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Cylinder Seals

October 6, 2017, 1:43 am
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The Book of Mormon uses some form of the word "seal" more than two dozen times. Writings are sealed to come forth unadulterated at a later date 1 Nephi 14:26, 2 Nephi 26:17. Writings are sealed to keep them hidden from unworthy readers 2 Nephi 27:7-8. Writings are sealed to place them in divine hands for safekeeping 2 Nephi 30:3. Things are sealed or bound and then later loosed 2 Nephi 30:17. Prophets seal their words as testimony that will be used later in court proceedings 2 Nephi 33:15. Righteous people can be sealed to God Mosiah 5:15. Martyrdom seals the truthfulness of a prophet's words Mosiah 17:20. Wicked people can be sealed to Satan Alma 34:35. Priesthood power can seal things reciprocally on earth and in heaven Helaman 10:7. Authors personally sealed epistles delivered to political rivals. 3 Nephi 3:5. Accompanying objects could be sealed along with writings Ether 3:22-23. Writings, Interpretation of writings, and holy objects could all be sealed together Ether 4:5. Sealing physical objects was a caching, archival or repository function Ether 5:1. Sealing was an act of completion or finality Moroni 10:2.

The act of sealing something, particularly writing, was important enough in the Nephite worldview that it would not be surprising to find seals in the Mesoamerican archaeological record, and we do. This collection of roller stamps or cylinder seals is housed in the Snite Museum on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The seals were used to make impressions in plastic materials such as wax or clay, and to ink patterns on paper, skin or fabric. Most of these seals came from a single cache at the Olmec site of Las Bocas, Puebla.
Olmec Cylinder Seal with Net Design, Unknown Provenience
This seal has an image of the sun god in profile.
Olmec Roller Seal from Las Bocas, Puebla ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC
This seal shows the stylized earth monster.
Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Pubela, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC
Seal with floral motif.
Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC
Seal with serpent and Venus symbols.
Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC
Seal with net and serrated panel.
Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC
Seal with flaming eyebrow motif.
Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC
Seal with opposed paws design.
Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC
Seal with waves and checkerboard motif.
Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC
Seal with serrated lines and squares.
Late Classic Veracruz Roller Seal, ca. AD 600 - 900
Seal with harpy eagle symbolism.
Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC
Seal with triangles and arcs.
Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC
Seal with stylized toads.
Olmec Roller Seal, Las Bocas, Puebla, ca. 1,500 - 1,000 BC
Even more germane to the Book of Mormon is this ceramic bowl depicting a bound, tied, or sealed screen-fold codex.
Olmec Earthenware Pot, Tlapacoya, Mexico, Mexico
Ayotla Phase, ca. 1,500 - 1,300 BC
This map shows the locations of Las Bocas, Puebla and Tlapacoya, Estado de Mexico.
Locations of Tlapacoya and Las Bocas
Cylinder Seals were used extensively in Mesopotamia where nearly every elite person carried one around their neck or attached to their arm. In that culture, a seal was used much like a person's signature nowadays. Some cylinder seals had handles like a rolling pin. Others had concave surfaces on either end for holding between one's fingers. Most were hollow in the center so a stick or cord could be inserted as an axle. In Mesoamerica, cylinder seals are known from Yucatan, Patzcuaro (Michoacan), Xochimilco (Mexico City), and Tlatilco (Mexico City). Tim Tucker, working for BYU's New World Archaeological Foundation, excavated a cache of cylinder seals inside a stone box at Chiapa de Corzo. See Thomas A. Lee, The Artifacts of Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico (Provo: BYU New World Archaeological Foundation Paper #26, 1969). Other cylinder seals have been found at Tres Zapotes, La Venta, and Kaminaljuyu.
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Flammable Books

October 8, 2017, 11:04 am
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The Book of Mormon describes writing on flammable materials in the city of Ammonihah ca. 82 BC Alma 14:8. Our current correlation places the city of Ammonihah at the site of El Hormiguero II in the NW corner of Peten, Guatemala. Writing on plaster coated amate bark-paper (from Ficus [fig] or Morus [mulberry] trees) is attested archaeologically from two southern Mesoamerican sites in early to middle classic time horizons.

1. Two congealed codex fragments were recovered from Mounds 9 (burial 22) and 10 (burial 30) at Mirador, Chiapas. Both date to the Laguna-Nuti phase (AD 300 - 500).
Deteriorated Codices from Mirador, Chiapas
Pierre Agrinier, Mounds 9 and 10 at Mirador, Chiapas, Mexico, Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation, Number 39 (Provo: BYU NWAF, 1975). These fragments are now in the custody of INAH in Mexico City.

2. Fragments of a congealed codex were recovered from structure A-1, pyramid C, burial A6 at Uaxactun, Peten, Guatemala. The burial dates to AD 400 - 600. Structure A-1 itself was begun in the late Pre-classic (AD 1 - 250).
Deteriorated Codex from Uaxactun, Peten
Nicholas P. Carter and Jeffrey Dobereiner, Multispectral imaging of an Early Classic Maya codex fragment from Uaxactun, Guatemala, Antiquity, 90 351 2016. The Uaxactun fragments are now in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard. These fragments had 2 different plaster layers applied, the only known attestation of the early Maya scribal practice of erasure and re-inscription on codices. Resurfacing and repainting on murals is well-attested. Writing on plaster overlaid gourds is known from the UNESCO World Heritage site of Cerén, El Salvador (volcanic ash fall covered an entire village, leaving unusually well-preserved remains a la Pompeii); Baking Pot, Belize; and a royal tomb at El Zotz, Peten, Guatemala dating to AD 300 - 400.  

All codex fragments and some of the gourds were found in mortuary contexts. See for example the Uaxactun image in the blog article "Partake of the Fruit." The Book of Mormon explicitly correlates words and death Mosiah 17:20.
Relative Locations of Referenced Sites
Some depictions of bark-paper codices on stone, painted ceramic vessels, and murals are much earlier than these decayed fragments. See, for example, the Olmec bound screen-fold codex illustrated in the article Cylinder Seals. Mayan epigraphic inscriptions reference 'paper' or 'books' (hu'n) and 'writers' (aj tz'ib).
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Ear Ornaments

October 14, 2017, 9:04 pm
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The Book of Mormon mentions "ear-rings" 2 Nephi 13:20 in an Isaiah citation. The text uses the word "heavy" to describe ears 2 Nephi 16:10, also in a passage from Isaiah. The Book of Mormon associates some variant of the word "open" with ears as in 1 Nephi 20:8, 2 Nephi 7:5, Mosiah 2:9, and 3 Nephi 11:5.

Elites throughout Mesoamerican history wore circular ear spools aka ear flares or ear plugs that literally opened ear lobes, made ears heavy, and could easily be described as ear-rings.

La Venta Offering 4 now in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico
Notice that all these Olmec figurines from ca. 800 BC are wearing ear spools.

Copan Stela A in the Museo de Esculturas, Copan, Honduras
Photo by Kirk Magleby December 28, 2015
Copan Stela A depicts Waxaklajun Ub'aah K'awiil (18 Rabbit), the 13th ruler, wearing large ear spools. This stela was dedicated on Maya Long Count date 9.14.19.8.12 (January 30, AD 731).

Mixtec Ear Spools
These greenstone (jadeite) ear spools from Oaxaca ca. AD 1200 are in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Similar artifacts are found throughout Mesoamerica in almost all time horizons. See, for example, Thomas A. Lee, Jr. "The Artifacts of Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico,"Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation, Number 26 (Provo: BYU-NWAF, 1969) page 191.
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Top 10 Literary and Linguistic Evidences for the Book of Mormon

October 16, 2017, 12:50 am
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In an article begun in May, 2017, I summarized the ten archaeological evidences for the Book of Mormon I find most convincing. This article will summarize the ten literary and linguistic evidences for the Book of Mormon I find most compelling.

1. Chiasmus. Ancient literary traditions in largely oral cultures used narrative structures as mnemonic devices in their texts. One of the best known is chiasmus, aka reverse parallelism, associated primarily with Semitic texts and in recent decades widely recognized throughout both the Old and New Testaments. . In a chiasm, narrative motifs build up to a climactic center, then repeat themselves in reverse order in the second half of the pericope. A good example is Mosiah 5:10-12. This beautiful six-element chiasm, the first one recognized in the Book of Mormon in modern times, was discovered by Jack Welch in the early morning hours of August 16, 1967 while he was serving as an LDS missionary in Regensburg, Germany:
A whosoever will not take upon him the name of Christ
      B must be called by some other name;
            C therefore, he findeth himself on the left hand of God.
                  D And I would that ye should rememberalso,
                        E that this is the name ...that never should be blotted out,
                              F except it be through transgression;
                              F therefore, take heed that ye do not transgress,
                         E that the name be not blotted out of your hearts
                  D ...I would that ye should remember to retain the name ...
            C that ye are not found on the left hand of God,
      B but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called
A and also, the name by which he shall call you.
There are dozens of impressive chiasms in the Book of Mormon, including the masterful Alma 36 which may be the most elegant chiastic structuring of any passage known from any ancient literature.
See the article entitled "Recent Book of Mormon News" for links to excellent videos shown during and resulting from the remarkable Chiasmus Jubilee held on BYU Campus on August 16, 2017. The Jubilee followed the first-ever academic conference on chiasmus where eminent scholars from Jewish, Catholic, Evangelical, and Latter-day Saint faith traditions presented their research.

2. Paronomasia. Ancient writers were masters of puns and other plays on words deployed for rhetorical effect. In recent years, many profound examples have been found in the Book of Mormon. Matthew Bowen, a member of the BYU-Hawaii Religion faculty, has led this scholarly endeavor, publishing several influential articles in Interpreter. See for example "Father Is a Man: The Remarkable Mention of the Name Abish in Alma 19:16 and its Narrative Context." Here are some examples of naming word play I find particularly insightful:
  • Alma in Hebrew means "youth." When Alma1 is first introduced in Mosiah 17:2, he is described as "a young man."
  • Alma can also carry the connotation "hidden" and in Mosiah 18:5 he explicitly hides from King Noah's troops.
  • Noah in Hebrew means "rest" with the pejorative connotation "lazy."Mosiah 11:6 accuses Noah and his priests of laziness.
  • Jershon in Hebrew means "inherit." The first time Jershon is mentioned in the text the land is given to the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi for their inheritance Alma 27:22-24.
These gems are just the tip of the iceberg. More are being discovered all the time. According to Taylor Halverson and Brad Wilcox, such plays on words demonstrate the "brilliant literary sophistication" of the Book of Mormon authors. See "The Surprising Meanings Behind 'Enos' and 'Noah': Insights into Book of Mormon Names."

3. Early Modern English. Through the diligent efforts of Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack, we now know that the language of the earliest Book of Mormon translation was closer to the Early Modern English spoken when Shakespeare was a youth than the Jacksonian American English codified in the 1828 Websters Dictionary. See the articles "Early Modern English" and "English in the Book of Mormon." Without help from an external (divine) source, a mono-linguist simply cannot dictate a long (268,000 words) and complex text over the course of approximately 65 working days in a language that neither his mother nor his father nor their mothers nor their fathers spoke.

4. Stylometry. Computerized statistical tests run against blocks of text can often distinguish the words of Author A from the writings of Author B. Authors have writing styles that consciously or sub-consciously pervade their work. Many such tests run by different teams over decades demonstrate with high degrees of confidence that the Book of Mormon was written by multiple authors whose varied styles differ in statistically significant ways. The work that launched this area of inquiry was published by Wayne A. Larsen, Tim Layton, and Alvin C. Rencher. See "Who Wrote the Book of Mormon? An Analysis of Wordprints" in BYU Studies 20:3, Spring, 1980. Layton, a friend of mine, is currently serving as Mission President in California, Bakersfield.

John L. Hilton, a physicist who taught at UC Berkeley and worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, took up the challenge of verifying the Larsen, Layton, Rencher results using improved statistical techniques. He worked for years with an interfaith team of colleagues in the East Bay area. In the end, they not only verified but strengthened the 1980 results. See "On Verifying Wordprint Studies: Book of Mormon Authorship" in Noel B. Reynolds, editor, Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited (Provo: FARMS, 1997).

The current standard-bearer in this area is Paul J. Fields, a statistical analyst who holds a PhD from Penn State. See Matthew Roper, Paul J. Fields, and G. Bruce Schaalje, "Stylometric Analyses of the Book of Mormon" in Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 21/1 2012.

5. Intertextuality. Book of Mormon authors had access to a version of the Hebrew Bible contained on the plates of brass 1 Nephi 5:10-13. When the Savior visited the Nephites in land Bountiful after his resurrection, he shared additional scriptures with them 3 Nephi 23:6 which were recorded in official national annals. Therefore, it should not be too surprising that Book of Mormon writers quote, allude to, echo, and expand upon biblical passages. The Book of Mormon is remarkable for the sheer volume of intertextual references, and for the creative, significant ways the Nephite record weaves the two texts together. David J. Larsen is an Old Testament scholar who holds a PhD from the University of St Andrews (Scotland). His 104 page "Overview of the Use of Biblical Psalms in the Book of Mormon Text" is currently in private circulation.   
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Roads and Highways

October 23, 2017, 12:57 am
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The Book of Mormon describes roads 3 Nephi 6:8 and highways Helaman 7:10, 14:24, 3 Nephi 8:13 about the time of Christ. We now have spectacular evidence of roads and highways in Mesoamerica about the time of Christ.
Mirador LiDAR Image
LiDAR is an acronym for Light Detection and Ranging. This remote sensing technology uses a small plane that flies in a grid pattern over a target area. The plane carries laser equipment that fires 560,000 bursts per second and builds a massive point cloud of data. Hours of processing on a supercomputer then render a topographic image that can help a researcher identify man-made objects buried beneath a jungle canopy or other ground cover. Combining 2D and 3D images creates highly accurate maps of otherwise hidden features. LiDAR is very expensive. In Guatemala's Mirador Basin, Richard Hansen used 38 hours of flying time and surveyed 700 square kilometers at a cost in excess of $500,000. Because it can show archaeologists exactly where to dig, hopefully before looters destroy a new site, LiDAR is a coveted technology in the profession.

Mirador Basin Causeway from the Air
Hansen is a BYU graduate who got his PhD at UCLA. 34 universities from several countries currently collaborate on his massive Mirador Basin Project which has an annual budget in the $2 - 3 million range. It may be the largest archaeology project on earth. I visited El Mirador in January, 2016. I went in via helicopter. The alternative was a 3 day hike or mule ride from the nearest town with a road. Today El Mirador is remote. At the time of Christ, though, it was a busy center connected to neighboring sites via an extensive network of limestone roads (sacbes in Mayan).

Hansen's survey revealed 240 kilometers of roadways connecting 17 different ancient communities. Up to 40 meters wide, 6 meters thick, and 38 kilometers long, these massive public works projects linked the 200,000 - 250,000 people living in El Mirador with the estimated 1 million people in the surrounding areas. The earliest roads were built ca. 600 BC. The latest were built ca. AD 100. El Mirador achieved apogee ca. 90 BC and was abandoned ca. AD 150. See this Smithsonian article published February 3, 2017.

This poorly-done but informative YouTube video shows Hansen atop one of the Mirador roadways.

Ancient feedlots or stockyards may also have existed at El Mirador. See the article "Flocks and Herds."
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Flocks and Herds

October 23, 2017, 8:56 am
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The Book of Mormon uses some variant of the term "flocks and herds" 23 times e.g. 2 Nephi 5:11, Mosiah 21:16, Helaman 6:12, Ether 10:12. Up to this point, evidence of ancient domesticated animal husbandry besides the dogs that were commonly kept for meat has been sparse. That may be changing. The Mirador Basin LiDAR mapping project has produced images of what Richard Hansen calls a network of roads, canals, and corrals or animal pens.
Mirador LiDAR Image Showing Likely Animal Pens
Hansen said that the "sophisticated system of corrals is evidence that meat production in the Mirador Basin may have existed on an industrial level." This intriguing possibility will almost certainly be the topic of some graduate student's dissertation. Dozens of universities from around the world collaborate on the massive Mirador Basin Project investigating the cradle of Maya civilization.
Widely-circulated Artist's Rendering of El Mirador ca. 100 BC
More information about Hansen and El Mirador can be found in the articles "Roads and Highways" and "Hansen and Coe."
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Mesoamerican MTC Mural

November 1, 2017, 3:10 am
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On Friday, October 13, 2017, Pres. Henry B. Eyring dedicated two new six story buildings known as "T3" and "T4" at the Provo MTC. These magnificent structures, the finest the Missionary Department has ever built, have been carefully designed to help missionaries train, study, and meditate in beautiful, light, airy, peaceful, uplifting surroundings. The architecture and furnishings in these new buildings are as attractive as you are likely to see in any LDS temple. Among the most impressive interior features are "disciple spaces" featuring life-size, back-lit, photo-realistic murals that depict outstanding missionaries from history. Multiple copies of this particular mural showing the four sons of Mosiah about to enter a Lamanite city are on display throughout the buildings. As with all images on this blog, click to enlarge.
Stunning MTC Mural of the Four Sons of Mosiah
Photograph by LDS Church News
The scene portrays the land of Nephi with stepped pyramids, in a tropical or sub-tropical setting with palm trees, beside a lake, surrounded by spectacular, densely-forested mountains.
Another Copy of Back-lit Photo Mural Depicting the Land of Nephi
Photograph by LDS Church News
Zooming in shows a scene very much like the ancient valley of Guatemala where we (and many others) think the city of Nephi was located.
Representation of the Land of Nephi Set in Mesoamerica
Photograph by John W. Welch
Tropical Kaminaljuyu (KJ), our candidate for the city of Nephi, was built on Lake Miraflores and is surrounded by imposing, densely-forested volcanoes. See the article "Kaminaljuyu" for dozens of correspondences between KJ and the Book of Mormon text. These parallels are convincing enough that KJ is on our list of top archaeological evidences. See the article "Top 10 Archaeological Evidences for the Book of Mormon."
Scene Similar to Kaminaljuyu on Display in Provo MTC Mural
Photograph by John W. Welch
All nine contemporary Mesoamerican correlations of which I am aware (Allen & Allen, Hauck & Andersen, Magleby & Tovar, Mask, Norman, Roylance & Terry, Saberon & Wright, Sorenson, Turner) place the city of Nephi within about 80 air kilometers of Kaminaljuyu in the Guatemalan highlands.
Proposed Locations for the City of Nephi
It is gratifying to know that hundreds of thousands of missionaries entering the field in coming years will leave the MTC with a striking mental image derived from the best current LDS scholarship on Book of Mormon lands.
Missionaries Studying in New Provo MTC
Photograph by LDS Church News
Kudos to the LDS Missionary Department.
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Peopling the Americas

November 6, 2017, 11:38 am
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For decades we Mormons walked around with an inferiority complex. The Book of Mormon says three groups of ancient immigrants came to the New World across the open ocean in boats. Conventional wisdom held that the first Americans walked across the Bering land bridge during the most recent ice age, then stopped coming when the glaciers receded, sea levels rose, and salt water inundated what had been a convenient terrestrial highway. Native Americans, so the theory went, were snugly ensconced in their private hemisphere free from any significant outside cultural influence until Columbus came along with his smallpox virus and began to wreak havoc on the natives. Because we Mormons believed the Book of Mormon story, we were "diffusionists," a term that carried pejorative baggage with most anthropologists. "Isolationists" aka "independent inventionists" carried the day for generations because the idea of autochthonous development stroked nationalist egos and provided a tidy, continental-scale laboratory for validating Darwin's theory of evolution. Americanists since John Wesley Powell (1834 - 1902) who founded the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian in 1879 have vigorously denounced evidence of ancient Old World influence in the Americas as crackpot archaeology on the lunatic fringe, unworthy of real scientists.

For many years the diffusionist camp was a rag-tag army of laymen with the occasional rebel scientist or academic willing to go rogue and oppose mainstream thought. Not anymore. There has been a literal sea change of scholarly opinion and it is no longer politically incorrect for Americanists to talk about ancient sea voyages between the hemispheres. The "kelp highway" (marine navigation along the Pacific Coast) is now generally recognized as the principal way the first Americans arrived in the New World.

Peer-reviewed academic journals are ranked based on their "impact factor."Nature founded in 1869 is the most prestigious journal in the world with 53,000 subscribers and a 2016 impact factor of 40.137. Science founded in 1880 is the next most prestigious with 130,000 subscribers and a 2016 impact factor of 37.205. The November 3, 2017 issue of Science has an article entitled "Finding the First Americans" written by:


The article says Asian sea voyages to the Americas pre-date the Clovis people who specialists believe walked across the Bering land bridge.
November 3, 2017 Edition of Science
This map shows Clovis and pre-Clovis sites around the Pacific rim.
Peopling the Americas - Early Sites, Science Vol. 358, Issue 6363
This is not validation of the Jaredite, Lehite or Mulekite voyages, but since people were coming to the Americas 15,000 years ago in boats, the Book of Mormon narrative is plausible rather than problematic. See the article "Ancient Ocean Crossings."
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How Many were Many and Few?

November 23, 2017, 11:43 pm
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The article "Test #6 Relative Distances" explains why we need to understand the Nephite meaning of our English word "many." I am patiently working through John L. Sorenson's foundational series of Book of Mormon geography works (An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon 1985 415 pages, The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book 1992 revised edition 415 pages, Mormon's Map 2000 158 pages, and Mormon's Codex 2013 826 pages), appreciating his prodigious effort while documenting his myriad inconsistencies. 2 Nephi 5:7 says Nephi and his followers traveled many days in the wilderness to get from the coastal land of first inheritance to the city of Nephi. How far would that have been?

One day's travel in Nephite parlance was probably about 15 air kilometers. See the article "Land Southward Travel Times" referenced frequently in this blog. But, how many were many days? Contemporary English speakers would not call 2 days "many." What about 3, 4, or 5 days?

The problem for Book of Mormon interpretation is on the low end of the range. It is clear from the text that on the high end "many" can refer to dozens 1 Nephi 13:1, hundreds 3 Nephi 7:4, thousands Ether 10:17 or even tens of thousands Helaman 3:5.

Words of Mormon 1:2 tells us that approximately 3.8 were considered many hundred years.
Helaman 1:3-4 tells us that 4 or more were considered many sons.
Jacob 4:4 tells us that approximately 5.4 were considered many hundred years.
Alma 16:11 coupled with Alma 49:2-3 tells us that 7-9 were considered many years.
1 Nephi 17:4 tells us that 8 were considered many years.
Mosiah 10:3 tells us that 22 were considered many years.
Mosiah 7:4 tells us that 40 were considered many days.

These data show that 4 or more of something could have been called "many" in Nephite usage.

"Many" contrasts with "few" in Alma 26:31. How many were few?

 3 Nephi 6:3-4, 9-10, and 16 tell us that 3 were considered a few years.
Zeezrom asked Amulek 8 questions Alma 11:21-38 which he considered a few questions Alma 11:21.
Mosiah 20:5 tells us that 24 were considered few Lamanite daughters.

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Gareth Lowe's Maps

November 28, 2017, 12:31 am
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John L. Sorenson's 1992 The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book pp. 115-119 includes Book of Mormon maps and commentary by Gareth W. Lowe (1922-2004). Who was Gareth Lowe? He ran the New World Archaeological Foundation (NWAF) from 1959 to 1987. He and John L. Sorenson were fellow graduate students at BYU in the early 1950's. They worked together in the first (privately funded) NWAF field season in Tabasco in 1953. Lowe went back down to Mexico with the second (Church funded) NWAF field season in 1955 and never left. He was one of a handful of LDS Mesoamericanists who rose to the highest levels in the profession (others that come to mind are John E. Clark, Allen J. Christenson, and Richard D. Hansen). Lowe was the world's expert on Chiapas in his day. He was one of the top dirt archaeologists in the world and an indispensable source on pre-classic southern Mesoamerica. See the blog article "Zarahemla ca. 1955" for more information about Gareth Lowe and some of his renowned colleagues. Lowe's daughter, Lynneth Lowe Negron, is a leading archaeologist in Mexico today.
Classic 1968 Photo of Gareth W. Lowe 
Even though the Church invested millions of dollars in NWAF over the years and important Church leaders such as Howard W. Hunter chaired its board, the professional staffers seldom mentioned the Book of Mormon. Many were not members of the Church.

For years Gareth Lowe and John Sorenson were a formidable tag team - Lowe in Mexico and Arizona directing a first-rate archaeological enterprise, Sorenson in Utah and California analyzing, synthesizing, and interpreting field reports with an eye to Book of Mormon implications.
About Half of the NWAF Field Reports
The photo above shows my personal collection of the NWAF Papers series. I have been collecting these for years and still lack many titles. This series represents Gareth W. Lowe's life's work.

So, where did Gareth Lowe think the Book of Mormon took place?

In July, 1960, he envisioned the setting in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala with the Ulua as the Sidon and Cumorah in southern Belize.

By October, 1960, he had changed his mind. He imagined the setting in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize and Mexico with the Usumacinta as the Sidon and Cumorah in the Tuxtlas of southern Veracruz. The narrow neck he correlated with sand bars along the Tabasco coast. Tonala, Chiapas was his boundary between the lands northward and southward. The city of Zarahemla he placed in the vicinity of Tonina, Chiapas.

In 1960, Lowe was thinking out of the box in three important ways. 1) He may have been the first to suggest coastal sandbars (a peninsula rather than an isthmus) as the narrow (small) neck of land. 2) He was considering the Olmec culture core boundary as the dividing line between lands northward and southward which makes considerable sense since the two land designations originated with the Jaredites. 3) He was envisioning Zarahemla considerably downstream on the Sidon rather than just beyond the headwaters region.

By the early 1970's, Lowe re-thought his correlation and shared his most complete Book of Mormon map. He was the first to propose some correlations I previously thought were original with F. Richard Hauck whose Deciphering the Geography of the Book of Mormon appeared in 1988.
  • Lowe envisioned the narrow (small) neck of land as the coastal sandbar seaside from Tonala, Chiapas. Ric Hauck, Joe V. Andersen, Javier Tovar, and I agree. This is a crucial point. See the blog article "Red Herrings."
  • He thought the Bountiful/Desolation border which was also the land southward/northward border skirted around Tonala, Chiapas on the Pacific side and La Venta, Tabasco on the Gulf of Mexico side. This located all of the Olmec heartland in the land northward. Javier Tovar and I agree.
  • His hill Cumorah was in the Tuxtla mountains of southern Veracruz. Ric Hauck, Joe V. Andersen, Javier Tovar, and I agree, as do most of the contemporary Mesoamericanists studying the Book of Mormon including John Sorenson.
  • Lowe correlated the Sidon with the Mezcalapa/Grijalva. Sorenson and the Allens agree.
  • Lowe placed the city of Zarahemla at the site of Santa Cruz, Chiapas. I believe he was the first to propose this correlation which I find more convincing than Sorenson's Santa Rosa further upstream.
  • He put the narrow pass near his narrow neck on the Pacific coast at the site of Los Horcones where Cerro Bernal forces the trans isthmian railroad almost into the ocean. Lowe was convinced this was the most naturally defensible place along any coastline in southern Mesoamerica and a point at which the Nephites could have controlled northward movement along the relatively narrow Pacific coastal plain. Ric Hauck, Joe V. Andersen, Javier Tovar, and I agree.
  • Ammonihah he located at Chiapa de Corzo, east of the big river. V. Garth Norman came to this same conclusion in 1966, that Ammonihah was east rather than west of Sidon. Javier Tovar and I agree. This is another crucial point. See the article "Red Herrings."
  • Moroni's fortified line referenced in Alma 50:10,11 Lowe envisioned as a straight east-west line connecting Pijijiapan with La Libertad, Chiapas and beyond. Most interpreters equate this with the narrow strip of wilderness mentioned in Alma 22:27. Almost all current Book of Mormon Mesoamericanists agree with Lowe in principle, although many of them would locate the line further south along the Polochic Fault or the Sierra de las Minas.
  • Lowe identified the head of Sidon as the point geographers consider the head of the Mezcalapa/Grijalva - the confluence of the Cuilco with the Selegua. This idea that the head of the big river is a confluence of tributaries is gaining increased support among modern Book of Mormon mapmakers. Garth Norman, Javier Tovar, and I agree with the concept even though we think the Usumacinta is the stronger candidate river.
  • Lowe correlated Mar Muerto with the sea west and Laguna de la Joya with the component of that sea that was east mentioned in Alma 50:34. Ric Hauck, Joe V. Andersen, Javier Tovar and I are in basic agreement even though we differ slightly on the details.
When a generally accepted map finally brings order to the chaos currently surrounding the Book of Mormon geographic context, I believe some of Gareth Lowe's ideas will prove to have been prescient.
Gareth Lowe's 1970's Book of Mormon Map
Like Joe and Blake Allen, Lowe was comfortable with the archaeology of the Central Depression of Chiapas, but insistent on cardinal directionality.
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    Holocaust Survivors in the Book of Mormon

    December 2, 2017, 1:45 am
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    Upon entering the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, visitors pass a stark black marble wall with the single engraved phrase "You Are My Witnesses" from Isaiah 43:10.
    Entrance to US Holocaust Memorial Museum
    It is a stunning architectural reminder of the holocaust mantra "Never Again."

    Holocaust survivors lived in an evil parallel universe and they carry deep psychological wounds from the horrors they experienced. Psycho therapists group these terrible emotional scars under the classification "Holocaust Survivor Syndrome." Among the characteristics holocaust survivors exhibit are:
    • Death imprint. Extreme anxiety about death. Recurring mental images of violence and death.
    • Death guilt. Uncertainty. Aimlessness. Wondering why one survived when others did not.
    • Psychic numbing. Insensitivity or diminished ability to feel.
    • Suspicion and distrust. Foreboding sense that everything, even life itself, is an illusion.
    • Witness imperative. A sense of mission to bear witness to future generations.
    The deep and abiding impulse to testify of one's experience helps a holocaust survivor create some personal sense of a moral and rational universe. See Dori Laub and Andreas Hamburger, editors, Psychoanalysis and Holocaust Testimony: Unwanted Memories of Social Trauma (London and New York: Routledge, 2017) and Sandra Williams, "The Impact of the Holocaust on Survivors and Their Children," written while she was a student of Judaic Studies at the University of Central Florida.

    The Nephites experienced a holocaust and many evidences of "Holocaust Survivor Syndrome" show through in Mormon's and Moroni's words.
    • Death imprint. Mormon 4:11"... the horrible scene of the blood and carnage which was among the people ..." Mormon 5:8"... such an awful scene of blood and carnage as was laid before mine eyes ..." and Mormon 6:7"... that awful fear of death ..." 
    • Death guilt. Mormon 8:3-5"... whether they will slay me I know not.""... whither I go it mattereth not.""... I have not friends nor whither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not."
    • Psychic numbing. Mormon 3:12"... the hardness of their hearts" Moroni 9:5"they have lost their love, one towards another ..." and Moroni 9:20"... they are without principle, and past feeling ..."
    • Suspicion and distrust. Mormon 1:18,19"the inhabitants thereof began to hide up their treasures in the earth; and they became slippery... ""... sorceries, and witchcrafts, and magics ..." and Mormon 2:10"... no man could keep that which was his own ..."
    • Witness imperative. Mormon 3:16"... I did stand as an idle witness to manifest unto the world the things which I saw and heard ..." and Moroni 9:22"... to witness the return of his people unto him, or their utter destruction ..."
    The Book of Mormon can be profitably read from dozens of perspectives. In this case, trauma psychology helps us better understand its authors and their powerful messages.
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    Museum of the Bible

    December 15, 2017, 1:38 am
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    Jasmin Gimenez, Daniel Smith, and I were privileged to spend Thursday, December 7, and Friday, December 8, 2017 in the breath-taking new Museum of the Bible (MOTB) just off the mall in Washington D.C. There are many great museums (several in D.C.) and I have been to quite a number of them. I have experienced 7 of the top 10 most visited museums in the world (numbers are 2016 visits) including:
    In addition, I have enjoyed visits to other notable institutions including:
    I have spent rich, full days exploring the treasures showcased in these significant cultural repositories, and I have returned to some of them for subsequent visits in later years. Only once, though, have I spent two consecutive days in a single museum, and that was last week in the MOTB. I appreciated every minute and will return the next time I am in D.C. Our nation's capital, despite its seeming political dysfunction, is now an even more attractive travel destination. I consider myself something of a museum aficionado, but I am currently a dues-paying member of only one museum on the planet - the MOTB three blocks from the U.S. Capitol. What is so special about the MOTB besides the delicious Near Eastern food served on the 6th floor Manna Restaurant? It is not the lavish architecture, although that is stunning. It is not the ubiquitous technology, although that is captivating. It is not the vast collection, although that is monumental. What I profoundly love at the MOTB is the spirit, the mission, the sheer joy of the place. These are people who read, live, and celebrate the Bible. This brand-new world-class facility is just the impressive infrastructure inviting visitors to engage the living Word John 1:1. This is much more than a museum. I felt like I had come home.
    Popular Souvenir
    Our Book of Mormon Central delegation went to Washington D.C. to learn from experts so we can more effectively share the Book of Mormon with the world. The MOTB is not preachy or judgmental. It honors scholarship but communicates in the vernacular. It exudes quality but invites hands-on participation. It showcases the history, narrative, and impact of the Bible but eschews interpretation. This brilliant approach avoids divisiveness and simply lets the Book speak eloquently for itself.

    Prominent MOTB partners include Israel Antiquities Authority, Vatican Library and Museums, and Ets Haim Jewish Library in Amsterdam, all of whom currently have traveling exhibits in the facility 2 blocks from the Smithsonian's popular National Museum of Air and Space. Museum President Cary Summers has significant theme park experience and serves as CEO of the splendid Nazareth Village in Israel.

    The MOTB was originally planned for Dallas. New York City was also briefly considered. Its headquarters are actually in Oklahoma City where founding family Steve and Jackie Green reside. Parts of the Green collection of Biblical artifacts traveled the US beginning in 2011 before going to the Vatican in 2012 and Havana, Cuba in 2014. The Washington D.C. property atop the Federal Center SW Metro station was acquired in 2012 and the museum opened to the public on Friday, November 17, 2017.

    Insightful design is everywhere in the MOTB, beginning with the logo which artfully combines the letters "B" and "M" into a visual representation of Moses' tablets from Sinai and an open book.

    Exterior Entrance Logo
    The word "Bible" is capitalized emphasizing primacy.

    The MOTB grand entrance features Genesis 1 from the 1454 - 1455 Gutenberg Bible in Latin on massive brass plates that cost $3 million. The plates flank a 32 foot high art glass panel from Germany representing the Bodmer Papyri with Psalms 19 etched in Greek. One of the MOTB treasures is a Bodmer Papyri fragment containing the 19th Psalm.
    Front Entrance and Vestibule
    Stepping off the sidewalk into the museum one literally engages the words of the Bible.

    A small touch illustrates the immaculate attention to detail one finds throughout the MOTB. On Monday, December 11, 2017, my wife and I were privileged to tour the new T3 and T4 buildings at the Provo Missionary Training Center (see the article "Mesoamerican MTC Mural)." They are among the finest structures the LDS Church has ever built. They feature grand staircases flanked by translucent glass. As I walked up the stairs, I thought to myself "These are almost identical to the stairs in the MOTB" where I had been three days before. Except for one thing. The glass panels adorning the MOTB stairs are etched with a vine design reminiscent of the beautiful illuminated Bible manuscripts lovingly painted by monks and nuns in the Middle Ages.
    Fourth Floor Stairway with Art Glass Panels
    This kind of delicious embellishment doesn't just happen when an architect interacts with a building committee. It only happens when a design goes through an iterative process of refinement with multiple inputs supported by an almost open-ended budget. 

    The MOTB integrates immersive themed environments with impeccable contemporary scholarship. That is no easy task. How do you make first-rate academics interesting, popular, even fun? We at Book of Mormon Central strive to answer that question every day. To create engaging guest experiences, MOTB leadership utilized the services of:
    The result is part museum, part experiential theater, part interactive video game, part theme park adventure, part movie studio tour, and part historical re-enactment with actors in period dress.
    History of the Bible Meets Indiana Jones
    My colleagues were as anxious as I was to return to the MOTB for a second day. There were many more exhibits we wanted to experience, and some we wanted to see a second time.

    The MOTB is grounded in reputable scholarship. Wandering through the exhibits, one sees influence from Oxford, Cambridge, Hebrew, Duke, Baylor, Pepperdine, Trinity Western, and Bob Jones Universities among many others. A "scholars initiative" was created early in the museum development process to do original research on artifacts in the collection. One result is the book Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments in the Museum Collectionpublished in 2016 by Brill. The three editors are Immanuel Tov (PhD 1974, Hebrew University), Kipp Davis (PhD 2009, University of Manchester), and Robert Duke (PhD 2006 UCLA). While we were at the museum, Hershel Shanks was also there consulting with the content and curatorial staffs. Shanks founded the Biblical Archaeology Society and is editor emeritus of the noted Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR).

    One exciting new museum project that came out of the scholars initiative is a working archaeological site - Tel Shimron about 8 kilometers west of Nazareth on the edge of northern Israel's Jezreel Valley.
    Relative Location of Tel Shimron
    The site was occupied over a 5,000 year span. It is mentioned in Joshua 19:15 as part of the land allotted to the tribe of Zebulun. Scholars estimate the site will be a viable dig for 25 years. The team heading up the excavation worked together previously at Ashkelon. Directors include Daniel Master (PhD Harvard), Mario Martin (PhD University of Vienna), and Adam Aja (PhD Harvard).

    Does the MOTB try to prove the Bible's historicity? Not really. It does display replica artifacts that attest the Bible's historical accuracy such as the Tel Dan Stele referencing David as a monarch.
    Replica of Tel Dan Stele Mentioning the House of David
    The original of this artifact, dated to ca. 870 BC, is in the Israel Museum. The MOTB does not hit you over the head with hard-sell advocacy. It is clear to visitors that the MOTB assumes the Bible is authentic ancient history, but artifact descriptions are appropriately nuanced, scholarly protocols are followed, and the text is genuinely respected even with its ambiguities and apparent contradictions.

    A note about MOTB replicas. They are about as good as science and technology can make them. At lunch on our first day in the museum, Daniel Smith exulted "The Isaiah Scroll replica is actually sewn with thread!" The replica on display in the Israel Museum is a photographic reproduction showing only an image of thread.

    There were obvious LDS visitors in the museum the two days we were there - people wearing BYU sweatshirts and the like. These are some of the LDS connections we noted:
    • Bethany Jensen works at museum headquarters in Oklahoma City. She graduated from BYU's Ancient Near Eastern Studies program with an archaeology emphasis. A classmate of Jasmin Gimenez, Bethany graciously facilitated our meeting with Seth Pollinger, Director of Museum Content, and members of his staff.
    • A 1979 LDS Bible (King James Version) is on display on the 4th floor. This is the edition largely prepared by Ellis Rasmussen and his students working under the direction of Bruce R. McConkie and the Church's Scripture Publication Committee. With only minor subsequent revisions in 2013, this is the English language Bible we use in the Church today.
    • An 1867 Plano, IL edition of the Joseph Smith Translation (JST, aka "Inspired Version") published by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (now Community of Christ) is also on display on the 4th floor. The JST manuscript remained in Emma's possession after Joseph Smith Jr.'s martyrdom in 1844. The Reorganized Church, active since 1852, began operating under Joseph Smith III's leadership in 1860.
    • The original of Arnold Friberg's "The Prayer at Valley Forge" is on display on the 2nd Floor. An armed guard stands watch about 5 feet away from this majestic piece. Prints of this work are common, but it was a thrill for me to finally see the large-format original.
    As part of our visit, we were privileged to speak with Seth Pollinger, Director of Museum Content, Kristina Buss, Content Assistant, and Ilena Madraso, Exhibit Coordinator. Pollinger holds a PhD from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. They were genuinely interested in feedback from an LDS perspective and we shared some observations:
    • In general, we were beyond impressed. This is probably the finest museum on the planet in 2017. We expected a little sloppiness here and there - some mis-characterizations, over-claiming, obsolete scholarship. We found none. We expected immersive learning experiences. The MOTB exceeded our expectations. All three of us were enthusiastic bordering on ecstatic about our two-day experience. We highly recommend the MOTB.
    • At the point where the Bible in America exhibit begins with Columbus and Saint Augustine, FL, we would have liked to have seen a little more content from Latin America. For example, by the 1540's portions of the Bible were already translated into the K'iche language of highland Guatemala.
    • The museum displays a copy of the Reina Valera Bible. It was almost as influential in the Hispanic world as the King James was in English. We suggested they might want to use the terrific video the Church produced about the fascinating history of the Reina Valera.
    • Where the museum treats Julia Ward Howe and her "Battle Hymn of the Republic" we would have liked to have heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing their signature song. Ditto the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's "Messiah." Wouldn't that be fun - MoTab in the MOTB?
    • The MOTB is fairly superficial when it comes to the Temples of Solomon and Herod. The Academy for Temple Studies, combining resources from USU, BYU, and USC together with Margaret Barker's UK group, could possibly be of assistance in this area.
    • The Bible gives short shrift to women and the MOTB reflects that. We suggested they may want to take a look at Julie Smith's upcoming volume on the Gospel of Mark in the BYU New Testament Commentary series as one example of the excellent work being done by LDS female biblical scholars highlighting feminine issues and perspectives in the text.
    • We suggested signage linking Arnold Friberg and Cecile B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments." Friberg's artwork is all through the movie. We also let Seth and his team know about the Cecile B. DeMille archive at BYU.
    • Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are promised, but not yet much in evidence in the museum. We showed one example of the good work being done by the BYU Virtual Scriptures group in association with 4th Wall.
    • We would have liked to have walked out of the museum with suggestions for further engagement - web sites, curricula, quality videos, etc.  
      How much has all this cost? The MOTB has raised about $700 million to date and plans to raise another $300 million by 2019. Admission to the museum is free, although they are not shy about suggesting donations. Every museum memorializes major donors. The MOTB also has a "million name wall" where donors at all levels are recognized in microscopic calligraphy and an accompanying digital index.

    After two days on site, I greatly appreciated the MOTB. Returning home, I read Cary Summers'Lifting Up the Bible: The Story Behind Museum of the Bible. My appreciation grew. 
    2017 Worthy Publication 
    I then read Steve & Jackie Green's This Dangerous Book. My appreciation grew even more.
    2017 Zondervan Publication
    The Museum of the Bible is directly fulfilling the prophecy in 1 Nephi 13:19-20. Much of the controversy that has dominated mainstream media coverage is unfounded. This is an "innovative global educational institution" whose mission is to "invite people to engage with the Bible." I hope we as Latter-day Saints get excited to "experience the Book that shapes history."

    One vignette was choice. The MOTB has a marvelous exhibit on biblical translations. An older fellow in a wheel chair asked if they had the Bible in Hdi, a language spoken in Cameroon and Nigeria. He explained that his daughter had helped translate the Bible into Hdi. A docent pulled the Hdi Bible down from a shelf and handed it to him. A tear streamed down his cheek as he opened the book and saw his daughter's name in the acknowledgements. Those of us nearby broke out in spontaneous applause.
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      Refugee Eagle Scouts

      January 7, 2018, 10:41 pm
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      5 young men from Great Salt Lake Council's Troop 1262 were awarded Eagle Scout badges this evening at a ceremony in the South Salt Lake Stake Center. This troop, consisting primarily of youth from Myanmar (formerly Burma) refugee families living in Salt Lake, has awarded 25 Eagles in its 10 years of existence.
      Five  New Eagle Scouts
      Troop 1262's story is so compelling a four-man crew from CBS has been in Salt Lake for the last several days filming an episode that will air soon on CBS Sunday Morning.

      The Karen people are a persecuted minority in Myanmar and a number of them have been resettled from refugee camps on the Thai/Burmese border to Utah. Children in these refugee families often struggle to adapt to US lifeways.

      Ten years ago, Bob Roylance invited 5 Karen boys into his home in an effort to keep them from recidivism back into the Utah juvenile justice system. He and his wife, Susan, determined that what these young men really needed in their lives was scouting. The first troop meetings were held in the Roylance home in South Jordan.

      Fast forward 10 years and 250 young men are active in Salt Lake refugee troops serving formerly at-risk youth from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. A delegation of refugee scouts, assisted by Senator Orrin Hatch's office which expedited immigration paperwork, attended the 2015 World Scout Jamboree in Yamaguchi, Japan. The program is so successful that with cooperation from the State of Utah 500 young men will likely be enrolled in Salt Lake refugee troops by the end of 2018. Most of the adult leadership comes from native Utahan Latter-day Saints. Fortunately, adult refugee participation is increasing.
      Venturing Scouts Receiving Denali Awards 
      Many of these young men end up being baptized, serving missions, and going to college.

      Bob Roylance is now 80 years old. His career was in agriculture as a farm and ranch specialist working with LDS AgReserves properties.
      Bob Roylance Addressing the Refugee Scout Court of Honor
      Much of Bob's time these days is spent trying to decipher Book of Mormon geography. He and retired BYU soil scientist, Richard Terry, have developed the "Pasión River Model" that places Nephi at Tzalcam, Baja Verapaz; Zarahemla at Seibal, Alta Verapaz; and Hill Cumorah on the Quintana Roo side of the Rio Azul (Rio Hondo).
      Bob Roylance's Pasión River Model
      Now for the back story. While I (Kirk Magleby) was serving my mission in Peru from 1972 - 1974, I corresponded with Elder Milton R. Hunter of the Seventy, sharing some of the interesting things my companions and I were discovering on our P Days (the "P" stood for "preparation" in our era). Elder Hunter, whom President David O. McKay had designated the point man among the brethren for Book of Mormon studies, arranged for me to remain in South America doing research for 2 months at the end of my mission. During those 2 months, a "Book of Mormon" tour group visited Peru and I met Newell and Cora Gene Anderson from eastern Washington who had a strong interest in the Nephite scripture.  A few years later I happened to meet the Andersons again along with their children and spouses at a hotel in Guatemala City. We visited archaeological sites together for a couple of days. That was when I first met Susan Roylance, the Anderson's oldest daughter, and her husband, Bob. In 1978, Susan was the Republican nominee for US Congress from House District #4 in the State of Washington. She has played a significant role in women's, family, and health issues at the UN and globally for decades. This Deseret News article speaks to her effectiveness as an advocate for family-friendly causes in an often family-hostile political world. Susan's brother, Russell Anderson, for many years has been an articulate defender of the Book of Mormon and the LDS faith generally. In retirement, Bob has helped impoverished farmers in Africa and elsewhere improve yields, build storage infrastructure, and develop viable cash crops.

      By 1982, Bob and Susan had moved to Murray, UT. I was working with John W. (Jack) Welch and John L. Sorenson getting FARMS up and running. Susan Roylance came on board to assist us with fund-raising. She was very helpful in those early days with branding and promotion. Susan guided us to polish the FARMS Newsletter (Insights, an Ancient Window) into an effective communication organ that soon began to reach thousands.
      Bob and Susan Roylance on Sunday, January 7, 2018
      One of the Most Remarkable Couples in the LDS Church
      Susan's mother, Cora Gene, now 94, lives with the Roylances. This evening I was privileged to update them on some of the exciting projects we are currently working on at Book of Mormon Central. Susan described a Book of Mormon drama she envisions by and for the Karen refugees she and Bob serve. The Book of Mormon is not yet available in the Karenni language, but its powerful narratives have universal appeal.

      The closing prayer at tonight's Eagle Court of Honor quoted Mosiah 2:17"...when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."
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      Maya Place Names

      January 15, 2018, 10:35 pm
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      An important monograph entitled Place and Identity in Classic Maya Narratives (hereafter Place) was published in 2013 by Dumbarton Oaks (part of Harvard University). It is an updated version of Alexandre Tokovinine's Harvard PhD dissertation published in 2008. Tokovinine spent many years working on the famed Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions (CMHI) alongside William and Barbara Fash. He specializes in toponyms and curates the world's leading database of over 2,300 instances of place names in ancient Mayan. He makes the database freely available in Microsoft Access format. Some of the toponyms are mythological, but an increasing percentage of place names can be correlated with known archaeological sites. Tokovinine's monograph incorporates many of the latest advances in rapidly-evolving Maya epigraphy, building on the foundation laid by David Stuart and Stephen Houston in their seminal 1994 Classic Maya Place Names also published by Dumbarton Oaks.
      Study of Place Names in Ancient Maya Texts
      The cover illustration is Heather Hurst's rendition of Mural 6N, Structure 1, La Sufricaya, which was commissioned no later than AD 379 just one year after the noted "entrada" of Sihyaj K'ahk' (Fire is Born) from Teotihuacan into the Peten. Mural 6N is generally interpreted as a visual representation of a 1,000 kilometer pilgrimage from the Maya Lowlands to Teotihucan in Central Mexico. Might students of the Nephite text be interested in a Mesoamerican "map" drawn during Book of Mormon times? I read Tokovinine with considerable anticipation and was well-rewarded for my effort.

      Place p. 7 mentions the common Maya phrase uhtiiy translated as "it happened." LDS and Restoration Branch (formerly Community of Christ) scholars have compared this phrase with the ubiquitous Book of Mormon "it came to pass"1 Nephi 1:4-7 (and more than 1,300 other instances).

      Place p. 7 references lakam ha' as one of the ancient Maya names for Palenque. The ha' suffix denoting "water" is a component in many ancient Maya place names such as sak ha'. We find a similar suffix in the Book of Mormon place names Ammonihah Alma 8:6-9, Moronihah 3 Nephi 8:10, Nephihah Alma 50:14, and Onihah 3 Nephi 9:7.

      Place p. 8 says Maya toponyms often reference mountains, rocks, lakes, rivers, and springs. We find similar referents among Book of Mormon place names:
      Place p. 8 says some Maya toponyms end in la. A handful of Book of Mormon place names end in "la" or "lah:" Zarahemla Omni 1:12, hill Riplah Alma 43:31,45, Angola Mormon 2:4.

      Place p. 9 mentions corn (maize) as an important component of Maya toponyms. Corn is attested in the text Mosiah 7:22, 9: 9,14.

      Place pp. 10, 43 describes the Maya notion of kaaj ordered, settled space versus k'a'ax"chaotic wilderness or forest." The Book of Mormon demarcates settlements from adjacent wilderness Alma 16:2, Alma 58:13-14.

      Place p. 10 says the Maya used the term ti' (edge/mouth of) in a similar way the Book of Mormon uses the term "borders"Alma 8:3,5, Alma 50:14. The component "ti" is attested in Book of Mormon place names: Manti Alma 16:6,7, Ani-Anti Alma 21:11. Manti is one of the places the Book of Mormon text explicitly correlates with borders Alma 22:27, Alma 43:32.

      Place p. 11 mentions the term te' (tree) as a component of Maya toponyms. The Book of Mormon city name Teancum Mormon 4:3, 6-7 contains a similar element.

      Place p. 11 says many Maya place names incorporate the component naah (buildings). One Book of Mormon place has "nah" in its name: city of Gadiomnah 3 Nephi 9:8

      Place p. 13 identifies one of the mountains towering over Palenque with the Maya Yehmal K'uk' Lakam Witz, a place where the king performed rituals. V. Garth Norman identifies 588 meter Mirador hill which towers over Palenque with hill Manti Alma 1:15, the place where Nehor was executed for murder. As with all images on this blog, click to enlarge.
      Palenque and Proposed Hill Manti (Mirador Hill)
      Place p. 13 says the Maya occasionally used double place names. The Book of Mormon peoples occasionally used double place names such as Lehi-Nephi Mosiah 7:1-2, 4 and Ani-Anti Alma 21:11.

      Place p. 14 reports that two stelae from the site of Dos Pilas talk of "binding" carved monuments containing writing. The Book of Mormon talks of "sealing up" written records Ether 4:5, Moroni 10:2.

      A major problem in Book of Mormon geography right now is the relative scale of distance we should expect between sites. Some mapmakers interpret the text to mean that the Nephite saga played out on a small, intimate landscape such as a single region within modern Costa Rica. Others imagine a vast, sprawling landscape such as North America from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. The classic Maya world gives us a very useful model of demonstrable relationships from which we can calculate accurate distances. Maya city states in the AD 300 to AD 900 time frame operated in a world where 20 to 250 air kilometers was a routine distance but 1,000 air kilometers was an exceptional distance traveled by elites perhaps once in a lifetime. Place in dozens of instances mentions pairs of archaeological sites with an association of some kind that got memorialized in a hieroglyphic text. Summarizing some of these associations gives us a firm idea of the distances between sites that were typical in the classic era.
      • p. 16 Dos Pilas and Cancuen 55 air kilometers
      • p. 16 Calakmul and Oxpemul 20 air kilometers
      • p. 17 Dos Pilas and Oxpemul 212 air kilometers
      • p. 17 Rio Azul and Los Alacranes 23 air kilometers
      • p. 54 La Sufricaya and Teotihuacan 1,042 air kilometers
      • p. 71 Moral-Reforma and Palenque 88 air kilometers
      • p. 71 Palenque and Tortuguero 47 air kilometers
      • p. 71 Dzibanche and Calakmul 126 air kilometers
      • pp. 81, 111 Calakmul and Cancuen 233 air kilometers
      • p. 105 Dos Pilas and Naranjo 136 air kilometers
      • p. 113 Naranjo and Machaquila 129 air kilometers
      • p. 116 Tikal and Dos Pilas 146 air kilometers
      These results concur closely with our analysis of relative distances in the Book of Mormon documented in the article "Things Near and Far." The Maya data and our Book of Mormon inferences both vindicate John L. Sorenson's conclusion that the Book of Mormon internally requires a location hundreds but not thousands of kilometers in extent.

      Place on the other hand directly contradicts Sorenson's much-maligned system of skewed directionality. The phrase "cardinal directions" appears perhaps twenty times in Tokovinine with several maps and illustrations showing precisely what the Maya meant when they used the terms "east,""north,""west," and "south." Tikal (pp. 95-97) offers a clear example. From the perspective of Tikal at the center of its dominion, Altun Ha was east, Edzna north, Palenque west and Copan south. All four vectors radiating out from Tikal to these places are within a few degrees of the astronomically-derived cardinal directions.
      Tikal at the Center of its Quadripartite World
      Aligned to the Four Cardinal Directions
      Teotihuacan is referenced in several early classic Maya inscriptions. It is always described as west of the Maya lowland sites of Tikal, Ucanal, Pusilha, Machaquila, Dos Pilas, and Yaxchilan (Place p. 95).
      Teotihuacan West of Maya Lowland Sites
      This mainstream understanding of ancient solar-based Mesoamerican directionality is further documented in the articles "Water Fight on the River - Round Ten," "Test #5 North South East and West,""Quichean Directionality," and "Light from L.A."

      I am convinced the interpretation of "narrow neck of land" as "isthmus" causes much of the confusion that currently dominates Book of Mormon geography thinking. See the article "Red Herrings."Place p. 24 adds another data point to the discussion. It says the Maya word "neck" in spatial context connotes "edge" or limit. This fits well with our correlation of the narrow neck of land as Barra San Marcos running along the edge of the Chiapas coast.
      Proposed Narrow (Small) Neck of Land
      Place p. 25 examines a term found frequently in ancient Maya toponyms: ch'e'n meaning "cave, opening, hole, hollow, or cavity." One is reminded of the Book of Mormon phrase "cavity of a rock" describing the hiding places of Nephi and his brothers 1 Nephi 3:27 and the prophet Ether Ether 13:13-14, 18, 22.

      Place p. 16 mentions the Maya place name Haluum (the archaeological site Cancuen) ending in "um." The Book of Mormon contains several place names ending in "um:" Antionum Alma 31:3, Antum Mormon 1:3, Irreantum 1 Nephi 17:5, Mocum 3 Nephi 9:7, Moriantum Moroni 9:9, Ripliancum Ether 15:8, Teancum Mormon 4:3, 6-7.

      Place p. 16 mentions a precious and powerful royal hierloom passed down from king to king. The Nephite crown jewels (plates of brass, sword of Laban, Liahona) were precious royal hierlooms passed down from king to king Mosiah 1:16.

      Place p. 16 identifies Chi'k Nahb and Huxte' Tuun as ancient Maya names for Calakmul and the surrounding area. The Book of Mormon mentions cities with "land round about:" Shilom Mosiah 7:21, Helam Mosiah 23:25.

      Place p. 16 indicates that the wall of the Calakmul North Acropolis was prominent enough to have its own name: Chi'k Nahb Kot. The Book of Mormon describes cities with prominent walls: Nephihah Alma 62:20-24, Zarahemla Helaman 16:1-2.

      Place p. 17 mentions a Maya place name incorporating the element ton. The Book of Mormon has a place name incorporating the element "ton:" Morianton Alma 50:25-26.

      Place p. 19 says the Maya had different words for city (kaj) and land (kab). Cities and lands are fundamental polities in the Book of Mormon Alma 58:10, 33.

      Place p. 28 lists sites whose dynasties had remote origins: Palenque, Bonampak, Piedras Negras, Calakmul, Dos Pilas, Aguateca, and Cancuen. Mosiah1 founded a non-local dynasty at Zarahemla Omni 1:19.

      Place p. 29 indicates one Maya name for temple, uwitzil uk' uhuul, was related to the name for hill or mountain, witz, and meant "the mountain of the god." The Book of Mormon, quoting Isaiah, relates mountains and temples as houses of the Lord 2 Nephi 12:2-3.

      Place p. 33 says common Maya words for warfare were the verbs burning pul and chopping ch'ak. Burning was a major part of warfare in the Book of Mormon Mormon 5:5, Ether 14:17.

      Place p. 43 explains the Maya word for agricultural lands, luum, associated with urban areas, kaaj, and wilderness, k'a'ax. Kab was a more general term referring to property or the earth in general. The Book of Mormon has all four landscape classifications: fields Alma 34:20, 24-25, villages and cities Alma 23:14, wilderness Alma 43:22-24, and the generic possessions Alma 58:3. The Book of Mormon also uses the term "earth" in a general sense Alma 5:16,17.

      Place p. 47 describes the couplets kab, earth, and chan, sky, which when paired connote the totality of the whole earth. The common Book of Mormon variant is "heaven and earth"Alma 11:39.

      Place p. 48 talks about sky, earth, and water bands as pictorial conventions in Maya iconography. This same tripartite division of the world is attested in the Book of Mormon Mosiah 13:12.

      Noted BYU archaeologist John E. Clark believes the Book of Mormon idea that trees can grow from humans Alma 32:28, 37, 41 is one of the strongest evidences of the book's authenticity. The idea is relatively unique and highly arbitrary. This man-tree notion is well-attested in Mesoamerican iconography. See the article "Anthropomorphic Trees."Place p. 48 describes images on the side of K'inich Janaab' Pakal's sarcophagus in the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque depicting ancestors of the entombed king sprouting as fruit trees.
      Female Ancestor of Pakal as Fruit Tree
      Drawing by Merle Greene Robertson
      Place p. 52 indicates the Maya associated wilderness with mountains. The Book of Mormon explicitly associates wilderness and mountains Helaman 11:28,31.

      Place p. 53 reproduces a wall painting with mountain and cave imagery from Rio Azul Tomb 1. The style and some of the motifs are similar to those on Kaminaljuyú (KJ) Stela 10.
      Rio Azul Tomb 1 Wall Painting
      The trefoil eye, aka "death eye," is generally interpreted to mean the figure represents a deceased person.
      Kaminaljuyú Stela 10, Drawing by Lucia Henderson

      Henderson in her superb 2013 PhD dissertation mentions strong stylistic relationships between KJ and the lowland Maya centers San Bartolo and Rio Azul.
      KJ Influence in the Maya Lowlands
      This is of interest because KJ is a leading candidate for the city of Nephi. See the article "Kaminaljuyu."

      Place p. 54 interprets a late pre-classic facade from Holmul as a feathered serpent being exhaled from a mountain cave. Tokovinine says this image shows the idea of wind emanating from a mountain. Flying serpents are attested in the Book of Mormon 1 Nephi 17:41. Nephi's Jesus Christ is represented by both avian and serpentine symbols 2 Nephi 25:13, 20. The feathered serpent deity in Mesoamerica was associated with wind. Quetzalcoatl in Aztec times was represented wearing a wind breastplate or wind jewel. The Book of Mormon explicitly attributes the source of wind to deity Ether 2:24.

      Place p. 55 discusses the "map" depicted on the monograph cover at the top of this article. It was painted as part of a mural at La Sufricaya in AD 378 or 379. A similar scene was painted at Copan about this same time. In both cases, the scenes show Maya lords travelling to Teotihuacan, probably on a pilgrimage to receive an investiture of authority. What were the Nephites doing in AD 378 - 379 when these emissaries were traveling to Central Mexico? They were in the land northward, regrouping at Jordan and environs after being routed out of Boaz. Mormon had re-taken command of the Nephite military. Mormon had moved the Nephite record repository from hill Shim to hill Cumorah because the security situation around hill Shim had become unstable. In AD 379 the Nephites were a mere six years from annihilation at hill Cumorah.
      Known and Proposed Locations of Historical Events
      AD 375 - 379
      A great deal of land was devoted to agriculture in the Maya world, but Place p. 55 says luum, the Maya term for cultivated fields, seldom appears in hieroglyphic inscriptions. Maya lords and scribes were simply interested in other things such as lineage, ritual, and conquest, and took humble agricultural pursuits for granted. We see the same under-representation of agriculture in the Book of Mormon. This is the number of times certain words appear in the text:
      • crop 1
      • wheat 2
      • plow 2
      • corn 3
      • seed (not referring to human posterity) 14
      • grain 25
      • field (not all instances pertain to agriculture) 27
      • weapon 52
      • contention 81 
      • battle 125
      • war 167
      • faith 222
      • king 426
      Nephite scribes clearly followed Nephi's instructions in 1 Nephi 9:4 and 1 Nephi 19:4 to record primarily political and military events on the large plates.

      Place p. 58 describes the Maya system of including place names in personal titles. This is similar to the Book of Mormon convention of naming places after the founder Alma 8:7.

      Place p. 59 adds Quirigua and Yaxchilan to the list of sites where fourth-century invasions and pilgrimages to Teotihuacan are documented.

      Place p. 61 analyzes inscriptions from Copan and Quirigua, sites that self-identified with the southern quadrant of the Maya world.
      Sites that Considered Themselves Southern
      Place p. 69 identifies Yaxchilan as the Maya site with the most toponyms in its inscriptions. We correlate Yaxchilan with Melek immediately west of as Sidon. In the Book of Mormon, Melek has an explicit relationship with Zarahemla Alma 8:1-3, Ammonihah Alma 8:6, Antionum Alma 31:3,6, Jershon Alma 35:13, Judea Alma 56:3,9, Antiparah Alma 57:4,6, and Nephihah Alma 65:26-29. Melek has more geographic relationships identified in the text than almost any other Nephite city.

      Place pp. 72-73 identifies Kanu'l from Calakmul, Matwiil from Palenque, and Tulan from the Popol Vuh as watery origin locations from the distant past that may be overseas. The Book of Mormon describes watery origin locations from the distant past that were overseas such as Nephi's Bountiful 1 Nephi 17:5, and the Jaredites' Mount Shelem seacoast Ether 6:2-4.

      Place p. 76 analyzes hieroglyphic texts from Pomona (Pakbuul in ancient Mayan) that describe historical events in AD 179 and AD 297 at a place called Pipa'. It is not known where Pipa' was, just that is was associated in some way with Pomona. We associate Pomona with the lesser land of Zarahemla. Pomona is the major Maya site nearest Boca del Cerro which we correlate with the point described in the Book of Mormon where settled lands gave way to upland wilderness Omni 1:27-28. What was going on in the Book of Mormon in AD 179? After generations of peace and unity 4 Nephi 1:17, the old ethnic labels returned and there began to be Lamanites again in the land 4 Nephi 1:20. By AD 297 the Gadianton Robbers were re-constituted and wicked materialism prevailed among both the Nephites and Lamanites 4 Nephi 1:42-43.
      Pomona Inscriptions Reference Events in AD 179, 297
      Place p. 77 talks about Copan inscriptions that link it with Quirigua (49 air kilometers), Caracol (213 air kilometers), and Teotihuacan (1,163 air kilometers). See the article "Origins of K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'" for additional interesting details.

      Place p. 79 mentions the last known pilgrimage of a lowland Maya king to Teotihuacan to receive an investiture of authority. Yat Ahk, ruler of Piedras Negras, traveled to Teotihuacan in AD 510 and received a helmet as a symbol of power. His journey was similar to the one depicted on the image from La Sufricaya illustrated above. Teotihuacan began to decline in population in the 6th century AD and was in full collapse by the 7th century AD.

      Place p. 81 Some Maya inscriptions describing travel from one place to another use verbs interpreted as "ascend" and "descend." Some Book of Mormon passages describing travel from one place to another use the adverbs "up"Mosiah 7:1-4 and "down"Alma 51:11-14.

      Place pp. 81-82 A number of dynasties among the ancient Maya established themselves at multiple sites within and across regions. The Mutal dynasty is primarily associated with Tikal, but it was also present at Dos Pilas, Aguateca, and La Amelia in Guatemala's Petexbatun. The Baakal dynasty is primarily associated with Palenque, but it also established itself at Tortuguero and then Comalcalco. A dynasty whose name is not yet completely deciphered established itself at Arroyo de Piedra, Tamarindito, and the as yet unidentified site the Maya named Chak Ha'. The Xukal/Tz'ikal Naah dynasty was associated with at least five different places. The name appears on inscriptions from Lacanha, Bonampak, Yaxchilan, and Piedras Negras.

      Place p. 84 Ancient Maya inscriptions use the words ajaw (lord or king) and kaloomte' (high king). The Book of Mormon mentions kings Alma 17:21 and high kings Alma 20:8,26.

      Place p. 85 describes the deep social class distinctions that existed anciently in Maya society. One's status as an ajaw (lord, king, ruler) was an all-important membership that conveyed significant benefits such as the right to receive tribute. Nephite social climbers throughout Book of Mormon history tried to become kings Alma 51:5,8 and were in continual opposition to the freemen Alma 51:6,7 who supported a more egalitarian form of government.

      Place p. 90 traces the evolution of thinking about ancient Maya polities. Specialists no longer view them as small independent city states. Tikal and Calakmul were powerful superstates exercising influence, even hegemony over sites hundreds of kilometers distant. The Book of Mormon describes two powerful superstates: Nephi, the Lamanite capital, and Zarahemla, the Nephite capital Alma 27:14, exercising influence and sometimes hegemony over distant lands.

      Place p. 90 describes feuds lasting for generations between Maya dynasties. The Book of Mormon describes a feud lasting for generations between the Lamanites and Nephites Alma 20:10,13.

      Place p. 90-91 itemizes seven cultural traits that were shared by elites throughout the classic Maya world: 1) writing system, 2) language, 3) rituals, 4) deities, 5) mythology, 6) dances, 7) political offices. We see similar standardization across different locales in the Book of Mormon as when Alma1 regulated Mosiah 26:37 and Alma2 established the order Alma 8:1 of the church.

      Place p. 92 introduces the Maya word tzuk meaning "quarter" of the land. The Book of Mormon has several instances of the land being divided into quarters Mosiah 27:6, Alma 43:26.

      Place p. 92 describes a hieroglyphic stairway at Sabana Piletas, Campeche, memorializing military conquests against people on the south, east, north, and west. Helaman 1:31 describes military action using similar terms for the four cardinal directions.
      Location of Sabana Piletas, Campeche
      Place p. 93 makes the obvious but sometimes overlooked point that when location B is described as east of location A, the ancient Maya considered this a relative direction from location A's point of view. Thus, people at Yaxchilan considered Motul de San Jose to be east of their city just as we would today.
      Motul de San Jose East of Yaxchilan
      Place pp. 94-95 show that the classic Maya aligned their world to the same solar-derived cardinal directions we use today. Copan and Quirigua considered themselves the south. Lamanai and Altun Ha considered themselves the east, and Ek Balam considered itself the north.
      Classic Maya Sites in the North, East, and South
      This is significant. The Book of Mormon refers to "the east by the seashore"Alma 22:29 which we correlate with the Caribbean coasts of Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico. Deciphered Maya inscriptions identify Belize-an sites such as Altun Ha as "the east." This is one more Book of Mormon New World place name we can now externally corroborate. See the article "Smoking Gun" for another (east sea) in this same area.

      Place p. 97 describes the Maya term tz'ul meaning foreigners from outside the classic Maya world. The Book of Mormon describes settlers who emigrated from Zarahemla to lands unknown Alma 63:8 and others who traveled unusually long distances Helaman 3:4 into the land northward.

      Place pp. 98-102 goes into detail about names of geo-political collectives. Two of the most prominent are the names Huxlajuun Tzuk, "thirteen divisions," and Huk Tzuk, "seven divisions." The names are applied to groups of people and individuals rather than places. The term "seven divisions" is attested at Motul de San Jose, Yaxha, Holmul, Naranjo, and Buenavista.
      Sites where the term "Seven Divisions" Appears in Maya Texts
      This is of interest, of course, because the Book of Mormon three times mentions seven lineages Jacob 1:13, 4 Nephi 1:36-38, and Mormon 1:8. The idea of seven founding lineages is a pan-Mesoamerican concept. See the excellent article by Diane Wirth in BYU Studies 52:4 2013 entitled "Revisiting the Seven Lineages of the Book of Mormon and the Seven Tribes of Mesoamerica." Tokovinine agrees that the seven divisions from classic Maya inscriptions are probably related to the larger Mesoamerican idea Place p. 109. He then suggests that the seven social or political units may be related to the deeply-rooted Mesoamerican division of space into the four lateral quadrants (east, north, west, south) and the three vertical elevations (zenith, nadir, center). Four quarters feature prominently in the Book of Mormon 1 Nephi 22:25, Ether 13:11, and three vertical layers are explicitly mentioned Mosiah 13:12.

      Place p. 108 explores the idea that space and time were related in ancient Maya thought. The k'atun wheel visually depicting cyclical time aligns to the four cardinal directions. We illustrated this same point in the 2011 article "Water Fight on the River - Round Ten."

      Place p. 119-120 describes a ritual period-end event in AD 159 at an as yet unidentified location. This event figures into the foundation narratives of the Mutal dynasty from Tikal and the Kanu'l dynasty from Dzibanche/Calakmul. This may be significant. AD 159 is about the time the Lamanites were re-formed as a political entity according to the Nephite record 4 Nephi 1:20.

      Place p. 122 mentions the death/resurrection cycle tied to maize agriculture that was a major theme in Mesomaerican cultic practices. The article "Art and Iconography 3" shows how often resurrection is mentioned in the Nephite text and illustrates some very interesting iconographic representations of life after death.

      Place p. 123 draws the conclusion from Tokovinine's thorough analysis of geo-political collective terminology that the eastern part of the Maya world was politically more stable than the western part. This is of interest because Mormon's description of the Nephite demise begins on the river Sidon Mormon 1:10 in the center of traditional Nephite lands and moves progressively westward Mormon 2:6. We correlate the Sidon with the Usumacinta, the quintessential Maya river.

      Place p. 123 makes the broad observation that in the ancient Maya world, people were associated with "lands." The word "land" is the predominant geo-political unit in the Book of Mormon, where the term occurs nearly a thousand times. "Land" occurs 25 times in the single chapter Alma 62.

      Place p. 130 note 8 River confluences were prime locations for settlement. This phenomenon happens in every geography on the planet. See point #1 in both sections of the article "French Connection."

      Place p. 131 note 12 Mountain tops were special places in the Maya worldview. Mountain tops were significant in the Nephite and Jaredite worldviews 1 Nephi 18:3, Mosiah 13:5, Ether 3:1.

      There is a great deal more linguistic information in Tokovinine's exceptional monograph that may have some relevance to the Nephite text, but I lack the expertise to deal with it. John L. Sorenson in his important The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book (Provo: FARMS, 1992) stresses in his "report card" that Book of Mormon geographic models cannot be based on "naive linguistic comparisons." Tokovinine is as good as it gets. The world's expert on Maya place names, he is a superb linguist/epigrapher. The Book of Mormon is as good as it gets. It is the world's most comprehensive ancient American  text. Some of my attempts at comparison between the two corpora are surely naive. Others may have value. In any event, it is exciting that Maya decipherment has progressed to the point that comparisons are possible.
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        Palenque

        January 31, 2018, 10:14 pm
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        By any standard, Palenque is a magical place. I have visited several times and expect to return. Its natural setting on the well-watered littoral between the highlands of Chiapas and the coastal plain of Tabasco is striking. Its fabled ruins are as impressive as those from any ancient culture on the planet. Palenque is the high water mark of Maya civilization, and the Maya were the most advanced of all ancient Americans. K'inich Janab Pakal (AD 603 - 683) was a grand king and the discovery of his intact tomb beneath the Temple of the Inscriptions in 1952 is often considered the greatest archaeological discovery ever made in the Western Hemisphere. Modern Mayan decipherment began in earnest at the First Palenque Roundtable in December, 1973. George Stuart and his wife, Gene (1931 - 1993), celebrated National Geographic authors, attended that noted gathering. Soon afterward they took their young son, David, to Palenque where he began working with Linda Schele (1942-1998). David was 12 in 1978 when he presented a paper at the Third Palenque Roundtable. By age 18 he was the youngest-ever recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. He earned his PhD from Vanderbilt, taught at Harvard, and now holds the Linda and David Schele Chair at UT Austin. David Stuart is generally regarded as world's leading Maya epigrapher.

        George and David Stuart wrote Palenque Eternal City of the Maya published in 2008 by Thames & Hudson.
        Excellent Book on the "Queen of Maya Cities"
        I read it looking for potential Book of Mormon connections. This article highlights what I found.

        Palenque p. 33 Earliest known occupation at the site was 500 BC. This fits Nephite or Mulekite time horizons.

        Palenque pp. 35-63 detail the publication history of early reports and drawings of the site.
        • 1808 Domingo Juarros described the ruins in a Guatemalan publication printed in Spanish.
        • 1810 Alexander von Humboldt included a drawing of one panel from Palace House A in a European publication printed in French, but he mis-identified this artifact as Oaxacan. 
        • 1814 an English translation of Alexander von Humboldt was published in London.
        • 1822 Antonio del Rio's 1787 report to the Spanish crown was published in English translation in London with 17 drawings of Palenque monuments. The popular London Literary Gazette gave it a harsh negative review.
        • 1823 del Rio's report was printed in German translation.
        • 1827 8 illustrations from the 1822 publication were included in a new work printed in French that compared primitive North American mounds with much more advanced Palenque structures.
        • 1827 The Saturday Evening Post published a letter describing Maya hieroglyphic writing.
        • 1829 James H. McCulloh published ten pages of serious discussion about Maya writing including the first images of Maya hieroglyphs printed in the Americas.
        • 1830 Lord Kingsborough shared a great deal of Palenque material including dozens of drawings in his monumental Antiquities of Mexico published in London. A copy of this important work finally reached the US in 1839.
        News of Palenque was just beginning to appear as Joseph Smith was growing up in New England and New York. After the young prophet's theophany in 1820, the pace of information flow quickened. See the article 1829 for more historiography about who knew what when.

        Palenque pp. 107-108 describes a site called La Esperanza (aka Nueva Esperanza) on the west bank of the Usumacinta near the modern town of Emiliano Zapata (formerly Monte Cristo). It was one of the oldest and largest among the many preclassic sites in the region studied by Robert L. Rands. It has been only lightly sampled archaeologically. It was occupied ca. 300 BC. It is the premiere example of a strikingly different cultural pattern than the contemporaneous proto-Maya civilization Richard Hansen is working on in the Mirador Basin. El Mirador and nearby early sites in the northern Peten were clearly precursors of the classic Maya with temples atop pyramids, public art, standardized iconography, and glyphic writing. La Esperanza and other preclassic sites like it in the western Maya area were populous but relatively plain architecturally and artistically. Stuart hypothesizes that classic Maya culture reached Palenque from the Peten rather than from the much closer La Esperanza.
        Large Preclassic Sites that Could have Influenced Palenque
        In Stuart's view (following Rands) Nueva Esperanza and similar sites were something of a cultural anomaly surrounded by proto-Maya on their way to becoming classic Maya. I visited La (Nueva) Esperanza in 2006 with Garth Norman acting on a suggestion from John Clark. Locally it also goes by the names Zapatillo and Calatraba. It features dozens of mounds, some quite large. A couple of mounds had been sideswiped with a backhoe for sampling. We did a little surface scavenging. Garth believed the shards we found were preclassic. Garth and I correlate Nueva Esperanza with the city of Zarahemla on the west bank of Sidon. In his 2005 Worlds of Joseph Smith presentation at the Library of Congress, Clark's title slide was an image of Nueva Esperanza.

        The town of Emiliano Zapata (Monte Cristo) is mentioned on pp. 18-19, 82, 89, and 108. Palenque is strategically situated between the Michol river flowing west and the Chacamax flowing east. Emiliano Zapata is at the confluence of the Chacamax with the Usumacinta. The Usumacinta is navigable to Boca del Cerro upstream from Tenosique, but Emiliano Zapata is only 35 air kilometers from Palenque while Tenosique is 60 air kilometers distant and on the other side of the big river.
        Access to Palenque from the Usumacinta
        An ancient trail, early dirt road, and modern road all connected Emiliano Zapata (Nueva Esperanza) with Palenque. This is the most direct route from Palenque to the sea. Nueva Esperanza is the point along the Usumacinta where permanent downstream flood plain gives way to higher arable ground. Immediately NW of Nueva Esperanza lie the formidable Pantanos (Swamps) de Centla full of jaguars and crocodiles which Garth and I correlate with the wilderness of Hermounts Alma 2:37. In this model, Palenque is in the lesser land of Zarahemla and Boca del Cerro is the point on the route to the land of Nephi where lowland Zarahemla gives way to upland wilderness Omni 1:27-28.

        Palenque p. 18 describes 588 meter El Mirador peak with the Cross Group at its base and a small ruin at its summit. Norman correlates this eminence with hill Manti Alma 1:15 and I follow his lead on this point, having found no better candidate.

        Palenque p. 82 reports that as late as 1897 the official inspector of ancient monuments for the Mexican government did not know if the major site Yaxchilan was in Mexico west of the Usumacinta or in Guatemala east of the river (it is on the Mexico side). This is an indication of how difficult and inaccessible the upper Usumacinta area is. Even today, a trip to Yaxchilan is a travel adventure because there are no roads to the site.
        Remote Yaxchilan on the Upper Usumacinta
        The Book of Mormon describes a scenario where the Nephites in Nephi (Kaminaljuyú in our correlation) and the Mulekites in Zarahemla (Nueva Esperanza on our map) were completely unaware of each other's existence for nearly 400 years Omni 1:14. The Book of Mormon also describes savvy groups getting lost in the wilderness between Nephi and Zarahemla Mosiah 8:8, Mosiah 22:16. Both the disorientation and incommunicado narratives fit well in our proposed correlation where one goes through the upper Usumacinta basin to travel between Nephi and Zarahemla. See the articles "Water Fight on the River - Round Four" and "Water Fight on the River - Round Five."

        Palenque p. 98 - 103 tells the fascinating story of Mayan decipherment. Many of the people mentioned have connections to the LDS Mesoamericanist community.
        • Books that once belonged to Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1909-1985) are in my personal library.
        • David H. Kelley (1924-2011) was John L. Sorenson's friend and collaborator.
        • Michael D. Coe was in Utah in 2015 as Richard Hansen's guest. See the article "Hansen and Coe."
        • Gordon Willey (1913-2002) was one of the three founders of the New World Archaeological Foundation (NWAF) along with Thomas Stuart Ferguson (1915-1983) and Alfred V. Kidder (1885-1963).
        • Román Piña Chan (1920-2001) was one of the five people digging near Huimanguillo, Tabasco in 1953 as part of NWAF's first field season. The others were Pedro Armillas (1914-1984), William T. Sanders (1926-2008), Gareth W. Lowe (1922-2004), and John L. Sorenson. See the articles "Zarahemla ca. 1955" and "Gareth Lowe's Maps."
        • George W. Brainerd (1909-1956) would have been John L. Sorenson's PhD advisor at UCLA had he not died unexpectedly just as Sorenson was beginning his program.
        • Robert M. Carmack is the brother of John K. Carmack, emeritus General Authority, and the uncle of Book of Mormon textual scholar Stanford Carmack.
        • Linda Schele (1942-1998) was Allen J. Christenson's PhD advisor at UT Austin. Christenson, on the BYU Humanities faculty, is a Mayanist who specializes in K'iche'. 
        Palenque p. 102 talks about the Grolier Codex which recently joined the Dresden, Paris, and Madrid Codices as an authenticated pre-Columbian Maya manuscript. The Grolier is different enough from the other three that most scholars initially dismissed it as a fraud. John L. Sorenson in a 1997 article entitled "The Sobering Lesson of the Grolier Codex" uses the Grolier's journey from pariah to pillar as a cautionary tale about those who would cavalierly disregard the Book of Mormon as an ancient American codex.

        Palenque p. 105 reminds us that less than two percent of Palenque has been studied in depth and there is much yet to discover.

        National Geographic just published a report on Richard Hansen's LIDAR project in the northern Peten. The survey shows 60,000 structures previously unknown to science (many, unfortunately, already looted). Ancient population in the area may have reached 15 million. There is much yet to discover.

        Palenque p. 109-110 discusses a very early Palenque ruler (perhaps mythological) who was born on March 11, 993 BC, well into Jaredite times. Another ancient leader began to rule in 252 BC when the Nephites were still living in the city of Nephi.

        Palenque p. 114 shows the earliest known depiction of a Palenque ruler and he is heavily bearded.
        Onyx Bowl in The Dumbarton Oaks Collection
        Stuart calls him the "Ch'a" ruler born in AD 422 and comments on his unusual hand gesture pointing downward. We have seen this gesture before on Kaminaljuyú Monument 65 and Izapa Stela 5. See the article "Partake of the Fruit" for illustrations. The inscription on the bowl calls him a "young" ruler even though his full beard implies age. This reminds us of Mormon's play-on-words description of Alma1 in Mosiah 17:2. See Matt Bowen's 2016 Interpreter article entitled "Alma - Young Man, Hidden Prophet."

        Palenque pp. 117, 138-9, 145, and 149 reproduce David Stuart's very clean drawings of 7 ancestors carved into the walls of Pakal's sarcophagus. Each is depicted as an anthropomorphic fruit tree.
        Pakal's Parents as Trees
        This is interesting because of the curious Book of Mormon teaching in Alma 32 that humans can sprout trees. See the articles "Maya Place Names" and "Anthropomorphic Trees" for context.

        Palenque pp. 143-4 explain how the Maya used variants of the term "seat" to describe a ruler's accession to the throne. The Book of Mormon follows this same convention Alma 4:17.

        Palenque pp. 145, 178-9 discuss the phrase "enter the path" used commonly at Palenque to mean a ruler died. On p. 178 Stuart gives a new translation of the rim text from Pakal's sarcophagus lid. It has a list of royal ancestors who "entered the path" on such and such a date. The Book of Mormon equivalent is "go the way of all the earth." Lehi would soon go the way of all the earth in 2 Nephi 1:14. Ditto King Benjamin in Mosiah 1:9. Mosiah2 had already gone the way of all the earth in Alma 1:1. Ditto Teancum in Alma 62:37. Chief Judge Parhoron (critical text orthography) had gone the way of all the earth in Helaman 1:2.

        The phrase "go the way of all the earth" is also biblical. Joshua used it as recorded in Joshua 23:14, and King David harked back to Joshua's words in 1 Kings 2:2. Some of the Bible versions shown on biblehub.com use the word "path" or "road" rather than "way."

        Palenque p. 148 discusses the chiastic pattern found in the dynastic king list from Palenque. There is a chiastic pattern found in the dynastic king list recorded in the book of Ether. See Book of Mormon Central KnoWhy #235 "Why Does the Book of Ether Start with Such a Long Genealogy?"

        People come up with wildly different notions of the distance a Nephite may have traveled in a "day's journey." I take the Book of Mormon phrase to be a standard unit of distance measure, and some of the best textual scholars in the Church support this interpretation. See the article "Textual Progress." It is helpful to know from historical records how far pre-modern groups actually traveled in one day. Palenque p. 158 reports a narrative with details that allow us to calculate distance traveled per day. On August 7, AD 659, troops from Palenque captured the king of Santa Elena in his hometown. Six days later they paraded this same king as a bound captive before K'inich Janab Pakal in Palenque's palace. How far did this military detachment travel in six days with a high-value captive in tow?
        95 Air Kilometers Santa Elena to Palenque
        95 air kilometers divided by 6 days equals 15.8 kilometers per day. This compares remarkably well with other journeys we have documented. See the article "Land Southward Travel Times." Our rule-of-thumb standard unit of distance measure - 15 air kilometers per day - is corroborated yet again.
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        LiDAR

        February 2, 2018, 12:18 am
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        LiDAR is a technology where you fly expensive equipment in a grid pattern over an area. Millions of pulsed laser beams penetrate the forest canopy and bounce off structures below to create a highly accurate 3-D map of the surface. This digital imaging technique is revolutionizing Mesoamerican archaeology where important ruins lie concealed beneath jungle or forest.
        Guatemalan LiDAR Data after Rendering and Graphical Processing
        Richard Hansen's Fundación Patrimonio Cultural y Natural Maya (PACUNAM) just went public with the results of the largest LiDAR survey ever attempted for archaeological research. It mapped 10 tracts totaling 2,100 square kilometers in the Mirador Basin and other areas of northern Guatemala. The surveyed area is less than half the size of Utah County. And what did archaeologists find buried in the Peten?
        • 60,000 previously unknown structures
        • vast networks of highways elevated so they functioned even in the rainy season 
        • ubiquitous fortresses, ramparts, and defensive walls
        • waterworks including dikes, dams, canals, and reservoirs
        • agricultural terraces with irrigation systems
        • animal pens
        • stone quarries
        It will take decades to study so many new sites, but settlement patterns and big picture insights are already apparent.
        • Population in the Maya lowlands at apogee was closer to 15 million than 5 million
        • Maya civilization was much more complex than previously thought
        • Maya cities were more interconnected than anyone realized
        • Food production was on an industrial scale
        • Many people lived in swampy areas
        • Endemic warfare was the norm over centuries
        This northern Guatemalan LiDAR project will continue in phases, eventually mapping more than 5,000 square kilometers (about the size of Utah County). At that point it will have mapped approximately 1.4% of the ancient Maya area which covers 350,000 square kilometers (about the size of Montana).
        Guatemalan LiDAR Data after Additional Graphical Processing
        LiDAR in archaeology is like the Hubble Telescope in astronomy.
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        Horses

        February 14, 2018, 2:49 pm
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        Wade E. Miller is a retired BYU Professor of Geology and Paleontology. He received his PhD in Paleontology from UC Berkeley. He has done fieldwork and presented at academic conferences in more than a dozen countries. He spent a number of years working with faunal remains from the famed La Brea tar pits under the auspices of the Los Angeles County Natural History Museums. He has a long-standing close working relationship with the Museo del Desierto in Coahuila, Mexico. Miller's ResearchGate profile shows a productive scholar whose work gets cited by others in his field. His personal statement of faith in the Mormon Scholars Testify collection shows his firm belief in the Book of Mormon.

        Miller has personally reconciled his deep knowledge of earth sciences with his understanding of the scriptures. He wrote a book in 2010 entitled Science and the Book of Mormon.  My overview of it is in the article entitled "BMAF 2014." Miller teamed up with Book of Mormon Central Research Associate Matt Roper for an article on animals in the Book of Mormon published in Interpreter in 2014. That article was updated and expanded into an even better piece entitled "Animals in the Book of Mormon: Challenges and Perspectives" published in BYU Studies Quarterly Vol. 56 No. 4 (2017). The BYU Studies article includes blockbuster information about horse (Equs) remains from the state of Coahuila in Mexico that date to ca. 520 BC.

        In other words, a qualified paleontologist has documented the presence of horses in Mexico in Book of Mormon times. Passages such as Enos 1:21 now have additional credible external corroboration.
        State of Coahuila in Mexico
        Wade Miller lives just a few minutes from my house. We visited recently. Additional research is underway.

        See also the very good article by Daniel Johnson entitled "Hard Evidence of Ancient American Horses" in BYU Studies 54:3 (2015) and the January 29, 2018 Book of Mormon Central blog post entitled "New Evidence for Horses in America."
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        Trample Under Feet

        February 16, 2018, 12:07 am
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        I was looking at the figure on the obverse of the Leiden plaque aka Leiden plate who is standing beside a bound captive when it occurred to me that the Book of Mormon phrase "trample under feet" may be reflecting the Mesoamerican cultural tradition of lords humiliating victims by treading on them.
        Leiden Plaque Incised Jadeite
        This artifact was unearthed in 1834 in a post-classic burial mound near the mouth of the Motagua River in Guatemala. It is now in the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, Netherlands. The glyph text on the reverse celebrates the accession of a king, probably in Tikal, on September 17, AD 320. This was just a few years before Mormon, age 15, took command of the Nephite armies Mormon 2:1-2.

        The Book of Mormon uses a variant of the expression "trample under feet" 11 times. It must have been a relatively common term among the Nephites and their contemporaries. In contrast, the Old and New Testaments each use the phrase only once. Nephi was concerned enough about the meaning of the idiom that he defined it in 1 Nephi 19:7 as not heeding the counsels of the one being trampled underfoot. 1 Nephi chapter 19 is at the very beginning of Nephite history and literary tradition in the New World. Nephi may have sensed the need to define this expression because he saw the metaphor being used explicitly to depict dominance and subservience throughout the Mesoamerica of his day.

        The relevant passages:
        • Psalms 91:13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. This psalm is generally understood to refer to the future Messiah.
        • Matthew 7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.
        • 1 Nephi 19:7 For the things which some men esteem to be of great worth, both to the body and soul, others set at naught and trample under their feet.
        • 1 Nephi 19:7 Yea, even the very God of Israel do men trample under their feet;
        • 1 Nephi 19:7 I say trample under their feet, but I would speak in other words - they set him at naught, and hearken not to the voice of his counsels.
        • Alma 5:53 ... can ye lay aside these things, and trample the Holy One under your feet;
        • Alma 60:33 Ye know that ye do transgress the laws of God, and ye do know that ye do trample them under your feet.
        • Helaman 4:22 ... they had altered and trampled under their feet the laws of Mosiah, or that which the Lord commanded him to give unto the people;
        • Helaman 6:31 ... they had become exceedingly wicked; yea, the more part of them had turned out of the way of righteousness, and did trample under their feet the commandments of God,
        • Helaman 6:39 ... they did trample under their feet and smite and rend and turn their backs upon the poor, and the meek, and the humble followers of God.
        • Helaman 12:2 ... they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One - 
        • 3 Nephi 14:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.
        • Related is Mormon 5:6 ... they did tread the people of the Nephites under their feet.
        The relatively high frequency of trampling verbiage in the Nephite text may be related to the abundance of trampling imagery in Mesoamerican art and iconography.
        Kaminaljuyú Sculpture 173
        Drawing by Lucia Henderson
        Kaminaljuyú (KJ) Sculpture 173 (Lucia Henderson's nomenclature) depicts a bejeweled human holding a double headed serpent in one hand while standing on one of the creature's two heads.

        Izapa Stela 25 from V. Garth Norman
        Izapa Stela 25 shows Hunahpu, one of the hero twins, trampling the earth monster.

        Coba Stela 20 Site Drawing
        In this image from Coba, Quintana Roo, a victorious ruler stands on the backs of two war captives. Coba stelae 1 & 4 show similar scenes of elites trampling prisoners under their feet.

        Xultun Stela 5
        In this image from Xultun, Peten, a victor tramples a hapless war captive.
        Naranjo Stela 30 Drawing by Ian Graham
        Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions
        Naranjo Stela 24 depicts a similar scene with an elite person treading on a captive.

        We could duplicate these examples many times over. Tonina Monument 147 (bottom portion) for example is a striking image. Powerful individuals are often portrayed in Maya art treading or trampling on a hapless victim. This Mesoamerican cultural practice is a good explanation for the frequent occurrence of the phrase "trample under feet" in the Book of Mormon. It is a particularly good explanation for the reason Nephi defined his meaning when he used the term in 1 Nephi 19:7.
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        Refugee Pageant

        February 17, 2018, 7:10 pm
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        What would you do if the Book of Mormon was not yet available in your native language? You would stage a pageant so the powerful messages in this divine book could communicate to your family and friends.

        That is precisely the situation the Karen and Karenni Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake's Columbus Branch find themselves in. Refugees from Burma (Myanmar), they have come to Utah and joined the Church, but the Book of Mormon has not been translated into either Karen or Karenni so not all of their family members and friends have access to it.

        Enter humanitarians Bob and Susan Roylance who have been working with the Columbus Branch for so many years some of their neighbors in Murray hardly know them. See the article "Refugee Eagle Scouts" for background on the Roylances. Their family non-profit is called "Welcome Hand" which provides a variety of services to the Utah refugee community.

        Years ago, Susan authored a Book of Mormon pageant called "Mormon Speaks." It has been produced several times, but not in the last 20 years. She recently received the impression that she was to produce it again, casting Columbus Branch members in most of the roles. And that is how "Mormon Speaks" came to be scheduled for Thursday, June 7, 2018 through Saturday, June 9, 2018 in the Murray High School Auditorium, 5440 South State Street in Murray, Utah. General admission tickets are $5 and you can click on this link to purchase them on Eventbrite.
        Pageant June 7 - 9, 2018 in Murray, UT
        Click on this link to download a single page PDF flyer for printing or sharing.

        Bob and Susan's leadership will ensure good production values, but the real joy of this pageant will not be the impressive scenery, costumes, lighting, or props. It will be the spirit of wonderful Latter-day Saints, many of them recently-baptized, portraying the epic Book of Mormon story on stage for people they love.
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        Grand Unifying Theory

        February 27, 2018, 10:10 pm
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        Physicists, Biologists, and other scientists seek a "grand unifying theory" in their discipline to explain the big picture and fit disparate parts into a coherent whole. There may be a grand unifying theory linking the Book of Mormon with its ancient Mesoamerican setting.

        G1 of the Palenque triad is likely the same deity as Central Mexico's Quetzalcoatl. George and David Stuart, Palenque Eternal City of the Maya (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2008) p. 212 and note 21.

        G1 of the Palenque triad is likely the same demigod-deity as Hunahpu, the elder of the hero twins in the Popol Vuh. Floyd G. Lounsbury, "The Identities of the Mythological Figures in the Cross Goup Inscriptions of Palenque," Mesoweb, 1985; Linda Schildkraut, "The Hero Twins in Veracruz," FAMSI; Carolyn Tate, Yaxchilan: The Design of a Maya Ceremonial City (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992).

        G1 of the Palenque triad is likely a classic Maya instance of Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon. See the article "Palenque."

        If these relationships are true, they form a grand unifying theory that explains many things in ancient Mesoamerica and in the Book of Mormon.

        For example, it explains why both Popol Vuh and Book of Mormon iconographic elements appear on Izapa Stela 25. See the article "Art and Iconography 2."

        Ditto both Popol Vuh and Book of Mormon iconographic elements on Izapa Stela 5. See the article "Art and Iconography 4."
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