"An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon"

[SoyLeche]

Well, I finished the book (http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-American-Setting-Book-Mormon/dp/087747608X). It was pretty good. He made some logical leaps that I'm not sure I follow, but a lot of that probably comes from things that he figures Nibley already covered, and since I haven't read much Nibley...

Anyway, he puts together a pretty good argument for the geography he's come up with (for example, the "narrow neck" being the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isthmus_of_Tehuantepec) ). I'm not sure how much that really matters, but it was interesting anyway.

The main thing that I got from the book is a perspective on how the BoM should be interpreted. It is too easy to read the BoM and interpret it within a wester context. There's no reason to believe that it was written from a western perspective though, so this makes no sense. The BoM was written from a Mesoamerican perspective, with some influence from the main author's (Mormon) middle-eastern roots (really, you would expect 1st and 2nd Nephi to be very middle-eastern, while the rest of the book should be more mesoamerican. I'm not good at textual analysis, but that is what I would expect).

I think that Mormons tend to believe that the archeology of Central America will eventually end up supporting the BoM. I agree entirely. I don't believe that it will end up supporting the BoM interpretation that most people adhere to though. The science will move towards the truth, and won't go beyond that. Our understanding of the BoM is most likely going to have to so some moving itself.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the subject.

[SoyLeche]

I posted this in response to FFH's argument that (like I mentioned above) the Nephite and Lamanite lands comprise all of North and South America - the Nephites to the North and the Lamanites to the South. I figure someone here might find it interesting:

Ok, here we go.

First of all - Zarahemla, and most of the lands of the Nephites, were south of the Narrow Neck, so your theory falls apart immediately.

Panama is too narrow to be the Narrow Neck. In Mosiah 21 we read that King Limhi sent a group out to find Zarahemla. They got lost, and ended up in the area where the final Jaredite battle took place. In order to do this, they must have passed over the Narrow Neck. They would have known that Zarahemla was south of the narrow neck, so they most likely didn't know that they had crossed the narrow neck. It would be next to impossible to cross Panama and not know this.

Alma 22:32 tells us that the distance across the narrow neck was "the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite". The context here is military, so it is likely that this is referring either to a soldier or a messenger. Sorrenson estimates the distance across the narrow neck to be somewhere between 75 and 125 miles. The panama canal is less then 50 miles across.

On to a few more dimensions. Alma and his group traveled from the land of Nephi to the land of Zarahemla in 21 days (Mosiah 18:1-7; 23:1-3; 24:20; 25) - through mountainous wilderness (Alma 16:6; 22:27; 27:14). Obviously a group with women, children and animals will move quite a bit slower then "a Nephite". The LDS pioneers averaged about 11 miles a day. Using this number we get 231 miles from Nephi to Zarahemla. As the crow flies it is probably closer to 180 miles, more or less.

Sorrenson goes into detail that I can't here, but his conclusion is that the land southward would be approximately 360 miles from north to south (keep in mind that the land of Palestine is about 150 miles long and about half as wide, but 95% of the Old Testament took place there, for some perspective).

The land Desolation, where the "bones" of the Jaredites were found, is in the southern part of the "land northward" (Alma 22:30-31). That pretty much rules out New York as the location of the Hill Ramah/Cumorah.

I'll go ahead and give the main geographical conclusions verbatim from Sorenson. You'll have to read the book to get the details.


The narrow neck of land is the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

The east sea is the Gulf of Mexico or its component, the gulf of Campeche.

The west sea is the Pacific Ocean to the west of Mexico and Guatemala.

The land southward comprises that portion of Mexico east and south of the Ithsmus of Tehuantepec, involving all or parts of the states of Veracruz, Oaxaca, Puebla, and Guerrero (and possibly more).

The river Sidon was the Grijalva River. The city of Zarahemla lay on the west bank of this river and could well have been the archaeological site of Santa Rosa (which is now inundated by waters backed up by Angotura Dam).

The Jaredite land of Moron likely was the Valley of Oaxaca.

The final battleground where both Jaredite and Nephite peoples met their end was around the Tuxtla Mountains of south-central Veracruz.

The city of Nephi was probalby the archaeological site of Kaminaljuyu, which is now incorporated within suburban Guatemala City; the land of Nephi in the broader sense constituted the highlands of southern Guatemala.

Sorrenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, pp46-47