Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon Side by Side

By Brant Gardner
Interpreter Foundation Mesoamerica Tour Lecture Series
One of the reasons that many suggest that there is no archaeological evidence for the Book of Mormon is that they are looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. Rather than looking at the archaeology to see what Old World culture might be there, we should look at the Book of Mormon as a text created in a particular time and place, and find within the text where it reflects the times and places of its origin.
As we place the Book of Mormon side by side with what we know of Mesoamerican history, we can see how incidents in the text have been developed within the context of a Mesoamerican culture. That cultural context explains why Nephi’s people desired a king so early in Nephite history, and why the Nephite society ended at the time it did-and not before or after. In between, multiple correspondences with culture, time, and space support the idea that the Book of Mormon was written by authors who lived in a very specific, and reasonably known, culture and time.