Where did the Book of Mormon history take place?

The Book of Mormon is, by and large, unappreciated by the world at large. To Latter Day Saints, it is a rare jewel, a treasure of insight and testimony, a volume comparable to the Bible. It appears to be the written testimony of about 20 people. Most of these people lived thousands of years ago, and all of them lived somewhere in America. To Latter-Day Saints, who view the Book of Mormon as an actual historical record, there is a strong desire to identify the lands where these historical events took place, as well as the people who lived there. The belief that other records exist to corroborate the Book of Mormon has spurred a treasure hunt of its own.

Critics of the Book of Mormon have accused it of being a hoax and a fraud. They claim it's author is Joseph Smith, or perhaps some other 19th century author.

Compelling archaeological evidence would be other books, found in ancient burial sites perhaps, with the same stories or at least similar histories, but few such books have been found. One book, which was written after the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, using the Spanish alphabet phonetically, is titled "The Titles of the Lords of Totonicapan", or in Spanish "Los Titlulos de los Senores de Totonicapan". According to this history, the ancestors of the Mayan came across the ocean, and were Israelites. There are a few interesting correlations between the Book of Mormon and The Titles of the Lords of Totonicapan, but not many. There are also interesting correlations with the Dresden Codex, a Mayan book from the 13th or 14th century. Are these correlations coincidence? Were they well known in 1830 North America? It appears that such knowledge was rare, if it existed at all. Los Titulos de los Senores de Totonicapan wasn't even translated into Spanish until after the publication of the Book of Mormon. Likewise, the translation of the Dresden Codex is fairly recent. They offer a tantalizing hint, but are far from what most would consider compelling.

A recent study compared the Uto-Aztecan language family, which is related to Mayan, to Hebrew and Egyptian, and it found significant correlations between these three languages. However the Uto-Aztecan language family is fairly broad, and it has been suggested that such similarities might be found for any language. If so, one wonders what the science of linguistics can offer in this case.

Lacking a wealth of historical records, we are left with the Book of Mormon as a treasure map. Joseph Smith, who once hunted for treasure, appears to have found the most incredible treasure map of all time. Various approaches have been used to scientifically evaluate the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon was subjected to authorship testing, which showed about 19 or 20 separate authors, none of which were any known 19th century author. It was also examined for Hebrew and Egyptian influences, of which a wealth was found. Hebrew grammar and naming conventions are used throughout. Egyptian names like "Nephi" were also found, among other similarities. And samples of the script compare favorably to the Egyptian Demotic, an ancient predecessor of the modern alphabet. Photographs of ancient stelae with Nephite script can be found in the book The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni, but the samples are too small to aide in translation, and perhaps impossible to authenticate.

The Book of Mormon has a wealth of over 200 geographic descriptions. We can generally follow Lehi's trail through the Arabian wilderness to the sea, where they build a ship. There are no signs that say "Lehi was here", but the geographic descriptions are accurate in every detail. There are good candidates for all of the places mentioned in the trek across the desert. It really does seem to be written by someone who has been to Arabia. However, we lose the trail, once they land in America. Initially, people thought that it included all of North and South America, but a more critical reading suggests an area no bigger than Israel. The most prominent feature is "a narrow neck of land" which divides the land northward from the land southward. At least 15 different theories have been suggested based on finding the "narrow neck of land". One theory is that the narrow neck is at Niagara, which actually translates to narrow neck. The Book of Mormon was discovered in upstate New York, after all. There is an insurmountable problem with identifying any part of the Eastern seaboard as the land of the Book of Mormon. The cataclysm described in 3rd Nephi is arguably a volcanic eruption, and there have been no active volcanoes on the Eastern seaboard of the United States for millions of years. Another obvious problem is the complete lack of permanent cities, with roads, temples, thrones and towers. The bow and arrow - used by indians in Joseph Smith's day, were not used by indians (native Americans) in Book of Mormon times. Yet the Book of Mormon mentions it as a weapon.

When the book "Incidents of Travel in Yucatan" by Stephens and Catherwood was published in 1842, a new plausible locale for Book of Mormon history was revealed. Here indeed we have huge cities with roads, temples, thrones and towers. And yes, they used the bow and arrow long before the tribes in North America. This area, Mesoamerica, still covers a large amount of land. But this theory has grown in popularity, and many correlations seem to make it a great fit. There are actually several different theories that find a home in Mesoamerica.

Dr. Bruce E. Dale and Dr. Brian Dale did a statistical analysis comparing The Book of Mormon to "The Maya", a book coauthored by Mayan expert Michael Coe. A list was made of everything the Mayan and the Book of Mormon peoples had in common, and a list of everything that they did not have in common, strictly according to the confines of the books. 131 correspondences were found, with about 9 discrepancies. Using Bayesian Analysis, they calculated the odds of the Book of Mormon people not being related to the Mayan people. They came up with 4.2x10 to the power of -132. That comes to a little less than 1 in the number of protons in the galaxy. Statistically, there is a proven relationship between the Book of Mormon people and the Maya. It is higher than a 99% probability. Ironically, Dr. Coe said that the Book of Mormon was 99% wrong. He was an expert on the Maya, but he didn't know much about the Book of Mormon. He read it once, many years ago. Perhaps he should have taken it a little more seriously.

The cataclysm of 3rd Nephi, has the attributes of a major volcanic event. It starts with 3 hours of terrible earthquakes and "thunderings". Cities are buried beneath the sea, burned, or buried beneath mountains. After 3 hours, there is thick darkness. No fires can be lit. The darkness lasts for three days. When Krakatoa erupted, the ash exploded high into the atmosphere and covered the entire area in darkness for three days. It also blew away most of the island. The cataclysm of 3rd Nephi occurred in 33 AD., at the time of Christ's death. The Bible informs us there there was an earthquake, and that the sun was darkened before nightfall. If all of these reports came from the same event, then it was an event of major proportions. There was one such event in Nicaragua. It was the eruption of Apoyeque. It was a force 6 on the VEI scale, roughly 20 times the force of Mt. Saint Helens, and 20 times the ash. It reconfigured the entire face of Nicaragua.

The Book of Mormon spends a great deal of time talking about war. Many of these wars were genocidal, and ended in the death of nations. Mormon, the namesake of the Book of Mormon was a general, as well as a Christian. He watched the death of his civilization, entrusting his sacred records to his son Moroni. Moroni buried one book - written on gold alloy plates - in a stone box in upstate New York, where Joseph Smith discovered it 1200 years later.