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Sunday, October 14, 2012

Where Did the Book of Mormon Take Place?

I'm going out on a limb today and entering a subject that is complete speculation, but interesting to me. The subject is: Where did the Book of Mormon take place?

Is it necessary for our salvation and faith? No. But I like a mystery, so here are some of my thoughts on the issue.


The specific location of the Book of Mormon lands have never been revealed. This has led to a lot of speculation and theories. I have seen theories and ideas of where the Book of Mormon lands were located, ranging from western New York (basically, in the area where the Gold Plates had been stored), the American "Heartland" (i.e., the mid-West), to North and South America generally (the narrow neck of land being the isthmus of Panama), to Central America (generally, the area of the Yucatan Peninsula across to the Pacific, although there are competing ideas), and even some theories placing the region in Africa and Malaysia.

The primary clue is that, at least prior to Christ's appearance in the Americas, the Nephites and Lamanites lived in an area that was bordered on the east and west by seas, and to the north and south by narrow necks of lands (almost universally considered to be isthmus). The problem is that the Book of Mormon reports that a massive geological disaster at the time of Christ's death changed the whole face of the land. We read from 3 Nephi 8:
And it came to pass in the athirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great bstorm, such an one as never had been known in all the land.
 And there was also a great and terrible tempest; and there was terrible athunder, insomuch that it did bshake the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder.
 And there were exceedingly sharp lightnings, such as never had been known in all the land.
 And the acity of Zarahemla did take fire.
 And the city of aMoroni did bsink into the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof were drowned.
 10 And the earth was carried up upon the city of aMoronihah, that in the place of the city there became a great bmountain.
 11 And there was a great and terrible destruction in the land southward.
 12 But behold, there was a more great and terrible destruction in the land northward; for behold, the awhole face of the land was changed, because of the tempest and the whirlwinds, and the thunderings and the lightnings, and the exceedingly great quaking of the whole earth;
 13 And the ahighways were broken up, and the level roads were spoiled, and many smooth places became rough.
 14 And many agreat and notable cities were bsunk, and many were cburned, and many were shaken till the buildings thereof had fallen to the earth, and the inhabitants thereof were slain, and the places were left desolate.
 15 And there were some cities which remained; but the damage thereof was exceedingly great, and there were many in them who were slain.
 16 And there were some who were carried away in the awhirlwind; and whither they went no man knoweth, save they know that they were carried away.
 17 And thus the face of the whole earth became deformed, because of the tempests, and the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the quaking of the earth.
 18 And behold, the rocks were rent in twain; they were broken up upon the face of the whole earth, insomuch that they were afound in broken fragments, and in seams and in cracks, upon all the face of the land.
 Samuel the Lamanite, when prophesying about the destruction, said:
 20 But behold, as I said unto you concerning another asign, a sign of his death, behold, in that day that he shall suffer death the sun shall be darkened and refuse to give his blight unto you; and also the moon and the stars; and there shall be no light upon the face of this land, even from the time that he shall suffer death, for the space of cthree days, to the time that he shall rise again from the dead.
 21 Yea, at the time that he shall yield up the aghost there shall be bthunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours, and the earth shall shake and tremble; and the crocks which are upon the face of this earth, which are both above the earth and beneath, which ye know at this time are solid, or the more part of it is one solid mass, shall be dbroken up;
 22 Yea, they shall be rent in twain, and shall ever after be afound in seams and in cracks, and in broken fragments upon the face of the whole earth, yea, both above the earth and beneath.
 23 And behold, there shall be great atempests, and there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called bvalleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great.
 24 And amany highways shall be broken up, and many cities shall become desolate.
 (Helaman 14). Based on this description, I believe it is problematic to place too much reliance on the geography described prior to Christ's death.

Currently, the most popular and widely held theory is that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica. (See, e.g., In Search of Cumorah by David A. Palmer and the links above). I'm not in a position to argue with the archaeological evidence and, for a long time, thought it was a tenable theory.

There was always one thing that bothered me, though. Where were the examples of the Nephite writing or language? Nephi, at the very beginning of the Book of Mormon record, noted that he was specifically commanded to take the brass plates in order to preserve the language. 1 Nephi 3:19 states:

And behold, it is wisdom in God that we should obtain these arecords, that we may preserve unto our children the language of our fathers;
(See also 1 Nephi 1:2; Compare Omni 1:18, indicating that the Mulekites had lost their original language). Moroni (so at the very end of the Book of Mormon record) wrote at Mormon 9:32:

And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the areformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.
(See also Mormon 9:34, indicating that no other people knew the language of the Nephites, suggesting that it was significantly different from the languages of other peoples in the region).

The Book of Mormon was written in what was called reformed Egyptian--i.e., an adaptation of Egyptian (probably Hieratic) to the Hebrew language. Joseph Smith wrote down some examples of the writing:



The next question is whether examples of these types of characters have been found in the Americas. The answer is, yes. Barry Fell's book, America B.C., mostly concerns itself with linguistic evidence of contact between the Celts and the ancient Americas. However, he also briefly examines evidence of other writings found in the Americas that incorporate Egyptian style hieroglyphics. (pp. 253-276). For instance, he found that the Micmac tribes (eastern Canada and Northern Atlantic states) produced writings using a written language very similar to Egyptian Hieratic writing composed in the 18th Century--before the decipherment of Egyptian writing in the 19th Century. However, his research uncovered other artifacts with similar writing throughout the Atlantic states and the upper Mississippi valley.

There are other examples as well. One day, perusing books in a used bookstore, I came across Mysteries of Ancient South America by Harold T. Wilkins. His theory, that survivors of Atlantis were responsible for the ancient American civilizations, is not what interested me. What cought my attention were the characters below:


(p. 45; additional characters not reproduced here are on pp. 43 and 46 of the book). These characters were reproduced from an account recorded in 1753 by one of the survivors of an expedition to find a lost silver mine in the Mato Grosso region of South America. Interestingly, it was while attempting to find the lost city described in this manuscript that Percy Fawcett disappeared. (See The Lost City of Z by David Grann for more information on Col. Fawcett).

Unfortunately, when retracing the steps of Col. Fawcett's expedition in the documentary, Secrets of the Dead, "Lost in the Amazon," the film crew discovered that the "lost city" was apparently merely natural rock formations and caves. Relevant to my purpose, they filmed rock carvings that they believed were the symbols recorded in the 1753 manuscript (see at about the 30:30 and 50 minute marks).

So is there any evidence of a civilization could survive or develop in the Amazon region. Although I have not yet had the opportunity to read the whole book, Charles C. Mann describes in his book, 1491, that recently discovered evidence (most from within just the last decade) show that much of Bolivia and Amazonia was home to large and sophisticated civilizations, including the Beni, and extending across the Andes to the Pacific.

Which brings me to my final point. In his book, The Life of Nephi, George Q. Cannon indicates that Joseph Smith had said that Nephi and his brothers landed in the Americas at approximately 30 degrees south, in what is modern day Chili (p. 100). He also notes that Orson Pratt had stated that the land of Nephi (one of the regions in the Book of Mormon) was believed to be in what is modern-day Ecuador (p. 124). Elder Cannon believed that Nephi and his people settled in what is today Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru (p. 130).

As I stated earlier, the specific location of the Book of Mormon lands has never been revealed. The ideas above may all be incorrect. While we may speculate, we should not let the fact that there are different theories or evidences untowardly influence our faith, or lead us into conflict with others that hold different theories. In good time, the location will be revealed.

2 comments:

  1. It seems possible Sir Richard Francis Burton, who translated Manuscript 512 into english, also drew a connection between the lost city described in that document and the Nephite cities described in the Book of Mormon. In 1860 Burton spent three weeks in Salt Lake City and met with Brigham Young several times. In late 1868, Burton disappeared into the highlands of Brazil, emerging months later in the spring of 1869 in Peru. It is the only journey he made that he did not record in detail(or at least, if he made a record, it was never published like all his other expedition journals were). It is not beyond the realm of possibility that Burton found that lost city during those missing months.
    The film documentary crew may have followed the wrong man.

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    1. Very interesting. I did not know about Burton, so thank you for the information. David Grann, in his book "The Lost City of Z," suggests that Fawcett was attempting to conceal his true route and destination, and so the route that Grann--and, ultimately, the film crew--took may be speculative as to Fawcett's true intentions and where he believed the lost city to be.

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