Archeological Evidence

    Mormon scholars have long yearned to find definitive evidence for the existence of the massive civilizations described in the Book of Mormon. As a Mormon myself, I can hardly think of anything that would have been more exciting than to read in the New York Times that Central American archeologists had uncovered an ancient battle field with weapons dating to the 1st century B.C., or had found caves with stacks of records and Egyptian hieroglyphics on the wall denoting names of Nephite cities, Kings, and Prophets. But the truth is, whatever has been found to date has been of such little significance, that it sends the believer right back to the Moroni challenge to secure his faith in the historicity of the Book of Mormon.

    There is perhaps no better way to succinctly describe the daunting archeological challenges the Book of Mormon faces than to include excerpts from two letters – the first from the National Geographic Society and the second from the Smithsonian, both in Washington D.C. In a letter dated January 11, 1990, the National Geographic Society responded to an inquiry into its use of the Book of Mormon as a tool to aid in archeological pursuits. A representative from the Society curtly but cordially denied any connection with the Book of Mormon, saying, “…we do not believe that any of the places named in the Book of Mormon can be placed geographically by the evidence of archaeology. So far as we know there is no archaeological evidence to verify the history of early peoples of the Western Hemisphere as presented in the Book of Mormon.”¹ 

    In a much more substantive response to a similar inquiry in 1996, the Anthropology Outreach Department of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History rebutted the rumor that it had been consulting the Book of Mormon as a scientific guide. The letter affirmed that the department “has never used it in archeological research and any information that you have received to the contrary is incorrect.” The letter then expressed the Smithsonian’s concern about the “unauthorized use of its name to disseminate inaccurate information,” and asked for the names of any known persons misusing it. Apparently the Outreach Department had “received numerous inquiries” similar to the one being responded to, so it subsequently prepared a statement articulating the Smithsonian’s official position on the Book of Mormon. I have included several excerpts below:

• Smithsonian archeologists see no direct connection between the archeology of the New World and the subject matter of the book.

• The physical type of the American Indian is basically Mongoloid, being most closely related to that of the peoples of eastern. central, and northeastern Asia.

• American Indians had no wheat, barley, oats, millet, rice, cattle, pigs, chickens, horses, donkeys, camels before 1492. (Camels and horses were in the Americas, along with the bison, mammoth, and mastodon, but all these animals became extinct around 10,000 B.C. at the time when the early big game hunters spread across the Americas.)

• Iron, steel, glass, and silk were not used in the New World before 1492 (except for occasional use of unsmelted meteoric iron). Native copper was worked in various locations in pre-Columbian times, but true metallurgy was limited to southern Mexico and the Andean region, where its occurrence in late prehistoric times involved gold, silver, copper, and their alloys, but not iron.

• …certainly there were no (New World) contacts with the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, or other peoples of Western Asian and the Near East.

• No reputable Egyptologist or other specialist on Old World archeology, and no expert on New World prehistory, has discovered or confirmed any relationship between archeological remains in Mexico and archeological remains in Egypt.

• Reports of findings of ancient Egyptian Hebrew, and other Old World writings in the New World in pre-Columbian contexts have frequently appeared in newspapers, magazines, and sensational books. None of these claims has stood up to examination by reputable scholars. No inscriptions using Old World forms of writing have been shown to have occurred in any part of the Americas before 1492…²

    Simon Southerton described the insurmountable archeological obstacles the Book of Mormon faces:

“The narrative (of the Book of Mormon) includes descriptions of large civilizations with populations reaching into the millions and the practice of Christianity, a written language, metallurgy, and the farming of several Old World domesticated plants and animals. In addition, the immigrant Hebrew Christians found horses, oxen, cattle, and goats in the New World. Anthropologists and archaeologists, including some Mormons and former Mormons, have discovered little to support the existence of these civilizations. Over a period of 150 years, as scholars have seriously studied Native American cultures and prehistory, evidence of a Christian civilization in the Americas has eluded the specialists…”³

¹Response written by Pamela Tucci, Research Correspondence, National Geographic Society, Washington D.C., 20036.

² Prepared by The Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, 1996; Anthropology Outreach Office, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History MRC 112, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560.

³ Simon Southerton, Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2004), Introduction, p. xiv-xv, quoted in Salt Lake City Messenger, Issue 103, November 2004.