Archaeological Evidence of the Nephite Retreat

Are there evidences in the archaeological records of the Nephites of Zarahemla (Santa Rosa; Chiapas) fleeing to the north?  In fact, there are. 

In the Pre-Classic Period, there had been some cultural links between Chiapas Valley and areas to the south and west.  By about 50 B.C., those ties were gone.  According to Sorenson, the cultural links from then on were with the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and beyond to what is now south-central Veracruz, MX.  As they moved into the early Classic Period, settlements in Chiapas were abandoned, one after another.  Sorenson writes: When the Early Classic Chiapas people did disappear from their settlements, it was a wholesale abandonment.  Many archaeological sites of that once-crowded are were simply left empty and not reoccupied form many generations. [1]

While this was happening, Mayan scholars note, the area known today as Kaminaljuyu in Guatemala was regaining much of its former glory.  You may recall that LDS scholars believe Kaminaljuyu to be the City of Nephi, a Lamanite stronghold since the days of the first King Mosiah.  A strong trade connection also developed around this time between the land of Teotihuacan* and Kaminaljuyu.  This connection may have been facilitated by the connections built by the Gadianton robbers, the primary secret combination/cartel of the day.  It was known that much of their power came from secret trade agreements.  The people of Teotihuacan were known to be a fierce people who kept firm control of their trade routes.  This, too, could describe the cartel of Gadianton.

Sorenson writes of this cultural connection by stating that the Lamanites in Nephi/Kaminaljuyu would have been organized and equipped better than former Lamanites had been in their attacks on their hereditary enemy, the Nephites.  This picture gets support from the archaeological data at Mirador [Ammonihah].  It turns out that the invaders who looted and burned there, arriving on the heels of the populace abandoning the site, displayed a mixture of Guatemalan [Kaminaljuyu/Nephi] and Teotihuacan traditions . . . about A. D. 350, as I analyze the chronology.[2]

[1] John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, pg. 341
[2] Ibid. pg. 342

* Some LDS Scholars believe that Teotihuacan was originally settled by those converted Lamanites who had moved northward many years to avoid putting the Nephites (who were righteous at that time) from having to defend them from the Lamanites.  They, in turn, were driven further northward by the onslaught of the Gadiantons.  Teotihuacan means the place where men become gods.  LDS author Chris Heimerdinger once wrote that perhaps these were first men who sought to be God-like (Christ-like) in their demeanor and later populated by men who sought to turn themselves into gods.

A few scholars believe these peaceful Lamanites settled eventually in Las Casas Grande in Northern Mexico and, later still, in the pueblos of the American Southwest.  I don't know that their is any archaeological evidence of such a thing, but it is an interesting hypothesis since the pueblo peoples are traditionally pacifist.

Copyright January 2014, Gebara Education

Pictures:

Armies of Mormon from www.lds.org

Kaminaljuyu from www.es.touristlink.com

Teotihuacan from www.blog.world-mysteries.com