{"id":18512,"date":"2015-03-08T11:52:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-08T17:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=18512"},"modified":"2015-03-08T11:52:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-08T17:52:24","slug":"this-find-has-nothing-whatever-to-do-with-the-book-of-mormon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/03\/this-find-has-nothing-whatever-to-do-with-the-book-of-mormon.html","title":{"rendered":"This find has nothing whatever to do with the Book of Mormon."},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18513\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18513\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/03\/800px-Mayaruins_maps1.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18513\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/03\/800px-Mayaruins_maps1-300x220.jpg\" alt=\"A map (now perhaps out of date?) of Maya domains in Mesoamerica Click to enlarge.\" width=\"300\" height=\"220\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18513\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A map (now perhaps out of date?) of Maya domains in Mesoamerica<br>Click to enlarge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, it does suggest that the history of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica isn\u2019t yet perfectly known, and that the archaeological record isn\u2019t yet complete:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2015\/mar\/06\/archaeologists-find-two-lost-cities-deep-in-honduras-jungle?CMP=share_btn_fb\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2015\/mar\/06\/archaeologists-find-two-lost-cities-deep-in-honduras-jungle?CMP=share_btn_fb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Heck, <em>I<\/em> could have told you <em>that<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s true even of the Middle East \u2014 which is far better documented, quite a bit better\u00a0known, topographically easier \u2014 so how could it not be so of the Americas?<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>My experience in Mesoamerica is quite limited. \u00a0But I\u2019ve spent some time at archaeological digs there, and paddling along rivers and walking through jungles to get to them, and camping there beside rivers whose water rose so rapidly that we had to abandon our campsite, and so forth. \u00a0It\u2019s quite different from the mostly \u201cclean\u201d and clear deserts of the Middle East, where \u201ctells\u201d or archaeological mounds are sometimes visible from a distance, at first glance.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Mesoamericanists with whom I\u2019ve spoken tell of excavating a building one year, and then having to re-excavate it the next year because the trees had overgrown their site in the intervening months. \u00a0Once or twice, we walked within ten or fifteen feet of a small pyramid, which would have passed unnoticed had our guide not pointed it out to us. \u00a0I can easily understand the people in the Book of Mormon (particularly in Mosiah) who go out into the wilderness and get completely lost.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Several people have brought this article to my attention, and I thank them. \u00a0I\u2019d thank them by name, except that I can\u2019t remember all of those who wrote to me about it and I don\u2019t want to leave anybody out. \u00a0(So, to be equal, I leave <em>everybody<\/em> out!)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Posted from Monterey, California<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 However, it does suggest that the history of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica isn\u2019t yet perfectly known, and that the archaeological record isn\u2019t yet complete: \u00a0 http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2015\/mar\/06\/archaeologists-find-two-lost-cities-deep-in-honduras-jungle?CMP=share_btn_fb \u00a0 Heck, I could have told you that. \u00a0 It\u2019s true even of the Middle East \u2014 which is far better documented, quite a bit better\u00a0known, topographically easier [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>This find has nothing whatever to do with the Book of Mormon.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; However, it does suggest that the history of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica isn&#039;t yet perfectly known, and that the archaeological record\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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