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Xoc Chiapas

October 1, 2015, 8:41 pm
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In 1968 the BYU New World Archaeological Foundation NWAF worked at the Olmec outlier site of Xoc SE of Ocosingo, Chiapas. The principal attraction of the site was a 2 meter high bas relief figure carved into the face of a rock. When the BYU team returned for another field season four years later, a looter had removed the carved figure with a chain saw and the vandalized rock face was bare. See Susanna Ekholm-Miller, "The Olmec Rock Carving at Xoc, Chiapas, Mexico" in Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation, Number 32, BYU NWAF (Provo: 1973). Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence in the Maya lowlands where most monuments are carved into soft limestone.

Fortunately in this case, the original carving (cut into four pieces for easier transport) recently showed up in France where it was handed over to Mexican authorities who plan to repatriate the important work of Olmec art. This map shows the location of Xoc 190 air kilometers SE of the Olmec Heartland along the Gulf Coast.
Known Olmec Sites with Xoc shown SE of Ocosingo
This photo shows the rock carving in situ prior to defacement.
Olmec Stone Carving ca. 900 BC
And this is an artist's rendering from Mike Ruggeri's fine collection of Olmec images.
Rendering of Olmec Stone Carving from Xoc, Chiapas
Some Mesoamericanists think the figure is a priest, others a warrior. He wears an elaborate headdress adorned with avian motifs.

Xoc is one of only a handful of Olmec sites known from the Usumacinta drainage basin which is typically considered Maya territory.This relative paucity of Olmec sites is one of the many reasons I believe the Usumacinta is a stronger candidate for river Sidon than the Grijalva. See the article "The Usumacinta/Sidion Correlation." The Olmec sculptor who carved the Xoc rock face was probably a long way from his homeland just as Coriantumr was a long way from his native land when he carved the large stone stela none of his hosts could read that is mentioned in Omni 1:20-22.
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New Apostles

October 2, 2015, 6:44 am
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Article updated September 6, 2015.

The 185th Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will continue on October 3, 2015. It is widely expected that three new Apostles will be called to the Quorum of the Twelve to fill vacancies left by the passing of Elders L. Tom Perry, Boyd K. Packer, and Richard G. Scott.

A great call would be Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the First Quorum of the Seventy, currently serving as President of the Asia Area headquartered in Hong Kong. The W. in his name stands for Walter, his father's name. Walter A. Gong was a Professor of Natural Science at San Jose State University. Gerrit grew up in Palo Alto, California. He was named after Gerrit de Jong Jr., first Dean of the College of Fine Arts at BYU. Gerrit de Jong is the person for whom the de Jong Concert Hall on BYU campus is named.

Gerrit Gong attended BYU as a Joseph Fielding Smith Scholar. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. Tennis is his sport. His early career was with the U.S. State Department. He was working in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square uprising in June, 1989. He was later head of the Asia Desk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. For several years he was an Assistant to the President of BYU, in charge of long range planning for the university. He served as a Stake President of one of the BYU stakes, then as an Area Authority. He was called to the First Quorum of Seventy in 2010.

From time to time, the Apostles bring in outside specialists to share their expertise and keep the brethren informed on a wide variety of topics. J. Ward Moody, for example, of the BYU Physics Department, was brought in to teach them about astronomy. One of Elder Gong's early assignments as a Seventy was to identify and arrange for these outside experts to advise the Twelve.

Gerrit is married to Susan Lindsay whose brother is Bruce Lindsay, long-time news anchor at KSL Television and recently released President of the Australia Perth Mission.

Other terrific calls would be Elder L. Whitney Clayton, a former California attorney currently serving in the Presidency of the Seventy, or Elder Kim B. Clark, former Dean of Harvard Business School, former President of BYU-Idaho, and currently Commissioner of Church Education.
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Elder Gong was called to serve as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy. Elder Clayton was called as the senior president of the Quorums of the Seventy.
Elders Clayton and Gong from lds.org
My interest in these two is personal. Elder Clayton and I served in the Andes Peru Mission under Pres. J. Robert Driggs. Elder Gong and I became friends our freshman year at BYU in 1971.
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The brethren who were called as Apostles include Elder Ronald A. Rasband, former President and COO of Huntsman Chemical, Elder Gary E. Stevenson, co-founder and former COO of Icon Health and Fitness, world's largest manufacturer of exercise equipment, and Elder Dale G. Renlund who did his medical residency and fellowship at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, the top-rated medical school in the U.S. My wife and I spent a year living in Baltimore County. While there, a number of impressive young couples come into our ward and the husband announced something like this: "I'll be going to Hopkins, so you won't see me. You may see my wife from time to time and she may be able to accept a calling." The creme de la creme of LDS medical students go to Johns Hopkins. It was axiomatic in the Baltimore area wards that these magnificent young people would be essentially unavailable for Church service. During his five years at Hopkins, Elder Renlund served three years as a Bishop, took care of his wife who developed ovarian cancer, and was the primary caregiver for their young daughter while his wife was indisposed. During his medical practice, he served as a Stake President and Area Seventy. When he was called to the First Quorum of Seventy in 2009, his wife left her law career. They spent the next six years in Africa. These are remarkable people.
Elders Renlund, Stevenson, and Rasband from lds.org
What does this have to do with the Book of Mormon? The risen Lord called twelve disciples to be his special witnesses in the New World. They were exceptional men 3 Nephi 19:4, 4 Nephi 1:5. In the world of Prophets and Apostles, cream rises.
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Capacity Temples

October 3, 2015, 4:27 pm
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I was interested in Elder Hugo Montoya's story in the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference about a brother who was turned away from one of our temples because the facility had reached its daily capacity limit. Since most of Elder Montoya's ministry has been in Mexico, I assume he was referring to one of our twelve temples currently operating in that land. It reminded me of remarks I heard from Elder Clate Mask, former President of the Guatemala City Temple. During his three year presidency it was operating at 125% of capacity - the busiest temple in the church by that measure.
Image of the Guatemala City Temple from lds.org
There is a nefarious faction within the church that mocks the faithful Saints in Mexico and Guatemala by casting aspersions on their countries. We should celebrate the posterity of Lehi coming to know the covenants of the Lord in large numbers as the Title Page of the Book of Mormon promises they will.

According to the World Bank, the U.S. has a land area of 9,147.420, Canada has 9,093,510, Mexico has 1,943,950, and Guatemala has 107,160 square kilometers. According to lds.org,, the U.S. currently has 71 operating temples, Canada has 7, Mexico has 12, and Guatemala has 2. On the basis of operating temple density per square kilometer, this is how the four countries rank:

  1. Guatemala: 1 temple per 53,580 square kilometers
  2. U.S. 1 temple per 128,837 square kilometers
  3. Mexico: 1 temple per 161,996 square kilometers
  4. Canada: 1 temple per 1,299,073 square kilometers
According to the CIA World Fact Book, the U.S. had an estimated population in July, 2014 of 318,892,103; Mexico had 120,286,655; Canada had 34,834,841, and Guatemala had 14,647,083. On the basis of operating temples per capita, this is how the four countries rank:
  1. U.S.: 1 temple per 4,491,438 people
  2. Canada: 1 temple per 4,976,496 people
  3. Guatemala: 1 temple per 7,323,542 people
  4. Mexico: 1 temple per 10,023,888 people
According to mormonnewsroom.org, the U.S. at the end of 2014 had 6,466,267 members of the church. Mexico had 1,368,475, Guatemala had 255,505 and Canada had 192,299. The four countries ranked by percentage of their population in the church are:
  1. U.S.: 2.02% belong to the church
  2. Guatemala: 1.74% belong to the church
  3. Mexico: 1.14% belong to the church
  4. Canada: .055% belong to the church
Another interesting way to run the numbers brings in the length of time the church has had missionaries in a country. This is a measure of receptivity to the gospel in that country. Missionary work began in the U.S. in 1830 and has continued for 186 years. Missionary work also began in Canada in 1830 and has continued for the same 186 years. Missionary work began in Mexico in 1875 and has continued for 141 years. Missionary work only began in Guatemala in 1947 and has continued for 69 years. The four countries ranked by percent of population baptized per year are:
  1. Guatemala: 1.74%/69 years = .025% baptized per year
  2. U.S.: 2.02%/186 years = .011% baptized per year
  3. Mexico: 1.14%/141 years = .008% baptized per year
  4. Canada: .055%/186 years = .003% baptized per year
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Casting Lots

October 4, 2015, 9:31 pm
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Bill Hamblin and Dan Peterson just published a very good article in the Deseret News about the practice of casting lots in ancient Israel. We saw this weekend three new apostles called to take their places in the modern Quorum of the Twelve. In the primitive church, a new apostle, Matthias, was chosen to replace the fallen Judas Iscariot. Acts 1:26 describes an apostolic selection process based on casting lots.

The practice of casting lots is well-attested in the Old Testament.
In Leviticus 16:8-10 lots were cast to select goats for ritual purposes.
In Numbers 26:55-56 lots were cast to divide land among the tribes of Israel.
Joshua 18:6-8 confirms that casting lots was a priestly or prophetic function done before the Lord.
Judges 20:9 describes military units mustered by casting lots.
In Davidic times priests were selected by casting lots 1 Chronicles 24:31.
The provisioning of fuel for sacrificial offerings was apportioned by casting lots Nehemiah 10:34.
Population was distributed among urban areas by casting lots Nehemiah 11:1.
A messianic psalm foretold Roman soldiers casting lots to divide the Savior's clothing Psalms 22:18.
Proverbs 16:33 & Isaiah 34:17 describe divine forces at work in the process of casting lots.
Seamen cast lots to indict Jonah as the cause of their ill weather Jonah 1:7.

Ritual functions in the New Testament also involved casting lots Luke 1:9.

Casting lots is attested in the Book of Mormon 1 Nephi 3:11, Alma 20:30.

Hamblin and Peterson write that the ancient practice of casting lots was "a form of divination by which the will of God was revealed."

The lots themselves were stones or pieces of broken pottery. Some modern biblical translations use the word "dice." Some scholars believe the enigmatic Urim andThummim Exodus 28:30, Leviticus 8:8 was a type of divining crystal or stone stored in a pouch on the priestly breastplate.

The Urim and Thummim Moroni delivered to Joseph Smith was in a stone box with a breastplate Joseph Smith History 1:52. And when Joseph found the Nephite Urim and Thummim cumbersome to use for translation, he went back to his familiar seer stone which he kept in a pouch.
One of Joseph Smith's Seer Stones with Pouch
This is another view of the same stone and pouch.
Joseph Smith Seer Stone with its Pouch
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Virtually all Book of Mormon geographic models set in Mesoamerica place the greater land of Nephi in highland Guatemala. Among the Quichean Maya of highland Guatemala, the practice of priestly divination using seeds, stones and pieces of broken pottery survives to this day. Diviners are called "daykeepers" and they guard their "lots" in pouches, bags, or bundles. Noted anthropologist Dennis Tedlock was trained as a daykeeper and had a remarkable experience using his pouch of semi-precious objects in divination. See Dennis Tedlock, Breath on the  Mirror: Mythic Voices and Visions of the Living Maya, University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque: 1997), pp. 194-202. This is Tedlock's illustration of his divining pouch with his "lots" grouped atop a stone slab.
Divining Pouch Used by Quichean Daykeepers
Mesoamericanists see evidence the divining tradition using "lots" extended back into Olmec times. Current interpretations of the Cascajal Block find the graphemes indicated represent open and closed divining pouches.
Cascajal Block ca. 900 BC
See my report on a presentation by F. Kent Reilly, III of Texas State in section 22 of the article entitled "Light from L.A."
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Jerry Grover's Translation of the "Caractors" Document

October 4, 2015, 11:57 pm
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For a fascinating read on the bleeding edge of Book of Mormon studies, go to Jerry Grover's bookofmormoncaractorstranslation website and download his latest book as a PDF free of charge.
Jerry Grover's Latest Book
If Jerry is on the right track, his translation will be one of the most important pieces of Book of Mormon scholarship in our lifetime. If he is partially on the right track, specialists in ancient Near Eastern and Mesoamerican languages will be able to refine his work and improve the accuracy of his translation. If he is on the wrong track, his work will still stimulate renewed interest in this document attributed to John Whitmer that could lead to a breakthrough. At minimum, my hat is off to him for the sheer audacity of his monumental effort. This guy has what the Yiddish speakers in and around New York City call "chutzpah." This is without doubt the most sophisticated attempt to date to translate the extant copies of characters transcribed from the gold plates.

October 9, 2015 addendum. Neal Rappleye and I today were looking through Stefan Wimmer's 2008 book Palastinisches Hieratisch (Palestinian Hieratic). It has dozens of examples of a writing system used in the Levant about the time of Lehi that renders Hebrew vocabulary and syntax in Egyptian Hieratic script. This seems to be precisely what Nephi describes in 1 Nephi 1:2 as "the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians." Neal has a very good article in Interpreter entitled "Learning Nephi's Language: Creating a Context for 1 Nephi 1:2" that deals with Palestinian Hieratic. Rappleye made two interesting comments: A) "It looks like we have found Nephi's language," and B) "Many of these characters look just like the ones Grover is working with in the Anthon transcript." Wimmer is in Grover's bibliography.
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Zarahemla ca. 1955

October 6, 2015, 12:29 am
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1955 was a pivotal year in the search for Zarahemla. This is a timeline of selected events leading up to that year.
  • 1842 The official periodical of the Church, Times and Seasons, speculated on Book of Mormon connections with Maya ruins visited by Stephens and Catherwood and illustrated in their famous 2 volume Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. The sites of Quirigua and Palenque received prominent attention, with Quirigua mentioned as a possible Zarahemla. In the ensuing years, the suggested Quirigua/Zarahemla correlation was not pursued because Quirigua is on the south bank of the Motagua which flows eastward. Book of Mormon students even in the nineteenth century realized that Zarahemla would be found on the west bank of a north-flowing river.
  • 1879 George Martin Ottinger speculated in the Juvenile Instructor that Palenque might be Zarahemla. That idea has never faded. V. Garth Norman today believes Zarahemla was in the general vicinity of Palenque.
  • 1917 Louis Edward Hills in his A short work on the geography of Mexico and Central America, from 2234 B.C. to 421 A.D. correlated Zarahemla with Yaxchilan. That correlation has remained remarkably consistent among RLDS (currently Community of Christ and Restoration Branch) students of the Book of Mormon from that day to the present. Aric Turner, for instance, in his well-researched contemporary map, correlates Zarahemla with Yaxchilan.
  • 1946 Max Wells Jakeman joined the BYU faculty and began teaching an Usumacinta/Sidon correlation. He was ambivalent about the actual location of Zarahemla. Some tension existed between Jakeman and his former classmate from U.C. Berkeley, Thomas Stuart Ferguson.
  • 1949 John L. Sorenson enrolled at BYU and was quickly recognized as an unusually gifted student. Sorenson was generally unimpressed with Jakeman's scholarship. Jakeman's was more of an historical approach, relying on documentary sources. Sorenson was more persuaded by the rapidly evolving science of dirt archaeology. 
  • 1952 Thomas Stuart Ferguson raised some money from J. Willard Marriott and organized the New World Archaeological Foundation in California.
  • 1953 NWAF sponsored its first field season in Mexico. Participants included Pedro Armillas, director, Ramon Pina Chan, William T. Sanders, Gareth W. Lowe, and John L. Sorenson. The excavation area - Huimanguillo, Tabasco, was strategically chosen. Ferguson was hoping for a big win and he took his best shot in the lowland coastal plain on the west bank of the mighty north-flowing Grijalva. This was the first time the Grijalva had been seriously considered as a candidate for Sidon. It was chosen partly based on anti-Jakeman bias.
  • 1953 After several months of digging, the NWAF team had little to show. They were looking for pre-classic remains - structures and artifacts dating to Book of Mormon times. What they found was classic material too late to have been relevant to the Nephite record. Toward the end of the field season, they began investigating sites NW of Huimanguillo, closer to La Venta. There, predictably, they did find pre-classic remains. What the 1953 team did not know is that the Grijalva River has changed course since early Nephite times. Tabascan hydrologists have since confirmed that at the time La Venta was flourishing, the Grijalva flowed where the Blasillo and Tonala flow today - right past the famed Olmec site. The map below shows the Grijalva in blue as it flowed at the time the Mulekites founded Zarahemla. See the article "Wandering River."
  • 1953 During the evenings in the Hotel Flores in Huimanguillo, Sorenson and Lowe (the only Mormons on the NWAF team) held Book of Mormon study sessions. They began to develop an interest in the lightly-explored central depression of Chiapas. In May, as the rainy season was beginning, Thomas Stuart Ferguson came down to check on his colleagues. Disappointed at not finding a viable candidate for Zarahemla along the lower Grijalva, he and Sorenson flew to Chiapas, took off in a jeep, and went on a whirlwind reconnaissance of the upper river. The most important site they found was pre-classic Chiapa de Corzo, but it could not have been Zarahemla because it was east rather than west of the river. Continuing on with mounting enthusiasm, they found literally dozens of small pre-classic sites along the upper Grijalva. Sorenson returned to BYU in June and gave a cautiously optimistic report. There was a great deal of pre-classic material to work with along the river between Chiapa de Corzo and the Guatemala line. This 1953 adventure was to be John L. Sorenson's only experience as a field archaeologist. He did not return to the area until 1984 when he, Jack Welch, and Joe Allen led the one and only FARMS tour to Mesoamerica.
  • 1954 M. Wells Jakeman, sensing competition, hired an airplane to fly him up and down the Usumacinta River looking for large sites immediately west of the river. El Cayo fit his criteria. Finding chicanel pottery (a pre-classic marker) at the site, he began promoting El Cayo as a viable candidate for Zarahemla. Jakeman's correlation never developed a significant following.
  • 1955 Ferguson secured more money, so NWAF returned for a second field season under the direction of Gareth W. Lowe. They began systematic investigation in the central depression of Chiapas. This established a pattern that continued for decades. Lowe did heroic fieldwork. Sorenson did equally important work synthesizing the results of all the data coming up from Chiapas.   
  • 1955 John L. Sorenson over the previous two years had worked out the basic details of a Book of Mormon geographic correlation to his satisfaction. Santa Rosa was his Zarahemla, Chiapa de Corzo his Sidom, and Kaminaljuyu his Nephi. The western shoreline of the Gulf of Campeche was his east sea, the Sierra Madre his west wilderness. This model remained little changed through the 1985 publication of his landmark An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon and the 2013 publication of his even more ambitious masterwork Mormon's Codex: An Ancient American Book.
This map shows places of interest in the search for Zarahemla.
Zarahemla Candidates Considered in the Period 1879 - 1955 
Some takeaways I think are important: A) Given only the text as their guide, the Sorenson/Lowe/Ferguson team in 1952 - 53 went looking for Zarahemla in the lowland coastal plain. The way I read the text, that is precisely where Zarahemla must be. The way he reads the text, John W. (Jack) Welch agrees. He has mentioned more than once in my hearing that Zarahemla has to be in the lowlands. B) Not finding suitable remains in the lowlands west of Huimanguillo, Sorenson and Lowe began considering alternatives. Once he found extensive pre-classic settlement in the highlands on both sides of the upper Grijalva, Sorenson began to re-interpret the text to justify his new model. In other words, he started with some favored sites and then tried to work the text around them. Most serious students would disagree with that site-centric methodology. John E. Clark in his excellent 2011 "Revisiting 'A Key for Evaluating Book of Mormon Geographies'" argues that only a text-centric methodology will prove successful. Late in his career, Sorenson published what he represented as a viable, even definitive, internal model. That is his small 2000 book Mormon's Map. I open Mormon's Map to the first page and immediately note several inconsistencies that contradict my reading of the text. Mormon's Map strikes me as a manipulation of the Nephite record in support of a real world model pre-existing since 1955. C) Largely because of his immense stature as an LDS scholar of the first rank, Sorenson's model has been the de facto standard among Mormon scholars since its formal publication in 1985. It has proven so singularly unpersuasive to rank and file Latter-day Saints, though, that the Book of Mormon geography enterprise is more fragmented in 2015 that at any time since 1830. Passionate devotees reject the Mesoamerican hypothesis and promote unlikely models in the Andes, NW Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Baja California, the Mississippi and Ohio River basins, and New York/Ontario.
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    Norman on Santa Rosa

    October 7, 2015, 3:12 pm
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    Mesoamerican archaeologist V. Garth Norman, who believes Zarahemla was in the general vicinity of Palenque, proffers his argument why Sorenson's Zarahemla/Santa Rosa correlation does not fit the text. Santa Rosa and Huehuetenango had significant trade relations during pre-classic times. The reason for the connection is obvious. The Selegua River rises just on the outskirts of Huehuetenango. Follow the river and it takes you in a fairly straight course right to Santa Rosa. Huehuetenango, on the other hand, was well connected with the rest of highland Guatemala including Sorenson's candidate for the city of Nephi, Kaminaljuyu. Pottery from the central depression of Chiapas shows up in the Salama Valley in strata dating from ca. 500 B.C. to 200 B.C.

    This means that during the time the Mulekites were building up their capital, Zarahemla, and the Nephites were doing the same with their capital, Nephi, significant trade relations existed between Santa Rosa, Kaminaljuyu, and the Salama Valley. This map shows the locations of these areas.
    Santa Rosa, Huehuetenango, Kaminaljuyu, and the Salama Valley
    Significant trade relations explicitly contradict Omni 1:14-17 which describes two peoples living in isolation for hundreds of years, unaware of each other's existence.
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    Founding Civilizations

    October 8, 2015, 1:05 am
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    On April 2, 2014, Richard Hansen of the University of Utah gave the seventh Kislak Lecture at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. This is a prestigious lecture series. The fifth Kislak Lecture was given by David Stuart of UT Austin. Hansen's presentation was entitled "The Origins and Collapse of the Preclassic Maya in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala: Cultural & Natural Dynamics in the Cradle of the Maya Civilization."
    Artist's Reconstruction of El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala
    A product of BYU who spent much of career on the faculty at Idaho State, Hansen is generally regarded as one of the world's top archaeologists. He heads the massive Mirador Basin Project in Guatemala's northern Peten.

    According to Hansen, there are only five "founding civilizations" in world history. They are:
    • the Chinese
    • the Harappan, Indus Valley societies
    • Mesopotamia
    • Egypt
    • Mesoamerica
    Founding civilizations independently developed written script, the high-water mark of human accomplishment. All other civilizations are derivative from or subsidiary to these five pioneers.
    Five Founding Civilizations of the World
    The Book of Mormon describes high level literacy in both Jaredite Ether 12:24 and Nephite/Lamanite Mosiah 24:6 societies. This is a determinative point anchoring the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica.

    It is worth noting that the five founding world civilizations all developed in the drainage basins of major rivers: the Yellow, Indus, Tigris, Euphrates, Nile, Usumacinta, and Coatzacoalcos. We should pay particular attention to the Usumacinta and Coatzacoalcos river systems as we look for Book of Mormon locations within Mesoamerica.

    Hansen described a pre-classic writing system found in Mirador Basin texts. Clearly related to later Mayan, the texts are currently unreadable even by leading Mayan epigraphers such as David Stuart and Stanley Guenter.
    Preclassic Writing System, Precursor to Mayan
    One is reminded of the Isthmian script on La Mojarra Stela 1 and the Tuxtla Statuette whose interpretation is still very much in dispute. The Book of Mormon describes multiple mutually unintelligible scripts Omni 1:20, Mosiah 21:27-28.
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    Hansen and Coe

    October 19, 2015, 6:02 am
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    On Friday, October 16th, 2015, I attended lectures by Dr. Richard Hansen, University of Utah, and Dr. Michael Coe, Yale. The event was the first biannual Mesoamerican Talks Conference sponsored by the U of U Department of Anthropology.

    The conference was subtitled "A Tribute to Dr. Michael Coe, Yale University."

    Hansen's presentation was very similar to the one he gave at the Library of Congress in April, 2014. You can watch a video of that presentation here. If you download the transcript, beware that it is machine-generated and therefore riddled with errors. A portion of Hansen's presentation is abstracted in the article "Founding Civilizations." Hansen did his undergraduate work at BYU, received his PhD from UCLA, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Guatemala. He heads the massive Mirador Basin Project and has authored more than 300 academic publications.

    Some points in Hansen's lecture I found interesting:
    • All remains recovered by the Mirador Basin Project are processed at a lab in Guatemala City.
    • The site of El Mirador is 50 trail kilometers (36 air kilometers) from the nearest supply depot at Carmelitas. You get to El Mirador by helicopter or by walking for 3 days. This is yet one more data point supporting our deduced value for the Book of Mormon standard unit of measure "one day's travel." See the article "Land Southward Travel Times."
    This map shows the locations of El Mirador and the closest town with a road.
    El Mirador 36 air kilometers from Carmelitas
    More points from Richard Hansen:
    • The Mirador - Calakmul Basin contains 51 sites mapped so far. Results from a recent LIDAR survey (38 hours in the air, 700 square kilometers analyzed) are just now coming in, so that number will undoubtedly increase.
    • Corn was being grown in the basin as early as 2,600 BC. We know that from pollen samples found in lake sediment cores. 
    • El Mirador, the largest site in the basin, began ca. 1,000 BC, reached apogee ca. 300 BC, and was abandoned ca. AD 150.
    • A temple with a roof comb was erected in the basin during the 720 - 600 BC time frame.
    • From 1,000 BC to 800 BC sea shells were being used as money. Sea shells as a form of currency also show up in Cahal Pech, Belize during this same time period.
    This map shows El Mirador and Cahal Pech in context.
    El Mirador, Peten and Cahal Pech, Cayo
    Additional points made by Richard Hansen:
    • Olmec sites were generally aligned N/S. Early Maya sites were usually oriented E/W.
    • Sites in the basin have clear site alignments oriented to solstice and equinox points on the horizon. This is yet one more corroboration of our proposed Book of Mormon directionality system described in the article "Test #5 North South East and West."
    • El Mirador has 52 square kilometers of monumental architecture connected by causeways.
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    Semitic and Egyptian in Uto-Aztecan

    November 4, 2015, 1:48 pm
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    Brian D. Stubbs' long-awaited book is now available. Entitled Exploring the Explanatory Power of Semitic and Egyptian in Uto-Aztecan, this 436 page tour de force published by Jerry D. Grover, Jr. in Provo goes far beyond cognate pairs in its analysis of comparative linguistics between the Ancient Near East and the Americas.
    Brian Stubbs' Latest Book
    See the article "Uto-Aztecan" for additional context.
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    Apologetics or Mormon Studies?

    November 16, 2015, 10:28 am
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    I attended a panel discussion at Utah Valley University on November 6, 2015 entitled "Faith, Reason, and the Critical Study of Mormon Apologetics." My notes:

    Moderator: Blair G. Van Dyke. PhD BYU 1997. Teaches philosophy & religious studies at UVU, is on the faculty of the Orem Institute of Religion. Co-editor of a forthcoming book on Mormon Apologetics (Kofford, 2016). Heads the Mormon Chapter, Foundation for Religious Diplomacy.

    Brian D. Birch. PhD Claremont 1998. Director of Religious Studies Program & Director of the Center for the Study of Ethics at UVU. Co-editor Perspectives on Mormon Theology series (Kofford). Senior Research Fellow, Foundation for Religious Diplomacy. Author of a forthcoming book entitled Mormonism Among Christian Theologies (Oxford).

    Ralph C. Hancock. PhD Harvard. J. Reuben Clark Fellow at BYU. American and French political history, the history of political thought. Editor, America, the West and Liberal Education (Rowman and Littlefield, 1999). Co-editor with Gary Lambert, The Legacy of the French Revolution. Author, Calvin and the Foundations of Modern Politics (Cornell, 1989). Director, John Adams Center for the Study of Faith, Philosophy and Public Affairs, BYU.

    Brian M. Hauglid. Director, Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies. Senior Research Fellow, Maxwell Institute. Associate Professor, Ancient Scripture, BYU. Co-editor with Robin Scott Jensen, Abraham and Egyptian Papers (Joseph Smith Papers Project, vol. 4 in the Revelations and Translations Series, 2018). Co-author with Terryl Givens A Cultural History of the Pearl of Great Price (Oxford). Author, A Textual History of the Book of Abraham(2011).

    Benjamin E. Park.  PhD Cambridge. American cultural and political history. 4 articles have won awards from the Mormon History Association. Post doctoral fellow, Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, U of Missouri. Associate Editor, Mormon Studies Review.

    Julie M. Smith.  MA Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley). Board member, Mormon Theology Seminar. Steering Committee, BYU New Testament Commentary. Author, Commentary on the Gospel of Markin progress. Author, Search, Ponder, and Pray: A Guide to the Gospels. Book Review Editor and Blogger, Times and Seasons.
    --
    Brian Hauglid. The shift from FARMS to the Maxwell Institute is part of a broad shift at BYU from apologetics to academics. Apologetics is the rational defense of faith. The persistence of questions and external attacks makes it imperative that faith must be defended rationally.  Hauglid based most of his presentation on the book Five Views on Apologetics edited by Steven B. Cowan (Zondervan, 2000). Apologetics, done well, can bolster faith, aid evangelism, refute objections, and defend against attacks. Defensive apologetics are reactionary. Offensive apologetics are positive – they offer evidence for the existence of God or the authenticity of a text. Cowan’s 5 types of apologetics are:
    1)      Classical, a combination of natural philosophy and evidence
    2)      Evidential, theism and Christ’s resurrection are common themes
    3)      Cumulative case, this is neither inductive nor deductive, but a series of briefs supporting a theory as an explanation of selected data. C.S. Lewis used this method
    4)      Pre-suppositional assumes the existence of certain truths and builds arguments based on that foundation
    5)      Reformed epistemology assumes evidence is not required
    No matter which apologetic form we are using, we should avoid humiliating our enemies, warring, using emotionally charged rhetoric, or castigating others no matter how opprobrious we find them. He advocated being empathetic and showing academic humility, in cooperation with other scholars, the majority of whom will not be of our faith. He painted a picture of the academy as an ideal bastion of civil discourse and mutual respect where everyone plays nice in the sandbox and where irony and satire have no place.  We should do relational apologetics – striving for mutual affirmation on both sides. We should do good work, but "we just feel like there needs to be a change in the way we do apologetics." We should be collegial with scholars outside of BYU. Apologists generally preach to the choir and publish in-house.

    Ralph Hancock. Apologists defend beliefs using arguments. Modern scholars bifurcate the truth into secular and religious. They assume secular truth can be investigated and defended rationally. They relegate religious truth into a metaphysical world of mysticism and irrationality. By definition, most scholars assume religious truths and personal experiences with faith are indefensible. In reality, truth is unitary. Faith and reason are two sides of a single whole. Hancock referenced Arthur Henry King’s observation on Joseph Smith’s First Vision account in the Pearl of Great Price – it has the ring of truth. Most people on earth today believe faith and miracles are reasonable. Irony and satire do have a place in negative apologetics because the antagonists attacking our faith are so humorless. Tone and style vary greatly in effective apologetics. Humility is over-rated. The academy is not nearly as civil and tidy as idealists would have you believe. Straight forwardness is a better goal than humility in apologetics which by its very nature is advocacy literature.

    Brian Birch. Examples of sea changes in modern Mormonism include the B.H. Roberts debates with Joseph Fielding Smith over evolution, the new history advocated by Leonard J. Arrington and Eugene England, and the Maxwell Institute shift away from apologetics to Mormon Studies which is generally concerned with history, including reception history, and theology. Birch applauds the shift because it tones down the debate over truth claims and makes it more comfortable for him to interact with scholars not of our faith. Mormonism has many more potentially contentious issues than mainstream Christianity. Mormonism is more thoroughly suffused with revelatory discourse. Satire and irony should be non-existent. Humility has been lacking over the years in Mormon apologetics and it is necessary in the academy. The ideal Mormon apologist would be humble, able to receive criticism, and willing to change based on that criticism.

    Julie Smith. Apologetics are necessary as long as there are missionaries teaching investigators, 14 year olds going to Seminary for the first time, and members doing Google searches. Regardless of personal desire to retreat from the messiness and clamor, apologetics will never go away. The only question is whether they will be done well. Apologetics are like fire – necessary but dangerous. Some of the risks of apologetics done poorly are:
    ·         Fossilized mindsets
    ·         Women victimized as collateral damage in the debates
    ·         People alienating themselves from the church as they discover defects in previously-held apologetic arguments
    ·         Cultural truth being substituted for doctrine
    Smith advocates inclusive, high-quality apologetics. Not everything can be rationally explained. Faith allows for awe and wonder. We should avoid incivility. Weak apologetics injure Church doctrine. Smith likes lists with multiple explanatory options. “We don’t know” is OK as one of the options. The Bible is the new frontier in Mormon apologetics.  We have a lot to say about the Bible. We should not abandon apologetics. Rather, we should raise the bar and hasten the work in Mormon apologetics. FARMS did top-notch work. The Maxwell Institute is still doing apologetics at some level, although the word itself and the idea behind it have fallen out of favor. Smith then gave 3 examples of what she considers high quality Mormon apologetics:
    1)      Lynne Hilton Wilson, “The Confusing Case of Zacharias”
    2)      Mark Wright and Brant Gardner, “The Cultural Context of Nephite Apostasy”
    3)      Jonathan Stapley and Kristine Wright, “Female Ritual Healing in Mormonism”
    Faith and reason are and always have been yoked. We should strive for civility and non-Mormon peer review. Good apologetics inoculates against the betrayal narrative “I was never taught that.” Apologetics should be multi-layered, letting the reader decide which arguments have more explanatory power. The Gospel of Mark is a good example of apologetics done well. Mark shows Jesus Christ with mortal limitations. If even the Savior of mankind was limited by his mortality, how much more should we cut Joseph Smith some slack? The scriptures are not mystical, divine objects to be venerated for their own sakes. They are texts to be analyzed and understood.  We should do pre-emptive apologetics so young Mormons reverence the awe but do not grow up with unrealistic expectations.  

    Ben Park. Apologetics, done right, is good for both the academy and religious institutions as long as a wall separates them. Park likes the Jeffersonian concept of a wall separating church and state. The new Mormon history is a good example. Mormon Studies is emerging as a viable field of inquiry. We see Mormon Studies programs at Claremont and the University of Virginia in addition to the Utah schools. Programs are emerging at USC and the Graduate Theological Union. This is a wonderful development because it provides employment for scholars of Mormonism. Mormon Studies is now integrated in academics. In the long run, this will be good for Mormon apologetics. There are virtually no jobs for Mormon apologists while there are many options for Mormon Studies scholars. Graduate students cannot advance in academic careers doing apologetics.  These practical reasons alone explain the FARMS to Maxwell Institute shift.  Continuing with the wall metaphor, there should be a wall between Mormon Studies and apologetics.  We should exude positivism as we tell the great story of Mormonism.

    My observations:
    Utah State, the University of Utah, and now UVU are all doing Mormon Studies. The Maxwell Institute is moving rapidly in that direction, trying to relegate its apologetic FARMS' roots into an object of historical curiosity rather than a living, breathing current enterprise. I asked Brian Hauglid after the formal presentation "Is there a place on BYU campus for the kind of work FARMS used to do?" He replied that FAIR Mormon and Interpreter Foundation are both doing that kind of work. I reminded him that both of these are independent, off-campus entities and repeated my question, "Is there a place at BYU for an organization like FARMS in its heyday?""Well," he replied, "We're doing what we can." I took that for a no.

    I find it pathetically ironic that my tithing dollars support an institution where the kind of swash-buckling defender of the faith tradition practiced by the Pratt brothers, B.H. Roberts, Hugh W. Nibley, John L. Sorenson, John W. Welch, and Daniel C. Peterson is no longer welcome. It should come as no surprise, though, to anyone familiar with contemporary academic trends. Since WWII, ideas of universal truth, Judeo-Christian values, and even right and wrong have been supplanted on most college campuses with vague notions that diversity and tolerance are the highest virtues. Most academics worship at the altar of pluralism and decry exceptionalism whether Western European - American or Christian - Mormon. Joseph Smith's testimony that the Book of Mormon is a revelation from God and the most correct of any book on earth is a tough sell in today's climate of moral relativism. Why can't we just all get along and play nice in the sandbox? Being Unitarian or B'nai B'rith is much less stressful than knocking on doors or street contacting.

    The publish or perish incentives at most universities today, including BYU, practically guarantee that young LDS scholars will treat the Book of Mormon in a watered-down, non-controversial way if they deal with it at all. Traditional defender of the faith approaches are academic suicide in most departments if one's career goal is a coveted tenure-track faculty position in a mainstream institution.

    Straight-up Book of Mormon Studies of the apologetic FARMS variety will continue, although much of the leadership and institutional support will come from independent organizations such as FAIR Mormon, Interpreter Foundation, and the newly-created Book of Mormon Central.

    Many have asked why FARMS, which began in 1979 as a private non-profit in southern California, allowed itself to be acquired by BYU. Some key reasons included:
    • By the late 1990's, over 100 BYU faculty members were participating in FARMS projects in some way. The FARMS/BYU connection ran deep. FARMS was increasingly being drawn into the sometimes byzantine world of BYU departmental politics.
    • FARMS was raising quite a bit of money. LDS Philanthropies was anxious that those donations channel through them.
    • FARMS owned property adjacent to campus that figured in BYU's master plan. The BYU Life Sciences Building, completed in 2014, sits where the FARMS office used to be.
    • Merrill J. Bateman was inaugurated President of BYU in 1996. One year later Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley invited FARMS to become part of the university and voila, several of Pres. Bateman's problems were solved with a phone call.
    An excellent treatise extolling apologetics is Dan Peterson's classic "An Unapologetic Apology for Apologetics."
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      Dean's Tax

      November 17, 2015, 11:54 pm
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      There was a time when a donor could give money to BYU and expect most of it would support some pet project. That doesn't happen much anymore. The university administration is anxious to build up their endowment. Annual college rankings place a lot of emphasis on the size of an institution's endowment. In the US, Harvard leads the pack with a $36 billion fund, followed by the University of Texas at $25, Yale at $24, and Stanford and Princeton at $21 billion each. Even lesser-known schools such as Bowdoin, Grinnell and Swarthmore have billion dollar endowment funds. BYU's fund is much smaller, but growing, and current university policy reserves a high percentage of many donations to grow the endowment.

      So, for instance, I belong to a family who recently donated $3 million to BYU. We were feted with a lovely luncheon and heard a rousing speech from the dean. Then we found out how much good this generous gift would accomplish in 2015 - it would provide four students with half-tuition scholarships. BYU tuition for LDS students in 2014 - 2015 was $2,500, so the 2015 beneficiaries received a total of $5,000 in value from a $3 million fund. That is a yield rate less than 2/10 of 1%. Donors have a colloquial name for this huge amount that gets siphoned off from a bequest to fund the endowment. They call it the "dean's tax." Industry-standard overhead metrics typical of charity ranking services (e.g. Charity Navigator, GuideStar) make BYU look terrible. This harsh reality makes it unlikely that donations to BYU will fund expensive Book of Mormon projects in the future. Work like FARMS did in the 1980's and 90's will probably have to be done off-campus.
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      Deuteronomy in the Book of Mormon

      November 18, 2015, 11:24 pm
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      On November 18, 2015, I attended a lecture by Prof. David Rolph Seely entitled "Deuteronomy in the Book of Mormon" sponsored by BYU's Ancient Law Foundations Association (ALFA). This was an expanded version of a presentation Seely will give next week at the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) annual conference in Atlanta. Seely is on the ancient scripture faculty at BYU. His PhD is in biblical studies and Hebrew from the University of Michigan where he studied under renowned biblical scholar David Noel Freedman (1922-2008). Seely has worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls. He co-edited the 2004 Glimpses of Lehi's Jerusalem (Maxwell Institute) with Jo Ann Seely and Jack Welch. He co-authored the 2007 Solomon's Temple: Myth and History (Thames and Hudson) with Bill Hamblin.

      Lehi had first-hand experience with Josiah's reforms. The book of the law referenced in 2 Kings 22:8 was some form of Deuteronomy. The Book of Mormon has many examples of Deuteronomic language, themes, and laws. The Book of Mormon is steeped in King James Version (KJV) language. Mark Twain observed that the Book of Mormon has the quaint and old-fashioned structure of the KJV. The Book of Mormon contains 21 chapters - 478 verses - of Isaiah. On intertextuality between the Bible and the Book of Mormon, Seely referenced Philip Barlow's 2013 Mormons and the Bible (Oxford) and the anti-Mormon Skeptic's Annotated Book of Mormon.which emphasizes passages from Isaiah and Exodus. Nick Frederick has found 670 New Testament quotations in the Book of Mormon. (For my notes on a presentation Nick Frederick gave in March, 2015, see the article "English in the Book of Mormon"). BH Roberts in his 1907 2 volume Defense of the Faith and the Saints was beginning to address the issues of biblical intertextuality. Biblical quotations generally follow KJV language.

      Seely then mentioned the two schools of thought regarding translation methodology: A) Joseph read word-for-word from text displayed in the seer stone (Royal Skousen) and B) Joseph dictated an open rendering of thoughts in his own words (Brant Gardner). Seely favors Skousen because the literal rendering theory has a great deal of evidence to support it.

      Seely shared two humorous anecdotes:
      A) When he first hired on at BYU, the department chair asked him never to use the term "cult." It is such a useful word in the study of ancient religion that Seely has used it as often as possible since that day. B) Seely once visited Jerald and Sandra Tanner at their Lighthouse Ministry home office in Salt Lake. A little barking dog greeted him furiously at the door. Sandra said, "Our dog has been trained to bite Mormons."

      Critics of the Book of Mormon generally raise two issues regarding biblical intertextuality. A) Joseph Smith simply plagiarized the Bible, and B) Joseph copied from the Bible so clumsily that the Book of Mormon is full of anachronisms. Answers include A) Both the Bible and the Book of Mormon share certain ancient texts in common, B) The Book of Mormon is fiction or divine fiction, and C) The Book of Mormon is a mixture of ancient texts and modern inspired expansions from Joseph Smith. Seely sees both the Book of Mormon and the book of Deuteronomy descending from common ancient sources.

      Characteristics of both the book of Deuteronomy and the Book of Mormon:
      • Ancient authorship
      • Lost, hidden, buried for centuries
      • Re-discovery led to covenant renewal
      • Re-discovery led to centralization of cult
      • Re-discovery led to religious reforms
      • Covenant renewal ceremonies
      • Sacrifices at temples
      • Prophet authors speak as voice from the dust
      • Authors expected their text to transform the world
      • Book with a mission
      • Authors wrote for their own time and the future
      • Recitation of past history
      • Emphasis on the Exodus motif
      • Blessings and curses
      • Prophecies
      • Messiah
      • Ultimate destruction
      • Authoritative copy of the law (in the Book of Mormon's case, the law was on the Plates of Brass) used to measure the people
      • Self-referential literature
      The story of King Josiah and the discovery of the book of the law is in 2 Kings 22 - 23. The discovery was in 622 BC, within Lehi's lifetime. The book, or Torah, was delivered to King Josiah. As the king read, Moses was literally speaking to him from the dust. Josiah recognized his nation's apostasy and immediately instituted reforms. He led a covenant renewal ceremony and repaired the temple.

      The Plates of Brass contained the five books of Moses 1 Nephi 5:11. Therefore, the Pentateuch was in the canon by 600 BC. This contradicts the documentary hypothesis which sees part of Deuteronomy as exilic or post-exilic. The documentary hypothesis sees sources J (Yahwist), E (Elohist), J-E, D (Deuteronomist), R (Redactors) and P (Priestly)  all coming together to form the Torah. Moses wrote Deuteronomy on Mt. Nebo, then placed the book of the law in the ark of the covenant.

      Seely showed an image of the Warka Vase which includes a depiction of itself. This is an example of self-referential art.
      Warka Vase with Representation of Itself Highlighted in Red
      Deuteronomy is an example of self-referential literature. The Book of Mormon is a book about itself as a book.

      If you read the opening of the Book of Mormon carefully, you realize Nephi wrote these lines about 30 years after 600 BC. He began his narrative by recounting past history. Noel Reynolds showed in a Journal of Book of Mormon Studies JBMS article that both Lehi and Nephi are types of Moses.

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      Mosquitia

      November 21, 2015, 7:42 pm
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      The October 2015 National Geographic magazine contains an intriguing article entitled "Lure of the Lost City" by Douglas Preston with photographs by Dave Yoder. Airborne LIDAR remote sensing has located large ancient urban complexes previously unknown to science in a remote part of Honduras near its border with Nicaragua. The Mosquitia area is approximately 100 air kilometers from the Honduran town of Catacamas.
      National Geographic Map of Mosquitia Area
      Ground reconnaissance has verified the existence of large sites, but intense field work and excavation are still needed to establish dates and cultural relationships. The Mosquitia area is about 300 air kilometers distant from the traditional eastern boundary of Maya civilization which roughly follows the Ulua River. This Maya boundary has often been used to demarcate the eastern and southern limits of Mesoamerican high culture which many Book of Mormon scholars in turn have equated with the Lehite land southward border. Cultural remains from eastern Honduras and Nicaragua are generally regarded as significantly less advanced than those coming from western Honduras, Guatemala and Belize. If evidence of high culture or strong Maya affinities are found at Mosquitia sites, our maps of southern Mesoamerica may have to be re-drawn.
      Maya Region and Newly-Discovered Mosquitia Area
      Garth Norman has made the keen observation that if Mosquitia turns out to have occupation layers dating to Book of Mormon times, our notion of the land southward nearly surrounded by water Alma 22:32 may have to move further south into the narrower parts of Central America.
      One Interpretation of the Land Southward Nearly Surrounded by Water
      Many students of the Nephite text will be following developments in the Mosquitia area with interest.
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      Thanksgiving

      November 27, 2015, 5:05 am
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      Yesterday was Thanksgiving in the U.S. Two of our children, in from Minneapolis and Los Angeles, celebrated with us. We spent time with my mother-in-law who is feeling the effects of her 86 wonderful years. We visited my brother who entertained 44 guests in his new home. We are thankful for our eternal, family. We began by offering prayers in all the languages spoken by the six people around our table - German, Spanish, Russian, French and English. We are thankful for the Church's missionary program and for educational opportunities. Our meal was splendid. We are thankful for adequate nutrition. We ended by singing the 1927 song "Bless This House" written by Helen Taylor (UK) and composed by May Brahe (Australia). We are thankful for a happy home and for the role music plays in our lives. Our other children shared reports of their celebrations in Houston and Chicago. I spent two hours on Skype with a terrific Book of Mormon scholar who lives in the Australian outback. The connection was so clear I could hear his young children playing in the background. We are grateful for the blessings of technology, for the Book of Mormon, and for the bond the Gospel creates among the worldwide fellowship of Saints. We saw photographs from our son's recent visit to one of our ancestral homelands just south of Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport. We are thankful for things which are at home and things which are abroad as D&C 88:79 says.

      George Washington proclaimed that a "Day of Thanksgiving" be held on November 26, 1789. His words sound like something from Captain Moroni. "...A day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.""...The service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us." - George Washington, October 1789.

      The Book of Mormon uses the term "thanksgiving" six times.
      • In 2 Nephi 8:3 (citing Isaiah 51:3) the term is associated with the redemption of Zion and the return of the House of Israel in the latter days.
      • Alma 19:14 describes the great missionary Ammon in the court of King Lamoni.
      • Ammon himself used the term in his exultation at the conclusion of his mission Alma 26:37.
      • Amulek used the term in his preaching to the Zoramites in the land of Antionum Alma 34:38.
      • Mormon used the term to describe his hero, Captain Moroni Alma 48:12.
      • The term is used to describe the Nephites' reaction to the calming voice of the resurrected Savior following the vast destruction at His crucifixion 3 Nephi 10:10.
      George Washington associated thanksgiving with prayer to God in gratitude for divine providence. This is precisely how Book of Mormon prophet/authors employed the term.
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        Aztec Garrisons

        November 29, 2015, 11:08 pm
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        The husband and wife team of Arlen F. and Diane Z. Chase of the University of Central Florida have spent much of their professional lives investigating the site of Caracol, Belize. In a 1998 paper entitled "Late Classic Maya Political Structure, Polity Size, and Warfare Arenas" they posit "the 60 kilometer rule" that armies supplied from various late classic Maya capitals were effective within a 60 kilometer radius of their home. They marshall data from several lines of inquiry to support their idea that because of logistical limitations, Maya armies did not venture much past this hypothetical limit around their capitals.
        Late Classic Maya Capitals with 60 Kilometer Circles
        If armies on the march in this part of the world really did stay this close to home, it has profound implications for potential Book of Mormon correlations. It means the capital cities Nephi and Zarahemla were probably located within 100 - 150 air kilometers of each other. I am indebted to Dave Gray of Queensland, Australia for sharing the Chase's paper with me.

        There is another way to look at things, though. We know the post-classic Aztec Empire maintained military garrisons throughout their territory. This is a map showing known Aztec military outposts at contact.
        Aztec Troop Garrisons AD 1518
        The distance from Oztoman in the Aztec NW to Xoconochco in the SE is approximately 900 air kilometers. From their capital at Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs supplied armies deployed throughout their vast realm. They also used their garrisons as forward operating bases to project force and maintain supply lines.

        The Aztecs fought a lengthy, well-documented battle at the site we now call Tehuantepec, Oaxaca. A sizable Aztec force laid siege to the town for several months.The blog article "Isthmuses" has details about this famous battle. Tehuantepec is 160 air kilometers from the nearest Aztec military base at Huaxyacac and 535 air kilometers from the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.
        Aztec Battle Site - Tehuantepec
        The Aztecs clearly operated much further afield than a 60 mile radius from their capital.

        The text of the Book of Mormon makes it clear the Nephite military also had a tiered logistical system with multiple sources of resupply. In his epistle to Captain Moroni, Helaman describes his army operating on the SW front being resupplied from both Melek and Zarahemla Alma 56:27-28. The Nephites also opportunistically resupplied Judea from Cumeni Alma 57:11. So, the Nephite military operated like the documented Aztec model rather than the Chases' hypothetical Maya model. This means the Nephites could have projected force and maintained supply lines throughout territory hundreds of kilometers distant from their capital at Zarahemla.

        In a 2009 Ancient Mesoamerica article entitled "States and Empires in Ancient Mesoamerica," the Chases and Michael E. Smith provide more nuanced context behind their "60 kilometer rule." They derive a sixty kilometer radius from the distance they believe an army could march in 3 days at the rate of 20 air kilometers per day. This metric compares favorably with our derived value - 15 air kilometers per day - for the Nephite standard unit of distance measure "one day's journey." See the blog article "Land Southward Travel Times." They also recount known conquests of Tikal documented both epigraphically and archaeologically.
        Neighboring Sites that Invaded and Conquered Tikal
        Calakmul (100 air kilometers), Caracol (73 air kilometers) and Dos Pilas (112 air kilometers) all conquered Tikal militarily at various times in its turbulent history.

        In addition, Tikal is known to have had very strong trade and political relationships at times with distant Copan (268 air kilometers) and Kaminaljuyu (304 air kilometers).
        Relationships between Tikal and Distant Copan, Kaminaljuyu
        These data points make our proposed Nephi - Zarahemla distance (326 air kilometers from Kaminaljuyu to Boca del Cerro) seem plausible.
        Proposed Distance Nephi to Lesser Land of Zarahemla
        The Chases and Smith also make a strong point about "hegemonic" states being very different from "territorial" polities. A territorial state exercises exclusive sovereignty over the land within its borders via centralized political and military power. A hegemonic state is a looser, more decentralized alliance of polities. According to their analysis, most state-level cultures in Mesoamerica were hegemonic rather than territorial. This is good news for the Book of Mormon because it explicitly describes a relatively loose, decentralized alliance where city-states took themselves out of the confederation at will Alma 2:9, Alma 43:4.
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        Great Western Trade Route

        November 30, 2015, 11:27 pm
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        Brent K.S. Woodfill and Chloe Andrieu published an article in the September 2012 journal Ancient Mesoamerica entitled "Tikal's Early Classic Domination of the Great Western Trade Route: Ceramic, Lithic, and Iconographic Evidence." They describe a well-known trail that led from the Pacific coast of Chiapas up to Kaminaljuyu on the continental divide, then down the Motagua drainage, up over the Sierra de las Minas, through the Salama Valley and around the Cahabon River to modern Coban, then down to Cancuen on the Pasion, through Dos Pilas near the head of the Usumacinta, then down the Usumacinta past Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras, down the San Pedro to Moral-Reforma, then down the Usumacinta and Palizada to Aguacatal on the western edge of Laguna de los Terminos, and finally along the western coast of Campeche.
        Great Western Trade Route with Tikal Extension
        The Tikal extension went through Seibal and around Lake Peten Itza to Tikal on the continental divide between the San Pedro and Belizean drainages.

        Many Book of Mormon scholars believe Kaminaljuyu was the city of Nephi. Following the Great Western Trade Route from Kaminaljuyu to Moral-Reforma takes you right to our land of Gideon across the Sidon from our lesser land of Zarahemla.
        Trade Route Linking Proposed Nephi and Zarahemla
        Archaeologists believe the Great Western Trade Route was used in late pre-classic times and well-established by the early classic period ca. AD 250. This corresponds nicely with our current understanding of Book of Mormon geo-political history.



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        Introducing Book of Mormon Central

        December 8, 2015, 8:27 pm
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        A member of the Stanford LDS Institute faculty, Lynne Hilton Wilson, grew tired of seeing bright young Latter-day Saints leave the Church without ever seriously engaging the Book of Mormon. She envisioned an organization that could communicate the wonder of this text to a broad audience, including millennials. Major donors came forward and Book of Mormon Central (BMC) was born in May, 2015. John W. (Jack) Welch is the Chairman. I (Kirk Magleby) serve as Executive Director. Taylor Halverson rounds out the volunteer management team. We have a research office and library in Springville, Utah. The legal entity behind BMC is Ancient America Foundation (AAF) chartered in 1983. In addition to full-time staff and part-time freelancers, BMC has both affiliates and associates. Affiliates are collaborative organizations with compatible goals. Associates are volunteer researchers, writers, editors, and reviewers.

        Book of Mormon Central launches on January 1, 2016. A pre-launch reception will be held on Tuesday, December 22, 2015 from 11:30 am until 1:30 pm in the Fritz Burns Lobby of the J. Reuben Clark Law School on BYU Campus. Consider yourself invited.
        Book of Mormon Central Pre-Launch Reception Invitation
        Book of Mormon Central has four major initiatives.
        • The BMC Archive is a comprehensive digital repository of searchable texts and media relevant to the Book of Mormon. We expect to have over 1,000 items in the archive at launch.
        • BMC Notes are articles about the Book of Mormon organized in curated wiki format. A few notes will be available at launch, with many more coming online during 2016.
        • The BMC Text is an online interactive copy of the Book of Mormon linked to explanatory material in the Archive and Notes. A short demo of the text will be online at launch.
        • KnoWhys are concise illustrated essays about a point of interest in the Book of Mormon published frequently in many social media channels including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. KnoWhys begin publication January 1, 2016.
        Nothing like Book of Mormon Central has ever been attempted in this dispensation. We hope to give believers a place to strengthen their conviction through reliable scholarship and articulate communication. And we hope to help many not of our faith come to know the Book of Mormon.

        A phrase we have heard frequently the last few months, "This is greatly needed and long overdue."
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        Norman's Clincher

        December 8, 2015, 10:48 pm
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        While talking with Garth Norman recently he recounted the moment he realized the Usumacinta must be the Sidon. He first determined that Moroni on the east coast just north of the narrow strip of wilderness Alma 50:13 had to be one of the known submerged ruins (such as Tiger Mound) in the Bay of Amatique that straddles the Caribbean coast of Guatemala and Belize.
        Proposed Fortified Cities Moroni to Manti and Beyond
        There are six serious Mesoamerican Book of Mormon correlations. They are, in order of first publication: Sorenson (1985), Hauck (1988), Allen (1989), Turner (2004), Norman (2006), and Magleby (this blog, 2011). Five of the six place Moroni (white pin) and the narrow strip of wilderness about where they are shown on the map above. The only outlier is Sorenson who places Moroni (black pin) on the Gulf Coast. So, Norman has solid support for his Moroni correlation.

        Ca. 72 BC Captain Moroni fortified a string of cities at key points along the southern flank of Nephite lands. They ran from Moroni on the east Alma 50:13 to Antiparah on the west Alma 56:31. Going from east to west, the cities were Manti, Zeezrom, Cumeni, and Antiparah Alma 56:14. Westward from Moroni the next fortified city was Manti which was near the head of river Sidon Alma 22:27. Antiparah, Cumeni and Zeezrom were in the south west quadrant of Nephite lands Alma 52:11, Alma 53:22. The Sidon itself was in the center of Nephite territory Helaman 1:26. Ca. 72 BC the greater land of Zarahemla north of the narrow strip of wilderness extended from sea to sea Alma 50:11-13. So, moving westward from Moroni, Manti was the next in line of Captain Moroni's fortified cities. It was not far from the head of the river at the approximate center of the greater land of Zarahemla. The Usumacinta fits this scenario beautifully and for Norman, that was the clincher.
        ↧

        Book of Mormon Lands Map January 2016

        January 20, 2016, 12:12 am
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        This is my best Book of Mormon Lands Map to date. It incorporates most of what I have learned since this journey began in August, 2011. I recently returned from 11 days in Guatemala where I collaborated with bright people such as Mark Wright, Diane Wirth, Dave Gray, Rick Callister, Van Dunham, Neal Rappleye, Stephen Smoot, and Rolando Amado. Rick shared a very good map from Shelby Saberon who is a trained Mesoamericanist. Mark uses Shelby's map in his BYU Book of Mormon classes. Van let me see an excellent map prepared by Elder Clate Mask who has lived and travelled extensively in this part of the world since the 1960's. Rolando shared insights from his many years of field research as an agronomist and student of anthropology. Rolando may be the native Guatemalan with the best grasp of the Book of Mormon in its New World setting. He worked for several years with Ric Hauck and Joe Andersen helping excavate sites in the Salama Valley.

        Nothing I learned on my most recent trip contradicted, and many things corroborated the January, 2016 model presented here. Most importantly, I believe this model exhibits a high degree of fit to the text as many of the 180+ articles on this blog attest.
        Kirk Magleby's Book of Mormon Map as of January, 2016
        As with all images on this blog, click to enlarge. Colored pins represent lands. White pins represent cities with no corresponding land mentioned in the text. Blue represents the Mezcalapa - Grijalva as it flowed in Book of Mormon times (See the article "Wandering River"). Red represents the Usumacinta which I take to be the Sidon. All other drainage basins are in yellow. Larger type identifies the more prominent lands described in the text - Nephi, Zarahemla, Bountiful, Desolation, and Cumorah.

        Here is another version of the map with named cities in the land southward and their proposed correlates.
        Proposed Land Southward City Correlates as of January, 2016
        And here are many of the natural features mentioned in the text.
        Proposed Book of Mormon Natural Features as of January, 2016
        Notice how the four seas and river Sidon on the map above form a classic quincunx, a very Mesoamerican way of perceiving space. This is a painted ceramic quincunx from Kaminaljuyu on display in the Museo Miraflores in Guatemala City.
        Quincunx on Ceramic, Museo Miraflores, Guatemala City
        Photo by Kirk Magleby, December 27, 2015
        Other Guatemalan examples of bodies of water in the four cardinal directions and at the center are in the article Quichean Directionality.

        For serious students of the Nephite text, I recommend downloading the January 30, 2016 edition of my Book of Mormon Model. This is a 14 MB kmz file that opens in Google Earth. Virtually all of the Google Earth imagery you see on this blog comes from the model.

        I can take but a small amount of credit for these maps. They incorporate what I find are the most persuasive parts of maps from a number of other scholars such as:
        • John L. Sorenson, 1985, 2013
        • F. Richard (Ric) Hauck, 1988
        • Joseph L. and Blake J. Allen, 1989, 2008
        • Aric Turner, 2004
        • V. Garth Norman, 2006
        • Clate W. Mask, Jr., unpublished
        • Shelby H. Saberon, unpublished  
        I do take credit for the methodology behind these maps which I believe is sophisticated and empirically rigorous. Many of the articles on this blog lay out the process I have followed.

        There are many discordant Book of Mormon maps because people differ widely in the way they interpret the text. For example, references to seas in the text have been interpreted to mean:
        • The sea south and sea north Helaman 3:8 are metaphorical, not actual bodies of water. Therefore, there are 2 seas mentioned in the text: the sea east and the sea west.
        • The sea south and sea north are metaphorical, but there are 3 seas mentioned in the text: the sea east, the sea west, and the west sea, south Alma 53:8.
        • The sea south and sea north are actual bodies of water; sea west and west sea, south refer to the same natural feature. Therefore, there are 4 seas mentioned in the text. The January, 2016 map is based on this interpretation.
        • The sea south, sea north, sea east, and sea west are actual bodies of water, and west sea, south refers to a discrete feature. Therefore, there are 5 seas mentioned in the text.
        • Sea east Alma 22:27 and east sea Alma 50:8 are two different bodies of water. Ditto Sea west Alma 22:27 and west sea Alma 53:22. Sea south and sea north are physical rather than metaphorical. Therefore, there are 6 seas mentioned in the text.
        Add to this the question of whether "sea" refers to a salt water ocean, a fresh water lake, or some combination of the two, and the potential for divergent maps is obvious.

        Interpretations follow assumptions about the text. These are my assumptions:
        1. The events described in the text occurred in the Holocene epoch. This means shorelines have been relative stable since Jaredite times.
        2. The language of the text is Early Modern English with its epicenter about 1560, pre-dating even the King James Version KJV. See the articles "Early Modern English" and "English in the Book of Mormon." This important textual insight continues to gain support with a flurry of recent scholarship from Stanford Carmack in Interpreter. See "Why the Oxford English Dictionary (And Not Webster's 1828)" from 2015. See also "The More Part of the Book of Mormon is Early Modern English" from 2016. Add to that "Joseph Smith Read the Words,""The Case of the {-th] Plural in the Earliest Text," and "The Case of Plural Was in the Earliest Text" all in 2016. Skousen corroborated by Carmack is becoming impossible to ignore. This means yea clauses explicate the subject of the previous clause, which helps an exegete correctly match pronouns with their antecedent nouns in compound sentences such as the important geographical passages Alma 22:28 and Alma 50:11.
        3. The Book of Mormon authors meant for us to take their text at face value. This is the intent of 2 Nephi 25:4, 7, Alma 13:23, and Moroni 7:15. Words and phrases should be interpreted the way they would have been generally understood on the streets of London when Shakespeare was a youth, Up and down describe relative elevation. North, south, east and west refer to cardinal directionality.
        4. We should interpret the text consistently. This means we apply the same interpretive standards in the Old World and the New. All geonyms are physical rather than selectively metaphorical. There are no double  definitions. Singular instances apply. All features are equally important. We account for all contextualized referents rather than engage in selective suppression of inconvenient polities or natural features. We extrapolate parallel meaning based on prior usage and cognate passages. This is Royal Skousen's notion of "systematic phraseology." Hence, a Nephite was a member of the polity, an average citizen or soldier. East or west of Sidon was riverside. Wilderness was territory beyond political or military control. Nephite metrics such as a day's journey were standard units of measure.
        5. Parallelism is an important formatting construct that can help shed light on difficult passages.
        6. The text is precise rather than ambiguous. There should be no atextual assumptions, no forced readings, no false attributions, and no conclusions based on lacunae. There is an excellent interview with Warren Aston in the Book of Mormon Central Arvhive. At about minute 37 in that interview, I ask Warren whether in his experience the text of the Book of Mormon is precise or ambiguous. He responds, "the impression I have now is that it's a very precise, detailed account." That has been my experience as well.
        7. The text is historical. We can and should correlate space and time. Alma 22 describes the geo-political situation ca., 90 BC. The parallel text in Alma 50 describes the very different geo-political situation ca. 72 BC.
        8. Neither Nephites nor Lamanites exercised exclusive sovereignty over their territory the way a modern state does. They had strings of affiliated settlements with intervening wilderness and many unaffiliated polities. Large extents of territory were simply not directly referenced in the text. Mormon pioneers in the western US offer an instructive analogue. Brigham settled the Saints in a vast territory from San Bernardino, CA to Salmon, ID, Pueblo, CO and Deming, NM, but he lacked the manpower to defend such an extensive realm and gentile incursion quickly marginalized the believers throughout their range.
        9. Both Nephites and Lamanites were capable of projecting power and maintaining supply lines across space hundreds of kilometers distant from their respective capitals.
        10. The text explicitly applies multiple meanings to these terms: a) Bountiful - a discrete land and the entire land southward, b) Desolation - a discrete land and the entire land northward, c) Nephi - lesser Nephi was a discrete land while greater Nephi was the entire land southward south of the narrow strip of wilderness, d) Zarahemla - lesser Zarahemla was a discrete land while greater Zarahemla was the entire land southward between Bountiful on the north and the narrow strip of wilderness on the south.
        11. Lehi-Nephi was a politically correct term used only during the Zeniff - Noah - Limhi era.
        12. Cities and eponymous lands can generally be distinguished in the text.
        13. Borders and centers of lands can generally be distinguished in the text.
        I have compiled a list of problematic passages whose disparate interpretations cause much of the confusion and disharmony among students of Book of Mormon geography. Applying the textual assumptions enumerated above sheds considerable light on these vexatious passages. In all cases, the interpretation followed in the January, 2016 map is the second of the two options presented in the list.

        Applying my interpretations based on my assumptions, I have come up with eleven tests I believe any viable Book of Mormon New World correlation should pass.
        1. The text describes 37 places where you go up in elevation from point a to point b, and 41 places where you go down in elevation from point a to point b. See the article "Test #1 Ups and Downs." I believe a viable model will get all 78 of these relationships right. The January, 2016 model scores 100% on this test, using Google Earth to make the results explicit and reproducible.
        2. The text describes 3 different ways Nephite lands were divided into two roughly equal halves. See the article "Test #2 One Half of Nephite Lands." I believe a viable model will show similar surface areas between the paired halves in all 3 cases. The January, 2016 model does show nearly equal surface areas between the halves in all 3 cases, using Google Earth to make the results explicit and reproducible.
        3. The text describes the boundary between Nephites and Lamanites and the boundary between the lands Zarahemla and Bountiful as cultural borders. See the article "Test #3 Cultural Boundaries." I believe a viable model will show evidence that these littorals described in the text are known to science and did exist anciently. The boundaries in the January, 2016 model satisfy this criterion.
        4. The text describes 3 ecological borders that should show up on satellite imagery. See the article "Test #4 Ecological Boundaries." The 3 borders in the January, 2016 model do show up clearly on satellite photos. Google Earth makes the results explicit and reproducible.
        5. The text uses the terms north, northward, northern, and northernmost. 39 discrete from and to locations should plot a northerly vector. The text uses the terms south, southward, and south-southeast. 36 discrete from and to locations should plot a southerly vector. The text uses the terms east and eastward. 30 discrete from and to locations should plot an easterly vector. The text uses the term west. 28 discrete from and to locations should plot a westerly vector. See the article "Test #5 North South East and West." I believe a viable model will show all 133 vectors within their appropriate compass quadrant. The January, 2016 model scores 100% on this test, using Google Earth to make the results explicit and reproducible.
        6. The text uses some variant of the term "day" 22 times to describe distance measure. See the article "Test #6 Relative Distances." I believe a viable model will derive a reasonable value for the standard unit of Nephite distance measure "one day's journey" and then apply that value consistently in all 22 cases. The January, 2016 model first derives 15 air (straight-line) kilometers as a reasonable value for the Nephite metric (see the article "Land Southward Travel Times"), then applies that measurement consistently in all 22 instances where the text describes distance in this way.
        7. In addition to continental-scale lands such as Bountiful and greater Zarahemla, the Book of Mormon describes 31 lesser lands such as Melek and Ammonihah Alma 8:6-7. These lesser lands were regional polities, often described in the text as city states Mosiah 7:21, Mosiah 23:25. The city state form of administrative organization is well-known from many areas of the world throughout history. Furthermore, city state land areas tend to fall within typical size ranges based on common-sense limits such as the distance a man on horseback traveled in one day or the territory a local, militia could reasonably defend. See the article "Test #7 Land Areas." I believe a viable model will show mean Book of Mormon land areas that fall within the size ranges typical of city states known to history. The average area of lesser lands in the January, 2016 model is very consistent with mean city state land areas recognized by historical geographers in many parts of the world. The total number of named lands in the Book of Mormon (33 greater and lesser lands) compares favorably with the number of Maya city states currently known to science (16 in the northern Maya lowlands, 31 in the southern Maya lowlands). See a brief discussion in the article "Hansen and Coe."
        8. Two of the most widely-supported correlations in the Mesoamerican theory are Nephi in the Guatemalan Highlands and Ramah - Cumorah in southern Veracruz. All 8 of the Mesoamerican maps referenced in this article propose Nephi within a 100 kilometer radius of Guatemala City and Ramah - Cumorah in the Tuxtlas or the nearby Papaloapan delta. If these Nephi and Ramah - Cumorah correlations are in the right geographic ballpark, we can draw some strong inferences about the location of Zarahemla from the account of King Limhi's expedition. Limhi's 43 explorers traveled from Nephi to Ramah - Cumorah, then returned to Nephi bearing artifacts. They reported that they had found Zarahemla, and King Limhi, custodian of the Zeniff colony records, believed them. See the article "Test #8 Limhi Expedition." for a list of Zarahemla criteria implied by the Limhi explorer's travels. I believe the location of Zarahemla on a viable Book of Mormon map will satisfy these criteria. The Zarahemla correlation in the January, 2016 model (Nueva Esperanza - Calatraba) does comfortably satisfy all of the criteria, using Google Earth to make the results explicit and reproducible.
        9. The text has a surprising amount of detail, both explicit and inferred, about river Sidon. The article "Test #9 River Sidon" lists 44 criteria for Sidon. I believe a viable candidate for Sidon will satisfy these criteria. The January, 2016 candidate for Sidon, the Usumacinta, satisfies all 44 criteria with flying colors, using Google Earth to make the results explicit and reproducible.
        10. The text describes 7 places where armies and others crossed over Sidon. See the article "Test #10 Crossing Sidon." Because of swamps, canyons, swift currents, etc. people generally cross large rivers at certain favorable points and avoid dangerous crossing locations. I believe a viable Book of Mormon correlation will show Sidon transit points at locations amenable to river crossing. The river crossing points in the January, 2016 model are all attested either by a modern bridge at that location, or rope bollards discovered by archaeologists that were used anciently to ferry canoes across the river. Google Earth helps make the results explicit and reproducible.
        11. The text describes 10 large-scale characteristics of the Book of Mormon land mass that should be observable via satellite imagery. The article "Test #11 The Big Picture" itemizes them. I believe a viable Book of Mormon map will convincingly show all 10 characteristics. The January, 2016 model does clearly demonstrate all 10 features, using Google Earth to make the results explicit and reproducible.
        --
          Any map that can run the gauntlet of these 11 tests deserves serious consideration, but there are many more textual criteria to analyze. The January, 2016 model also satisfies 100% of the following criteria with Google Earth helping make the results explicit and reproducible.
          A. Ammonihah 29 criteria outlined in the article "Ammonihah."
          B. Gideon 23 criteria outlined in the article "Gideon."
          C. Helam 10 criteria outlined in the article "Helam."
          D. Hermounts 11 criteria outlined in the article "Hermounts."
          E. Manti 25 criteria outlined in the article "Manti."
          F. Melek 14 criteria outlined in the article "Melek."
          G. Minon 7 criteria outlined in the article "Minon."
          H. Narrow (Small) Neck of Land 15 criteria outlined in the article "The Narrow (Small) Neck of Land."
          I. Narrow Pass 16 criteria outlined in the article "The Narrow Pass and Narrow Passage."
          J. Narrow Strip of Wilderness 32 criteria outlined in the artlcle "The Narrow Strip of Wilderness."
          K. Sidom 13 criteria outlined in the article "Sidom."
          L. Sidon must flow northward. See the article "River Sidon South to North."
          M. Sidon 28 criteria outlined in the article "The Usumacinta/Sidon Correlation."
          --
          The Book of Mormon Onomasticon is a marvelous resource for possible Old World etymologies of Book of Mormon names. Paul Y. Hoskisson, Robert F. Smith, Stephen D. Ricks and John Gee have invested thousands of hours creating this unique contribution to Book of Mormon scholarship. Two names, Ripliancum and Riplah, deserve special mention because Moroni himself explicitly defined the term Ripliancum in Ether15:8. Both Ripliancum and Riplah carry the meaning of large or abundant. See the article "Hill Riplah." I believe a viable Book of Mormon map will locate both Ripliancum and Hill Riplah in places appropriate to their names. The January, 2016 model correlates Ripliancum with the Papaloapan river delta in southern Veracruz, the largest wetlands in our land northward. The January, 2016 model correlates Hill Riplah with Cerro Pampache in Alta Verapaz, the largest detached hill in Guatemala.
          --
          If a proposed Book of Mormon correlation is correct, it will shed light on otherwise enigmatic passages in the text. Here is one example. Mormon 4:4 must refer to some kind of military advantage unique to the Nephite city of Desolation. Other possible interpretations of that verse are explicitly contradicted by Mormon elsewhere in his eponymous book. The article "French Connection" point #6 describes the significant military advantage gained by building defensive walls with hard granite rather than soft limestone. The January, 2016 model locates the city of Desolation in the vicinity of Tonala, Chiapas. Tonala is the only area in Mesoamerica where we find large-scale use of hard architectural granite in the AD 300 - 400 time frame. The article "The Narrow Pass and Narrow Passage" further discusses this interesting point.

          Article updated January 30, 2016
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