Why hasn't archaeology uncovered evidence of Book of Mormon cities and culture? Ep. 103

Why haven’t archaeologists found anything in the New World that categorically proves that the Book of Mormon is true? It’s a question as old as the Book of Mormon itself, and it’s the subject Dave addressed in this episode.

Transcript and potentially additional notes: https://bit.ly/3hGJH8T
“The Cultural Tapestry of Mesoamerica,” by Mark Alan Wright (fantastic paper): https://bit.ly/3l6NY64
Incredible developing research on Semitic and Egyptian elements in Uto-Aztecan languages: https://bit.ly/2GjFhq8
Quite a scholarly article from William Hamblin on Book of Mormon archaeology and how it compares to Biblical archaeology: https://bit.ly/3liirOH
Recent Lidar tech discoveries that are revealing how little we know about Mesoamerican lands: https://on.natgeo.com/33qs5Zg
“Archaeology, Relics, and Book of Mormon Belief,” by John Clark: https://bit.ly/33mupR5
“Behind the Mask, Behind the Curtain: Uncovering the Illusion,” by Brant Gardner: https://bit.ly/30M9wgf
Jerusalem Post: “The Exodus: Does archaeology have a say?”: https://bit.ly/33muGDE

Notes:

-Scholar Brant Gardner opines that, “We do not find Book of Mormon names in Maya inscriptions for two reasons. First, few inscriptions are contemporary with the Book of Mormon. Second, they come from cities that are not considered by Latter-day Saint scholars to have been Nephite. If the vast majority of names refer to the kings and queens of a particular location and that location is not Nephite, we have little hope of finding a reference to a Nephite name there.” Source: https://bit.ly/30M9wgf

-Some people have the following question: If Lehi’s party was a small fish in a big cultural pond, why doesn’t the Book of Mormon talk about any of these other major cultures? The answer may simply be that the Book of Mormon was a lineage history, not a comprehensive history. It strictly covers the history of Lehi’s family, with the exception of the story of the Jaredites. There is also brief mention of the Mulekites (who also came from the Old World around the same time as Lehi’s party), but we don’t get hardly any information about their history. Also, it would have been against the Law of Moses for Israelites to intermarry with non-covenant peoples, so there could have been some separation in that sense. In my opinion, the Lamanites would have disregarded that rule fairly quickly. It’s also important to note that there is precedent in Mesoamerican history for selectively ignoring different cultures. See page 12 of this link: https://bit.ly/3l6NY64

-In the 2nd or 3rd century BC, we read in the book of Omni that the language of the Mulekites “had become corrupted… and Mosiah, nor the people of Mosiah could understand them.” So, Mosiah “caused that they should be taught in his language.” But then not long after at the beginning of the Book of Mosiah we read that King Benjamin “caused that [his three sons] should be taught in all the language of his fathers…” Why would they have to be taught in the language of their fathers if it’s already the language that everyone spoke? It could very well be that by this time the Old World Nephite language was only used by the upper class or for potential record-keepers. And by the end of the Book of Mormon we get some additional support for that theory, when Mormon writes that the Book of Mormon has been written in reformed Egyptian characters, “being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.” He continues, “the Hebrew hath been altered by us also… [and] none other people knoweth our language; and because that none other people knoweth our language, therefore [God] hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof.” Food for thought.

-If you’re interested in looking into some research that has been done on Hebrew in the Americas, you may want to look at the work of Dr. Brian Stubbs (link: https://bit.ly/2GjFhq8 ), or the work of Dr. James Harris and Dann Hone (link: https://bit.ly/2Hqh7KL ). I’m not a linguist so it’s quite difficult for me to evaluate the merit (or lack thereof) of their work, but it might be a good place to start if you’re interested in diving deeper. I did find Stubbs’ work quite compelling.

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