Buildings, Palaces, Synagogues, and Houses

Is there anyone with any knowledge of history and ancient people really think that if Lehi had landed in North America and the Nephites settled in the Heartland region along the Mississippi River, specifically in the area of Nauvoo and across the river in the area of today’s Montrose, which the early Saints there called Zarahemla, that there would be no physical evidence of their existence?

General Map of the area, showing Zarahemla in Iowa and across the Mississippi River, the site of Nauvoo in Illinois

After all, the Nephites under their first leader, Nephi, son of Lehi, taught his “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“ (2 Nephi 5:15). Nephi also built a temple and “did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it could not be built like unto Solomon's temple. But the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon; and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine“ (2 Nephi 5:16, emphasis added).
    Does anyone really think there would be absolutely no evidence of such things out in the middle of the plains, that even now are not well populated, with almost all this area still basic farmland.

The first temple in Jerusalem, called Solomon’s Temple, after which Nephi built a temple in the Land of Promise, which he said that “the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon

Does anyone really think that Nephi would have built a temple to his God out of wood that deteriorated away, leaving no trace? Or that the early pioneers destroyed all evidence without leaving a comment as to what they found? Would the Nephites living under the Law of Moses (1 Nephi 1:4; 2 Nephi 5:10) not have built a temple that would have been acceptable to the Lord? After all, the temple of Solomon, which very details plans were given to Solomon by his father, David, said they came from the Lord (1 Chronicles 28:19).
    So where is the remnant or ruins of that building?
    There is no question that the Nephites used heaps of earth to surround the encampments of their armies, where they threw “up banks of earth round about to enclose his armies” (Alma 48:8), and “they had cast up dirt around about to shield them from the arrows and stones of the Lamanites (Alma 49:2,4); and around their cities “he caused that his armies should commence…digging up heaps of earth round about all the cities, throughout all the land which was possessed by the Nephites” (Alma 50:1).
    However, there are numerous scriptural references to non-dirt construction, and non-wood buildings and walls. Such do not disappear without a trace. During BC times in Andean South America, such buildings still exist.

Stonework in Peru dating to about 500 BC. It still stands and is obviously apparent and quite noticeable

So, where are the signs of the many elegant and spacious buildings and the spacious palace (Mosiah 11:9), or the very high tower near the temple (Mosiah 11:12) built in the City of Nephi, or the many buildings built in the land of Shilom (Mosiah 11:13)?
    While we are at it, where are the walls that surrounded the city of Zarahemla (Helaman 1:18,22), or the walls of the prison that tumbled down (wood fences don’t tumble down) in Zarahemla (Helaman 5:27,31), or the walls of Zarahemla that Samuel the Lamanite “stood upon the walls of the city” (you don’t stand on a wood fence) in preaching to the Nephites (Helaman 13:4; 16:1,2,7)?
    Where are the “walls of stone to encircle them about, round about their cities and the borders of their lands” (Alma 48:8)? Where are the “ruins of buildings of every kind” (Mosiah 8:8) that marked the great cities and vast civilization of the Jaredites?
    The point is, there is not a single piece of evidence of any of these scriptural descriptions of the vast civilizations that inhabited the Land of Promise. Only mounds are found on the land of North America. Mounds that for the most part were for the burial of the dead—a practice that was in opposition to the Law of Moses and the practice of the Hebrews in Jerusalem (and everywhere else) anciently, who placed their dead in caves, tombs, and catacombs.
    The mounds claimed to have been defensive by theorists, are low, and do not “enclose” people, but were built in order to raise an area where huts were placed upon the top—nothing like that was mentioned in all the scriptural record.

Top: The Monk’s Mound, built in 900 AD, 500 years after the demise of the Nephites, and is the largest mound at the Cahokia site in Illinois a little east of Nauvoo. It is neither a burial mound, nor a decorative mound and evidently had no purpose other than there being a small wooden structure on the top. It neither is like nor matches anything in the scriptural record; Bottom: View from Monk’s Mound looking east across Illinois showing the flat plains

 

In fact, both the Land Northward and the Land Southward were inhabited by millions of people according to the numbers stated in the scriptural record, yet in North America there is not a single sign of any vast civilization of antiquity found anywhere—only mounds of earth, which were unknown in both Jerusalem from which the Mulekites came, and about Jerusalem from which Lehi came, or in Mesopotamia from which the Jaredites came.

The city of Babylon as viewed in 1932 before any renovation work took place. This was built sometime around that of the Jaredites, and was in the land from wench they came

It is always interesting to see how Heartland and other North American theorists always ignore the structures mentioned in the scriptural record that both the Jaredites and Nephites built. Rather than Jared and his brother coming from a start-up society, where building with sticks and thatch was the order of the day, the Jaredites lived in a land where massive ziggurats were built, where stone walls and adobe brick buildings several stories high were built. It is highly unlikely they would have entered their promised land and built with twigs and thatch, which was the early construction of those indigenous natives who first inhabited North America.

Ruins of the North Palace of King Nebuchadnezzar that was built in Lehi’s time and has not been refurbished or reconstructed—it still stands and is very noticeable; the ancient city wall is in the far background and badly in need of repair but also stands (about 3000 years now)

Nor can it be said that Nephi and Sam, living on the outskirts of Jerusalem in 600 BC, would have been unfamiliar with a type of construction of which Nephi writes about in what he taught his people regarding building, and the temple he constructed.

    The fact that no such edifices nor the remains of any such, as well as stone walls surrounding cities and the land, have ever been found in North America, should give pause to any Heartland, Great Lakes or eastern U.S. theorists.