Archaeology and the Book of Mormon

Mormon apologists and skeptics alike have long attempted to determine through archaeology whether The Book of Mormon is a work of history or a work of fiction. Most Mormons and Mormon apologists, though not all, view the characters of The Book of Mormon as real people who lived in a real place in the Americas. While no physical proof has been found of book's historicity, some apologists have found numerous archaeological details that are arguably consistent with a historical Book of Mormon narrative. Similarly, skeptics have found numerous archaeological details that are consistent with the Book of Mormon being entirely fictional. Because the book's historicity has not been proven, and because it is nearly impossible to prove archaeologically that the book is entirely fictional, the book's historicity is purely a matter of faith for most Mormons.

View of Mormon Apologists

Currently most Mormon apologists do not place much emphasis on archaeological evidences (and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially places none) for at least the following reasons:

Though the dominant Latter Day Saint view, as expressed in the modern Introduction to The Book of Mormon, has always been that "[The Lamanites] are the principal ancestors of the American Indians," some more recent interpretations of the text of The Book of Mormon suggest there may have been other people and cultures in the same lands at the same time (though the book concerns itself exclusively with the peoples of the narrative), possibly large populations and many different cultures. This would make it impossible to distinguish which archeological discoveries relate to the culture(s) in the narrative.
Anthropological issues are further complicated due to the uncertainty on the location of Book of Mormon events. The Book of Mormon narrative has been placed everywhere from South and Central America to the Finger Lakes region in New York (possibly relating the people in the story to the Mound Builders).
Most of the modern archaeological research of the mesoamerican area dates to a time after the Book of Mormon narrative ends and the people purportedly disperse and their language, religion and culture deteriorate. Due to inherent problems with "dirt archaeology", most of the apologetics focus on the areas of literary and linguistic analysis.

State of Archeological Research

Only a small percentage of known archeological sites in the Americas have been fairly excavated. While there is a great deal of archeological data (as well as historic accounts) of ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan over which Mexico City was been built, many other ancient cities of the Americas have had little serious excavation done on them. Still, archaeology has provided a large amount of data on the lives, customs, technology, etc. of the ancient American peoples.

Both this body of knowledge and interpretations of it regarding The Book of Mormon is changing rapidly. In 1973, a prominent Mesoamerican archaeologist, Michael Coe of Yale University, said "As far as I know there is not one professionally trained archaeologist, who is not a Mormon, who sees any scientific justification for believing [the historicity of The Book of Mormon], and I would like to state that there are quite a few Mormon archaeologists who join this group." ("Mormons and Archaeology: An Outside View," in Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 8, No 2, (Summer 1973), p. 42.) But since then Brigham Young University has sponsored a number of archeological excavations in Mesoamerica, and the state of research has progressed generally to the point that statements such as Coe's are harder to find today.

Much of the literature of the Pre-Columbian Maya was deliberately destroyed by the Spanish when they conquered the region in the 1500s. On this point, Michael Coe noted:

"[O]ur knowledge of ancient Maya thought must represent only a tiny fraction of the whole picture, for of the thousands of books in which the full extent of their learning and ritual was recorded, only four have survived to modern times (as though all that posterity knew of ourselves were to be based upon three prayer books and Pilgrim's Progress)." (Michael D. Coe, The Maya, London: Thames and Hudson, 4th ed., 1987, p. 161.)

As the state of archeological knowledge in the Americas progresses, many interested apologists and skeptics evaluate each archeological discovery for its probative value regarding the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, comparing the text of the book (animals, objects, place names, directions, etc.) with the archealogical record.

Proposed Book of Mormon Real World Setting

As with Bible studies, considerable effort in Book of Mormon studies has been focused on establishing the credible real world setting for the narrative. From a casual perusal of The Book of Mormon, it is obvious that the book begins at Jerusalem and follows a straightforward route along the Gulf of Suez, then across the Arabian Peninsula eastward, then apparently across the Pacific Ocean to America. It it also obvious that Joseph Smith discovered the book in New York. Between these two bookends, the setting for the main Book of Mormon narrative (and the sub-narrative of the Jaredites in the Book of Ether) is not obvious.

The dominant assumption among Latter Day Saints has always been that the narrative encompasses all of America, and that all the peoples of ancient America were the peoples of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon speaks of a narrow neck of land, and it has been an intuitive assumption for readers that the Isthmus of Panama fits the bill. But careful reading limits the reach of the main Book of Mormon narrative to a span of some 300 miles, demanding the identification of a limited American setting.

Based on extensive textual analysis and current archaeological data, most LDS scholars now agree that the Book of Mormon geography was centered in Mesoamerica, in the area of current day Guatemala and the southern Mexico States of Tabasco, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Veracruz, and surrounding area. This is the only area in America that had an ancient system of writing. And this area provides several plausible supporting evidences for the Book of Mormon narrative.

Archaeological Problems for the Book of Mormon

Descriptions Without Support

The Book of Mormon affirms that there were pre-Columbian peoples that were literate, spoke knowledge of Old World languages, and possessed Old World derived writing systems. (E.g. 1 Nephi 13:23 et. seq.) They smelted metal and made tools and weapons of iron, steel, and brass. (E.g. Ether 7:9, 10:23) They owned domesticated horses and cattle. They possessed chariots. (E.g. Alma 18:9-12) The people covered the entire land. These archeological implications and scores of others found in the Book of Mormon, if true, predict that certain discoveries will be made in the pre-Columbian archaeological record. But critics assert that no such discovery has yet been made, and that some of what is currently known contradicts Book of Mormon claims.

Apologists have in some cases proposed a loose interpretation of terms, such as deer or tapir for horse, suggesting that immigrants from the Old World might have applied old names to new concepts. In other cases, apologists have proposed alternate English word meanings, such as domestic herds for cattle, suggesting that the intuitive modern meaning of words may not always be the appropriate Book of Mormon meaning.

Genetic Studies

Another controversial issue concerns the genetic claims the Book of Mormon makes about indigenous Americans and current DNA evidence on the ancestry of modern indigenous Americans. Some critics of the Book of Mormon have investigated recently whether the latest DNA evidence may contradict the claims of the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon claims that a people of Jared consisting of several families from the Tower of Babel migrated to America from Asia before Abraham, that a people of Lehi consisting of three families (Lehi, Ishmael, and Zoram) migrated to America from Jerusalem around 600 B.C., and that a people of Mulek (son of Jewish King Zedekiah) migrated to America from Jerusalem perhaps 8 years later.

As with other potential sources of evidence, data on comparisons of genetic markers in the DNA of different races is in its infancy. Recent evidence on whether some native americans are genetically linked to old world races currently indicates that most genetic traits and genes of modern Jews are not found in most Native Americans, although some mitochondrial DNA analysis shows that others are found in both Israel and Native Americans.

The most controversial of these studies was published in the late 2002 by anthropologist Thomas W. Murphy. This subject is currently under extensive discussion. Also see Lamanites.

Studies are ongoing in this area, and conclusions are difficult to draw with any certainty.

External Links

(Pro) http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/DNA.shtml

(Neutral)http://www.religioustolerance.org/lds_migr1.htm

(Con)http://www.ericbarger.com/mormon.dna.htm

Archaeological Support for the Book of Mormon

Lehi's Arabian Journey

The Book of Mormon describes with telling details a 600 B.C. journey of two families from Jerusalem along the east side of the Gulf of Suez, then east across the Arabian Peninsula. Even through most of the twentieth century, no information was available to confirm the narrative of an encampment at a continually running stream (River of Laman) in a valley (of Lemuel) at the "fount of the Red Sea", or of a burial at a place "called Nahom", or of a "Bountiful" place on the east side of the Arabian Peninsula where multiple narrative details occur. But in the late twentieth century and the early twenty first, a single plausible candidate has emerged for each of these places, moving Lehi's journey from the skeptic's notepad to the apologist's.

The River of Laman is identified with Wadi Tayyib al-Ism, 72 miles by trail from Aqaba. Discovered by George Potter (The Nephi Project)

Animals and Objects

Horses and swords are both found in the pre-columbian Americas - see National Geographic article on horses and Wikipedia sword article. Also, historian Thomas E. Sheridan (who is not Mormon), in his book Arizona: A History cites evidence to prove that horses, camels and relatives to elephants were part of the North American landscape in Pre-Columbian America.

Quetzalcoatl Legends

The ancient Mesoamerican legend of Quetzalcoatl, according to some versions as "the bearded white god", is interpreted by some Latter-day Saint apologists as an altered depiction of the actual visit of Jesus Christ to the Americas referred to in the Book of Mormon. Most students of ancient Mesoamerica do not accept this claim, for at least two of the following reasons: Quetzalcoatl the Feathered Serpent deity is depicted in Mesoamerican art several centuries before Jesus. The King Quetzalcoatl who promised to return to Mexico dated almost 1,000 years after the life of Jesus. [1]. Apologists rebut that the visitation of Jesus was incorporated into some of the various, exisiting legends of Quetzalcoatl.