Archaelogy ~ La Rosa ~ Zarahemla

So the Nephites under King Mosiah traveled from their mountain valley in Guatemala, through the "narrow strip of wilderness" and found the people of Mulek living along the River Sidon.  The Mulekites were excited to see them because they had the brass plates, the record of the Jews, and the Mulekites were Jews who fled Jerusalem with the infant son of their king.  The current leader of the Mulekites was a man named Zarahemla and the people had named their settlement Zarahemla in his honor.

What the Book of Mormon Says:

And at the time that Mosiah discovered them, they had become exceedingly numerous. Nevertheless, they had had many wars and serious contentions, and had fallen by the sword from time to time; and their language had become corrupted; and they had brought no records with them; and they denied the being of their Creator . . . And it came to pass that the people of Zarahemla, and of Mosiah, did unite together; and Mosiah was appointed to be their king. (Omni 1: 17-19)

The Mulekites chose to have the Nephite, Mosiah, serve as their king because the Nephites had a higher level of civilization than the they and because the Nephites had written records that preserved the culture and religion.  Despite that, each group still had its own "family" neighborhoods, separate within the city (remember that these were tribal people, both from the concept of tribes in ancient Israel and the tribal systems of the new world; Mulekites were the tribe of Judah and Nephites were the tribe of Joseph.)

 

The city of Zarahemla became the central point of Nephite culture from that point on.  In order to get information about the location and features of the city, one must look at many references over many years of the Book of Mormon story.  I won't write all the disparate quotes that lead scholars to the following conclusions, but would like to share those conclusions.  In a nutshell, Zarahemla was

• Along the west bank of a large river that the Nephites called the Sidon
• Separated from the old land of Nephi by a "narrow strip of wilderness" so mountainous and wild that it discouraged invasion from the south, yet dense enough that when invaders finally did come, they were almost upon the city before they were sighted
• Having a very narrow area for farming along the west and east banks of the river (Sorensen estimates about one half mile wide at the widest.)
• A major center for trade to the outlying villages
• Separated into two distinct groups within the city

Is there such a place?

What Archaeology Says:

There are two large rivers with headwaters in the mountains of Guatemala that flow into the valleys of south-central Mexico: the Usumacinta and the Grijalva (or Rio de Chiapas.)  Peterson favors the Grijalva as being the most likely candidate for the Sidon and there is a certain amount of agreement for that point of view.  I will be using this for my point of view unless otherwise noted.

The largest archaeological site on the upper Grijalva in an appropriate position to qualify as Zarahemla is Santa Rosa [in the Mexican state of Chiapas.] . . . By 1974 the site had been inundated by waters backed up nearly 70 miles behind the Argostura Dam. [1]

The archaeological sequence at Santa Rosa is interesting in terms of the Book of Mormon, although the findings will always remain incomplete because the site is now underwater.  Major public construction in the form of what seems to have been "temple" or "palace" foundation mounds started on a modest scale at approximately 300 BC.  That coincided with the growth in population, which produced the "city" of Zarahemla that Mosiah's party encountered [in 210 BC] . . . Around 100 BC, a spurt in the city's prosperity is evident and a large number of major public structures were erected . . . Santa Rosa become [one of] the largest, most significant [cities*] in the Grijalva basin just at the time when Zarahemla is reported by the Book of Mormon as becoming a regional center. [2]

[1] Sorensen, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, pp. 152-3
[2] Ibid. p. 155
* The other being Chapa de Corzo, which I will discuss in a later posting.

Text from the Book of Mormon and John L. Sorensen, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon. 

 

Additional text copyright July 2013, Gebara Education

 

Pictures:

Map www.ancientamerica.org

Grijalva River www.geolocation.ws

Lake behind the Agostura Dam www.flickr.com