There are ninetythree footnotes in sorensons article, but the parallels do not begin until note seventeen. One man who claimed to have heard a reading of the lost 116 pages said it was a description of the mounds about the country and similar to the book of mormon.
Mayan civilization and parallels to the book of mormon. The book of mormon geography lands and map with dna evidence. First, if the book is an ancient mesoamerican record, most past arguments for. Since the book of mormon text mentions horses rarely, the likelihood of finding bones or other remains of their horses becomes even more remote. Joseph smith starts with what the angel told him and then provides his own description of the book of mormon narrative for the press.
See more ideas about archaeology, lds and book of mormon. The main passage mentions the land of nephi bordering on the seas, a narrow strip of wilderness, the land of zarahemla, and the headwaters of the river sidon see alma 22. H38 virus true book of mormon geography lands western. Table 1 lists animals mentioned in the book of mormon and their possible mesoamerican correlates as suggested by sorenson 1985, 299. Most suppose that the volume was a personal literary creation.
Anthropologist mark wrights 2008 fair conference address on similarities between mesoamerica and the book of mormon. Many accounts of significant lands and cities are given in the book of mormon. If the book of mormon is not historical, and if it is read only as fiction, then any pretense to it being an additional witness for the divinity of jesus in any worthwhile sense is obliterated. Engaging in such anachronistic backreading truly does turn history into voltaires pack. Discussion regarding the historicity of the book of mormon often focuses on archaeological issues, some of which relate to the large size and the long time span of the civilizations mentioned in the book. Book of mormonmesoamerican historic geography see more. Book of mormon geographymesoamerican historic geography. The earliest known olmec city was up and running by 0 bc and it was preceded by a large community on the same spot dating back to 1700 bc.
Book of mormonlanguagereformed egyptian fairmormon. The maya and the olmec have a written languagea requirement for book of mormon peoples, who kept records. Sorenson, the book of mormon as a mesoamerican codex, newsletter and proceedings of the society for early historic archaeology 9 december 1976. Ever since it was first published in 1830, claiming to contain the word of god as recorded by precolombian americans in a golden bible, it has had its passionate defenders and equally adamant critics. First published in 1830, the book of mormon tells of the transoceanic migrations of two ancient near eastern peoples to the americas. It is designed to bring greater understand and appreciation to this sacred record, and invite its contribution to constructing a more accurate mesoamerican history. Underwater archaeology and the book of mormon in sorenson. Several mesoamerican civilizations did exist in the time period covered by the book of mormon, including the olmec, zapotec and maya. The book of mormon is a religious record of three groups of people who migrated from the old world to the american continents. Once claimed in the 1950s to be a representation of lehis dream. In checking correlations between the book of mormon and mesoamerican archaeology, we focus on the rise and decline of cities. The three authors of an lds guide to mesoamerica, walk us through the lands of the book of mormon.
Official statement on book of mormon geography and its. Archaeological sites in mesoamerica book of mormon central. The imperative for a historical book of mormon the. The book of mormon must be historical and read as history in order for it to really contain the fullness of the theological power it claims to have. Why are horses mentioned in the book of mormon lds living. In an ancient american setting for the book of mormon 1985, sorenson observed that the level of the lake atitlan had fluctuated somewhat in historic times. In recent years, arguments about book of mormon geography have gotten heated, particularly between proponents of mesoamerican and heartland models though some have tried to merge the two. The archaeological and historical evidence indicates that the ancient people that we call olmecs in our day are the same people, called the jaredites in the book of mormon. As near as i can tell, the primary source that the mesoamerican proponents rely on to reject the new york cumorah from an archaeological standpoint is an article by john e. Animals in the book of mormon mormon lds reformation.
Made popular by his 1985 publication an ancient american setting for the book of mormon, sorensons geographic model for the book of mormon has withstood the test of time and remains the preeminent geographic model for book of mormon events. See more ideas about book of mormon, mayan ruins and lds art. The book of mormon contains an odd little aside about a shortage of wood leading to buildings made of cement and shipping wood from other places. They constitute a strong case that the book of mormon is an ancient mesoamerican record, an authentic old book. Archaeological trends and the book of mormon origins byu. Ever since, faithful and talented lds scholars have sought to vindicate what they thought joseph smith taught and believed. This conclusion harbors multiple ironies, two worth touching on in closing.
The land of first inheritance to the west see alma 22. The olmec and zapotec civilizations developed a writing system that may have served as the model for the later mayan writing system, which became highly developed. The number seven was significant to the precolumbian communities of mesoamerica, as it was in the book of mormon. Garth normans map book of mormon archaeological forum. A contemporary mormon view is that these civilizations rose and fell in mesoamerica. The book of mormon mentions many different kinds of animals, for the most part those which would have been found in an old world setting. Controversy, evidence, and two cumorahs the book of mormon is not intended to be a history book or a guide to geography, science, or any other secular topic. Archaeological and historical evidence jareditesolmecs.
It was produced after forty years of research by archaeologist v. This page is a supplement to my book of mormon evidences page. New revelations of the americas before columbus by charles c. Mesoamerica is the site of the only literate precolumbian population. World wide distribution of the book of mormon has exceeded 115,000,000. The nephite account is a record that resembles in form, nature, and functionsin scores of characteristics, in factwhat we would expect in an ancient mesoamerican codex, a type of document that was utterly unknown to joseph smith. Another area of agreement between mesoamerican and book of mormon writing is the adaptability of characters to serve more than one language.
The book of mormon principally describes gods dealings with two c. It is a book of scripture aimed at teaching people about christ and how to find happiness through the gospel. Civilizations of their magnitude and duration would be expected to leave extensive archaeological records. According to joseph smith and subsequent presidents and apostles of the lds church, the geographical extent of book of mormon lands included virtually all of north and south america.
See the discussion on the matter in my the book of mormon as a mesoamerican codex, newsletter and proceedings, society for early historic archaeology 9 1976, p. The foundation for ancient research and mormon studies farms, a major mormon apologetic. It is easy, therefore, to see why latterday saints typically associate the nephites or lamanites with the maya. Wine culture in the hellenistic mediterranean ancient world magazine. Sorenson said the book will cover at least 420 points at which the book of mormon has mesoamerican material in it, material that could not possibly have been included by anyone except an ancient mesoamerican writer of the fourth century a. Because nine of sorensons traits have no book of mormon sources, the. This book of mormon companion study map with introductory text opens the real mesoamerican world of mormons historic record to the student and scholar. The king james quotations in the book of mormon, the history of the text of the book of mormon. Clark titled archaeology and cumorah questions, published by the journal of book of mormon studies, 12 2004. Still, several items mentioned in the book of mormon once considered anachronistic have since been verified. Olsen has proposed a malay site for the book of mormon, and says, in particular, ive focused on the problems associated with the mesoamerican setting proposed by john l. According to most adherents of the latter day saint movement, the book of mormon is a 19thcentury translation of a record of ancient inhabitants of the american continent, which was written in a script which the book refers to as reformed egyptian.
Sorenson is a professor emeritus of anthropology at brigham young university. Law of moses in mesoamerican terms book of mormon evidence. Sorenson has found interesting correlations between book of mormon events and precolumbian american history in mesoamerica central and southern mexico and northern central. The book of mormon as a mesoamerican record book of. Since the publication of the book of mormon in 1830, mormon archaeologists have attempted to find archaeological evidence to support it. Book of mormonlamanitesrelationship to amerindiansmaya. A panmesoamerica legend tells of a core people descended from seven tribes, which may coincide with the seven lineages mentioned three times in the book of mormon. Sorenson in ancient american setting and in many other books and articles, which is currently the. The scientific search for nephite remains mormons in.
Consequently, his words about the jaredite and israelite migrations do not come from the angel moroni. If you arent familiar with the book of mormon, please see my book of mormon introduction page and get your own free copy at. The book of mormon itself reported to be a complex historic record deserves serious investigation, as much as the popol vuh, especially considering its claimed historic reality from ancient america and its foundational belief by the rapidly growing mormon world religion. According to the church of jesus christ of latterday saints mormon church, the book of mormon is a divinely inspired revelation that is complimentary to the bible. Finally there is a way to really explore john sorensons book of mormon geography.
Although it may be surprising to joseph smith and other church leaders, as well as to the majority of current lds believers, modern book of mormon scholars insist that the book of mormon is actually the story of a relatively small group of israelites who were immediately subsumed within a larger, preexisting, native mesoamerican population. The book of mormon is a highly controversial book in the light of mesoamerican archeology. The book of mormon records the visit of jesus christ to people in the americas following his resurrection. Archaeological evidence seems to indicate that the main core or center of the jaredite civilization was located on the mexican gulf coast, in what are now the southern. Revisiting the seven lineages of the book of mormon and. In this page, i discuss the recent discoveries in mesoamerica which have caused a complete paradigm shift in the thinking of scholars. They discuss early church assumptions as to where the people of the book of mormon lived, and then discuss the plausible locale that is theorized by most lds scholars today. Archaeological trends and the book of mormon origins.
These groups were led by prophets who recorded their religious and secular histories on metal plates. Animals in the book of mormon june 12, 20 2 comments in scriptural science, scriptural science sticky posts by lbw many book of mormon critics try to show issues or anachronisms with the lists of animals found in its narrative. Most interesting is the process of discussing an alternate geography by contrasting it with sorensons. This book locates everything from the narrow neck, to zarahemla, from cumorah, to the land of promise, bountiful, and more. Although there was a soundconnected element, as pointed out earlier, culturally related peoples could adapt the system either by memorizing the phonetic determinatives or by substituting new ones. I have a problem with believers who insist the book of mormon is an ancient mesoamerican text when such a claim requires distorting and misleading statements about both the content of the book of mormon, and most especially, about mesoamerican history.
377 1086 887 1533 764 957 90 367 801 803 1325 1105 1289 1288 1485 1110 183 1409 846 1454 448 927 292 554 86 1216 760 599 1602 546 1170 583 21 1024 75 1472 71 666 275