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Archaeology and the Book of Mormon?

Archaeology and the Book of Mormon?

Last updated on: November 15, 2019 at 1:49 pm by Dan Peterson

Archaeology and the Book of Mormon? 2019-11-15T13:49:23-07:00 Dan Peterson

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A physical map of Mesoamerica (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Some of you are probably already famliar with a website, Mormon Scholars Testify, that I launched roughly a decade ago. If you aren’t, I hope that you’ll take a look at it:

https://www.fairmormon.org/testimonies/scholars

I probably need to modify the website’s title in the wake of President Russell M. Nelson’s admonitions regarding the nickname Mormon, but I haven’t gotten around to doing so. Truth be told, I’ve let the project pretty much glide for the past several years, owing to lack of time. (Every single entry on it was solicited and/or accepted by me and edited by me — thankfully, Tanya Spackman generously did the actual posting and the initial creation of the site — and I’ve simply been busy.) But there’s a lot of very good material on it, and I hope to get back to it again. (If anybody wants to help with the effort, I would be very grateful!)

In any event, I want to call particular attention at the moment to the Mormon Scholars Testify entry from John E. Clark, which, having been posted in 2011, is one of the relatively early pieces on the site. Professor Clark is a highly respected Mesoamerican archaeologist and — this is highly relevant to the critical sniping that my mention of him here is likely to provoke — one of the most bluntly honest and frank people I’ve ever encountered. He doesn’t cut corners or fudge the data. So his testimony, which almost inescapably touches upon the Book of Mormon, is significant:

John E. Clark

Also from Professor Clark, this 2005 presentation at the annual FairMormon conference:

“Debating the Foundations of Mormonism: The Book of Mormon and Archaeology”

You can watch the relevant video here:

And here is a related item from Jeff Lindsay:

“Evaluating Book of Mormon Claims: Where Do We Stand after 187 Years?”

Finally, since the items above have a Latin American slant, this link seem apropos:

“Thousands Attend Latin American Cultural Celebration Held at Conference Center”

***

You might also find this piece, which comes by way of the invaluable Irish Latter-day Saint Robert Boylan, to be of interest:

“Robert F. Smith on Moroni’s Appearances and Jewish Festivals”

***

Also called to my notice by Robert Boylan is this piece, from my friend Brian Hales:

“Brian Hales’ Final Response to D. Michael Quinn’s “Evidence for the Sexual Side of Joseph Smith’s Polygamy,” His Final Response to Hales’ 2012 MHA Presentation: “Joseph Smith’s Sexual Polyandry and the Emperor’s New Clothes: On Closer Inspection, What Do We Find?””

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archaeology

Book of Mormon

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John Clark

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