Archaeology and the Book of Mormon

In my previous posts, I talked about the problems facing the geography of the Book of Mormon. The traditional view regarding the geography of the Book of Mormon is the view that was widely accepted by Joseph Smith, other prophets and early members of the church in general. The traditional view was that the geography for the Book of Mormon included the entire North and South American continents. However, more and more LDS scholars are taking a more non-traditional view of the Book of Mormon geography, known as a "limited Geography theory", or in other words Joseph Smith was incorrect in his teachings that the Book of Mormon covered the entire Continent. Instead, most LDS scholars today insist the Book of Mormon is a story of a small group of people that had very little impact on the overall society. The reason is current LDS scholars take this view is because it is clear that the civilizations that are found in North, Central and South America are in no way similar at all with the descriptions in the Book of Mormon.

Continual Shrinking of Book of Mormon Geography

Sometime in the 1940's, the first LDS scholars came up with the idea that the geography of the Book of Mormon was not the entire North and South American continent, but was in fact limited to the southern Mexico and Central American area. This view was not well accepted at first, particularly since it contradicted Joseph Smith and his claims about locating the remains of Zelph, the location of the hill Cumorah, and statements made by Smith and other early prophets. None the less, it has since proven to be the most widely popular and publicized theory.



The reason LDS scholars believe that the Book of Mormon geography is located around Mesoamerica is because there were many civilizations that had great empires in that region during the same time period. So, it would make sense that if the vast empires that existed in the Book of Mormon, we could find some archaeological evidence to support it.

The New World Archaeological Foundation

In 1952, an LDS attorney named Thomas Ferguson approached the first presidency with an idea for the church to fund an archaeological dig in central America with the soul purpose of finding cities and/or artifacts that would support the Book of Mormon. The name of the organization that Ferguson established was The New World Archaeological Foundation. Although David O. Mckay(the prophet and president at the time) was skeptical at first, once Thomas Ferguson raised private funds to get the program started, the church stepped in and fully backed the program financially.

The New World Archaeological Foundation is funded by the church, but employs professional Archaeologists to manage the dig sites. It has since been re-structured and is now run through BYU, but it's purpose remains the same. Its sole purpose is finding locations and artifacts to support the Book of Mormon . Unfortunately, 55 years after it was founded, they have yet to find a single shred of physical evidence to support the Book of Mormon. In fact, in the quest to find evidence to support the Book of Mormon, LDS archaeologists and anthropologists have discovered quite the opposite. In my next posts, I will outline the different archaeological aspects of what is found in ancient America and how it differs with what is described in the Book of Mormon.

Skeptical Mormon