The Book of Mormon people and locations in the world? Where were they?

[curious_mormon]

I'm just curious, Where did the Nephites, Lamanates, Amnicites, etc.. and all those people in the Book of Mormon Stories lived?

Where was their location? Was it in the America's? If they did live in the Americas, did they leave any ancient artifacts, etc?

[MrShorty]

It's a good question, and one that can generate some heated answers.

I don't know, and I have not studied all of the different theories about BoM geography. I do know that there are a few competing theories. (as I say, sometimes these discussions get heated among those who strongly believe in one theory over another). Nothing concrete to support any of them. I would venture to say that, the only locations from the BoM that we can definitively locate now:

1) Jerusalem, where Lehi's family began their journey.

2) Moroni called the Hill in upstate NY "Cumorah", where he buried the plates.

[zil]

As the book says, Lehi, et al, left Jerusalem and traveled a bit by land before taking to a ship.  Per modern revelation, they ended up in the Americas.  Anything beyond that is speculation.  One explanation for why we don't have evidence of cities everywhere can be derived from Helaman chapter 3, which gives implicit evidence of their preferred building material.

Note: There were also the Jaredites and Mulekites who came separately to the Americas.

[HiJolly]

13 hours ago, MrShorty said:

It's a good question, and one that can generate some heated answers.

I don't know, and I have not studied all of the different theories about BoM geography. I do know that there are a few competing theories. (as I say, sometimes these discussions get heated among those who strongly believe in one theory over another). Nothing concrete to support any of them. I would venture to say that, the only locations from the BoM that we can definitively locate now:

1) Jerusalem, where Lehi's family began their journey.

2) Moroni called the Hill in upstate NY "Cumorah", where he buried the plates.

I question #2. Where did Moroni call the Hill in upstate NY "Cumorah"?

[Just_A_Guy]

9 minutes ago, HiJolly said:

I question #2. Where did Moroni call the Hill in upstate NY "Cumorah"?

@HiJolly, just wanted to say it's good to see you posting again. 

[MrShorty]

15 minutes ago, HiJolly said:

I question #2. Where did Moroni call the Hill in upstate NY "Cumorah"?

You caught me in my sloppiness. I think you are correct, Moroni never actually called the hill where Joseph uncovered the plates "Cumorah". Mormon mentions a Cumorah where he hid up the records, but our record does not explicitly say that this is the same Cumorah as the hill where Joseph received the plates.

Perhaps just another example of how questions around BoM geography are difficult to really pin down.

[HiJolly]

10 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

@HiJolly, just wanted to say it's good to see you posting again. 

Thanks, JAG. I love to discuss almost all things 'Mormon', but I have to step away, sometimes, just for sanity's sake.

[omegaseamaster75]

14 hours ago, curious_mormon said:

I'm just curious, Where did the Nephites, Lamanates, Amnicites, etc.. and all those people in the Book of Mormon Stories lived?

They all started in Jerusalem.

14 hours ago, curious_mormon said:

Where was their location? Was it in the America's? 

Somewhere in the americas

14 hours ago, curious_mormon said:

If they did live in the Americas, did they leave any ancient artifacts, etc?

Not that I am aware of.

[Guest MormonGator]

14 hours ago, MrShorty said:

It's a good question, and one that can generate some heated answers.

LDS are brothers and sisters and we should treat each other as such. With this issue, the gloves come off and it's a bare knuckle brawl! I'm like "Can we talk about something that isn't controversial? Like gay marriage?!" 

[curious_mormon]

On 9/19/2016 at 1:27 PM, MormonGator said:

LDS are brothers and sisters and we should treat each other as such. With this issue, the gloves come off and it's a bare knuckle brawl! I'm like "Can we talk about something that isn't controversial? Like gay marriage?!" 

Ah, gay marriage...God made Adam and Eve. Not Adam and Steve. hehehe

[Traveler]

On ‎9‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 8:58 PM, curious_mormon said:

I'm just curious, Where did the Nephites, Lamanates, Amnicites, etc.. and all those people in the Book of Mormon Stories lived?

Where was their location? Was it in the America's? If they did live in the Americas, did they leave any ancient artifacts, etc?

There is no revelation that specifically locates any place of the Book of Mormon in this hemisphere.  There are some that believe the Hill Cumorah in upstate New York is the same spoken of the in the Book or Mormon but this is not definite.  In addition there is no archeological artifacts known that specifically identifies something in the Book of Mormon.

The lack of empirical evidence has many worried but I would point out that as far as archeological evidence that only about 1% or the known ancient ruins that could be tied to the Book of Mormon has been excavated and studied – and that does not account for the many places in the Book of Mormon that were lost to destruction that are unknown or undiscovered (under water or otherwise buried).  What has been discovered since the publication of the Book of Mormon support the notion of advanced civilizations that were influenced by migrations from Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East – as well as some possible migrations from Asia.   

 

The Traveler

[Guest MormonGator]

9 hours ago, curious_mormon said:

Ah, gay marriage...God made Adam and Eve. Not Adam and Steve. hehehe

  There you go. Now go argue about this instead.