Imagine, 1500 years AFTER the Lehi Colony reached the Land of Promise, the Great Lakes region was being settled for the first time in year round villages. And what kind of villages? They were “oval or rectangular houses” in “sites that were small, housing 200-300 people each,” and that “each village would have three or four houses that were 20-30 meters long.” And to build these longhouses “poles would be driven into the ground and the frame covered with animal skins. A hearth would be in the middle and there would be a hole at the top that would allow smoke to escape. Palisades were built around these villages. These were walls constructed of large wooden pikes, which would have surrounded the houses and made them more defensible.”And just how does this coincide with Nephi’s description of the Land of Nephi in about 570 B.C., more than 1400 years BEFORE the archaeologists time frame for the building of the first permanent sites in the Great Lakes area?
“And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance” (2Nephi 5:15).
By the time the Great Lakes were first being settled with permanent villages of any kind, the Nephites had been annihilated for over 500 years!
In addition, the Great Lakes show no ruins or evidence of any kind of structures of any magnificence of any type, at any time in their history, that might suggest a Nephite-style ability as Nephi writes, “And I, Nephi, did build a temple, and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things…but the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon; and the workmanship thereof was exceeding fine” (2 Nephi 5:16)
Certainly there are magnificent evidences of such construction dating to the appropriate time frame in the Andes of South America, specifically in Peru, and also, a little later dated, in Mesoamerica. But there is absolutely nothing of the kind in the Great Lakes, described as the Lower Great Lakes area of Southern Ontario, New York State, Lakes Erie and Huron. There are ancient burial mounds to be sure, but then there are similar burial mounds in Ohio, and down the valley of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing, however, that could even be considered equivalent to the magnificent buildings Nephi describes constructing, and teaching his people with the art of doing so.
Where do these people come up with their wild ideas about the bom geography? Certainly not from the scriptures. I listened to one of them on the Radio the other day talking about their theory--strictly amateur night. Keep up the good work, maybe some day we will convince people to match their silly ideas with scripture and disregard those that do not fit ALL the scripture on the subject as you have done.
ReplyDeleteJennifer: They come from the same place all these Great Lakes and Mesoamerican people come from---the Looney Bin. They certainy don't come from reading the Book of Mormon, except maybe to look at a verse here or there.
ReplyDeleteRobert -- my question was rhetorical
ReplyDeleteTo me discovering traces of Nephite culture north of South America just testfies of how much an impact the teachings of Nephi (both technical & spritual) had on the surrounding people. To think how great the entire western hemisphere could have been if the people had adhered to the gospel instead of giving in to personal desires (like greed and conquest). Still, a little bit of Nephite can be found in nearly every culture on the American continents; amazing.
ReplyDelete