Meldrum’s 14 Factors Claiming Proof of an Apalachicola, Florida, landing site for Lehi – Part VI

Continued from the previous post regarding an evaluation of Meldrum’s 14 factors, and why a voyage around Africa for Lehi and a landing in Florida is ill-founded. The first 10 factors were posted in the earlier articles, here we continue below with Meldrum’s 11^th Factor:

11. Same Land as Jaredites: [Cumorah and Ramah]

Separation of Land Southward and Land Northward

 

The Land of Promise given to Lehi contained two main parts or regions—the Land Southward and the Land Northward. While the Nephites later occupied the entire Land of Promise, the Jaredites occupied only the Land Northward for their 1400 years in the land, ending about the time Lehi arrived far to the south. Therefore, any Land of Promise location must be the “same land as the Jaredites.”

As for Ramah—the Hill Cumorah mentioned in the Book of Mormon was called “Ramah” by the Jaredites. The mistake Meldrum and almost all theorists make is that the Hill Cumorah where both the Nephites and Jaredites met their end, is not the same hill as the one where Joseph Smith obtained the plates. The connection most theorists and members make is they believe Moroni said he was going to bury the plates in the hill Cumorah after the final battle that left him the lone Nephite in the Land of Promise. It seems obvious to those who think this, because it was Moroni who showed Joseph Smith where the plates were buried in the hill in Palmyra where Joseph obtained the plates. Since these were the only two events where a “hill Cumorah” is mentioned historically, it seems to be a perfect and inarguable fit.

However, two circumstances keep this point of view from being inarguable: 1) The fact that Moroni never said where he was going to bury the plates, only that “I seal up these records, after I have spoken a few words by way of exhortation unto you” (Moroni 10:2); “Therefore I will write and hide up the records in the earth; and whither I go it mattereth not” (Mormon 8:4, emphasis added).

Obviously, he does not mention where he would bury the records other than in the ground. Since Moroni would have been on the run, avoiding the Lamanites who sought his life and would have killed him; he was probably hiding out where circumstances allowed, moving (likely at night) when it seemed prudent. Moroni would have been in this process when he wrote Mormon 8:4 and Moroni 10:2. At that time, it is likely he had no idea where he would be when he finished his record.

Putting the plates into the ground

 

While we may never know if Moroni buried the plates during his mortal ministry or as an angel, the fact that he could have brought the plates from elsewhere to the hill in New York is not incompatible with Joseph’s retrieval of the record from a hill on the family farm—a rather non-descript hill that is gently rounded from side to side, and low enough (about 90-feet high) to provide no protection whatsoever from being attacked from the front and the back simultaneously. This is hardly compatible with Mormon’s comment that “We did march forth to the land of Cumorah, and we did pitch our tents around about the hill Cumorah; and it was in a land of many waters, rivers, and fountains; and here we had hope to gain advantage over the Lamanites” (Mormon 6:4, emphasis added).

Whatever advantage Mormon hoped for would have required a hill or mountain to their rear that could not be easily climbed and crossed to attack the Nephites from the rear, while they were battling a frontal attack by the Lamanites.

2) There is no record or inference when and where Moroni said he would eventually put the Plates, other than “in the ground” and “when he had finished them.” The time between the battle at Cumorah (385 AD) and when Moroni finished the plates (421 AD) was 36 years. To believe Moroni spent all that time at Cumorah is unrealistic. In fact, he seems to make that quite clear when he said: “Now I, Moroni, after having made an end of abridging the account of the people of Jared, I had supposed not to have written more, but I have not as yet perished; and I make not myself known to the Lamanites lest they should destroy me” (Moroni 1:1). Moroni could have “not made himself known” by moving from one place to another—likely fleeing the area of Cumorah where some 300,000 Lamanites were first celebrating, then warring.

Celebrating Lamanites after their decisive victory over the Nephites at Cumorah

 

Obviously, at the conclusion of the war, the Lamanites most certainly would have spent some time in the area of their greatest victory, reveling, celebrating, rejoicing and whooping it up. It was likely at this time that the unquenched blood lust fighting between tribal groupings began, which quickly resulted in the civil wars. As Moroni stated: “the Lamanites are at war one with another; and the whole face of this land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed; and no one knoweth the end of the war (Mormon 8:8).

Where was Moroni when he put the plates in the ground? It is unknown. Certainly where the plates ended up in the nondescript hill in Palmyra 1700 years later is no assurance that they had been in that hill all that time. After all, Joseph Smith did not rebury the plates in the stone box as they had been when he obtained them—the room in which he placed the plates was filled with all sorts of Nephite records stacked around the room and beneath the table. And that room was some form of vision in which Joseph and Oliver Cowdery had of a place that was elsewhere since no cave or open space could exist in a moraine hill.

12. Food prehistoric people needed: Deer, small mammals, Turtles. Bison, Mammoths, Bear, Elk further north

First of all, the word prehistoric means that period before written records. There were written records at the time of the Jaredites (the Bible) and at the time of the Nephites (Bible and Book of Mormon, Brass Plates, etc.) 

Six of the main historical writing systems; Left: Sumerian (pictographs), Egyptian (hieroglyphs), Chinese (ideograms); Right: Old Persian (cuneiform), Roman (alphabet), Indian Devangari (script)

 

In fact, according to David Wengrow, a British archaeologist and Professor of Comparative Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, writing was independently developed in at least three ancient civilizations: Mesopotamia, between 3400 and 3100 BC; Egypt, around 3250 BC; and China, 1200 BC (David Wengrow, “The Invention of Writing in Egypt,” in Before the Pyramids: Origin of Egyptian Civilization, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, 2011, pp99-103).

The point is, neither the Jaredites nor the Nephites were prehistoric civilizations.

As for the Jaredites food, they came from Mesopotamia around the year 2000 BC, which had a civilization that not only built the tower, but assembled thousands of people to work on it; in addition, at the time other cities beside Babylon were also constructed: Erech, Akkad, and Calneh, in Shinar (Genesis 10:10). In fact, Daniel, living at the time Lehi left Jerusalem, had in Babylon a diet of animal products, but lapsed into eating only Jewish food of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and oil—food available in both Jerusalem and Babylonia. Neither civilization was dependent on wild animals for food.

It might also be of interest to know that the animals Meldrum mentioned as being available in North America, there were compensatory animals for food in Andean Peru, such as the Alpaca and Llama, Pudú (small deer), Bear, Maned Wolf, Cougar (Puma), Jaguar, Giant Otter, Anteater, Armadillo, Chinchilla, Chickens (before the Spanish), Duck, Guinea Pig, Penguin, Kinkajou, and others. In addition, Peru has the world’s most birds, including flightless birds like quail, tinamou, and others.

(See the next post, “Meldrum’s 14 Factors Claiming Proof of an Apalachicola, Florida, landing site for Lehi – Part VII,” regarding an evaluation of Meldrum’s 14 factors, and why a voyage around Africa for Lehi and a landing in Florida is ill-founded)