What Are Defensive Walls – Part II

Continuing from the previous post regarding the question of defensive walls as described in pretty clear detail by Mormon in the scriptural record of the Book of Mormon.

Concluding the previous post with a discussion about the Mound Builders in central and eastern U.S., and what Capt. Moroni (left) described as the work to be done to build defensive fortifications against the Lamanites, it should be noted that Moroni did not have “burial mounds” built—which is what we find in the eastern U.S., but defensive walls, some of earth with timber on top (Alma 50:2), and others with stone encircling them (Alma 48:8) and also stone walls “round about their cities and the borders of their lands (Alma 48:8), the latter we do not find in the eastern U.S. in any manner.
    The fortifications generally mentioned in connection with the Mound Builders is in “the so-called hilltop enclosures or fortifications, claimed were obviously intended for purposes of defense; however, the most famous of these, the Fort Ancient Culture, did not build their famous “fort” until 1000 A.D., which remained in existence until 1750 A.D. And even so, there is nothing in the scriptural record of the Book of Mormon to suggest that the Nephites or Jaredites built their cities or villages on top of raised or mound platforms.

The mound builders built many ceremonial mounds and temples, and their weapons were made from bone or stone, and they grew three crops: maize, squash and beans—though the Nephites grew wheat, barley, neas and sheum (Mosiah 9:9. It should be noted that initially the site was thought to be a fort, though later such assumptions were dismissed—it was a ceremonial structure, with portions of the walls used in conjunction with the sun and moon to provide a calendar system for these peoples for planting and harvesting purposes.
    It should be noted that anthropologist Ephraim George Squier, who wrote about "The Iroquois as Mound Builders as well as "The Archaeology of Western New York," went to Central Americas in 1849 as the U.S. chargé de’affaires to Central America where he traveled extensively for 20 years to see the ruins and monuments, and Peru in 1863-1865 as U.S. commissioner, settling financial claims, which allowed him to travel extensively, where he studied the pre-Inca Chimú civilization, then scarcely known, and wrote Peru: Incidents of Travel and Exploration, 1877. The purpose of his efforts in Latin and South America was to find any connection between the U.S. Mound Builders and the ancient cultures to the south, which he never did, though he spent 22 years looking. Thus, it can only be shown that the Mound Builders of the eastern United States area were a unique people with no earlier or later ties, having sprung up anciently in North America with no history to show any other earlier locale. Certainly not the story of either the Jaredites or the Nephites.
    However, in returning to Moroni, and his earthworks program for the Nephites, Mormon writes: “And now it came to pass that Moroni did not stop making preparations for war, or to defend his people against the Lamanites; for he caused that his armies should commence in the commencement of the twentieth year of the reign of the judges, that they should commence in digging up heaps of earth round about all the cities, throughout all the land which was possessed by the Nephites. And upon the top of these ridges of earth he caused that there should be timbers, yea, works of timbers built up to the height of a man, round about the cities. And he caused that upon those works of timbers there should be a frame of pickets built upon the timbers round about; and they were strong and high. And he caused towers to be erected that overlooked those works of pickets, and he caused places of security to be built upon those towers, that the stones and the arrows of the Lamanites could not hurt them. And they were prepared that they could cast stones from the top thereof, according to their pleasure and their strength, and slay him who should attempt to approach near the walls of the city” (Alma 50:1-5).
    Let’s list what Moroni had done one at a time:

1. Digging up heaps of earth round about all the cities;
1828: Heap: “a pile or mass to form an elevation,” “to add until the mass takes a rounded form.”
2. Upon the top of these ridges of earth he caused that there should be timbers, yea, works of timbers built up to the height of a man;
1828: Ridge: “A steep elevation, eminence or protuberance,” “Any long elevation of land,” “ground thrown up by a plow or left between furrows.”
3. Upon those works of timbers there should be a frame of pickets built upon the timbers round about; and they were strong and high;
1828: Pickets: Enclosing or fortifying with pickets, means “to enclose or fence with narrow pointed boards, used in making a fence,” “a guard posted in front of an army to give notice of the approach of the enemy”
4. Caused towers to be erected that overlooked those works of pickets, that the stones and the arrows of the Lamanites could not hurt them;

1828: Tower: “To rise above the main edifice,” “a bastion, bulwark, rampart,” “an elevation, secures safety.”
5. They could cast stones from the top thereof, according to their pleasure and their strength, and slay him who should attempt to approach near the walls of the city.
    Now with that in mind, let’s take a look at what is being portrayed by theorists as an area where this was built in North America:

Note the earthen wall is of minimal height, hardly an increase in height whatsoever; also note that the pit is minimal depth, more like an irrigation channel. There would be no hindrance to Lamanites standing on the (Yellow Arrow) outside level and firing arrows or throwing rocks (slings) over a fence on the other side and into the compound beyond

    What is amazing, of the more than a thousand mounds found in central and eastern U.S., the vast majority are single mounds in the middle of nowhere, with no other mounds around and no indication that other mounds once existed there and certainly no indication that the singular mound was part of any defensive structure or combination of mounds,which is not at all what Moroni is described as building--and, not a single stone wall meant for defense can be found anywhere in the eastern U.S. as Mormon wrote about being built "throughout the land." There is simply no way these mounds can be considered anything like what Mormon describes in the scriptural record, yet Heartland and Eastern U.S. people cling to this illusion that is simply not supported by any statement in the entire Book of Mormon.

(See the next post, “What Are Defensive Walls – Part III,” for more on the defensive walls described in the Book of Mormon and where we find them in the Western Hemisphere today)