An Archaeological Perspective on the Book of Mormon - Ammonihah

After successful missions in Gideon and Melek, Alma traveled to the city of Ammonihah.  He had heard that there was great apostasy in the land.  When he arrived, he found things to be even worse than he expected.  The people, who were for the most part descendent of Mulek, had created their own church.  This church was very liberal to the point of licentious.  There hearts and heads were hardened.

The Book of Mormon describes conditions in Ammonihah this way:
Now Satan had gotten great hold upon the hearts of the people of the city of Ammonihah; therefore they would not hearken unto the words of Alma.  Nevertheless Alma labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in might prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in the city; that he would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance.

Nevertheless, they hardened their hearts, saying unto him: Behold, we know that thou art Alma; and we know that thou art high priest over the church which thou hast established in many parts of the land, according to your tradition; and we are not of thy church, and we do not believe in such foolish traditions.  And now we know that because we are not of thy church we know that thou hast no power over us; and thou hast delivered up the judgment-seat unto Nephihah; therefore thou art not the chief judge over us.

 

Now when the people had said this, and withstood all his words, and reviled him, and spit upon him, and caused that he should be cast out of their city, he departed thence . . . (Alma 8: 9-13)

In other words, "You're not the boss of me and I don't have to listen to you!"

 

Where is Ammonihah?

 

Note that Ammonihah is north of Zarahemla (map not to scale. Mirador
is farther north and east, closer to the Yucatan than show here.) 
The areas in green noted as strips of wilderness correspond with the
Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range show
on the topographical map earlier in the week.

 

The Book of Mormon tells us that it took Alma three days to travel from Melek to Ammonihah, probably about 50 or 60 miles, in a northwardly direction.  Therefore, we should find evidence of a city about that distance from Melek/Frailesca.  There is such evidence in abundance.

 

Carving from the largest pyramid in Mirador - said to be
one of the largest pyramids in the world.

Sorensen says this about the probable location of Ammonihah: From Frailesca such a trip would have brought him to the archaeological site of Mirador, a major regional center of western Chiapas . . . Its thirty major mounds are impressively concentrated in an area about 400 meters on a side.  This place was prominent enough to justify the pride of the Ammonihahites in its importance.  The cultural connections with Zarahemla/Santa Rosa area were definite though not intimate, the same relationship implied in the Ammonihah people's guardedly hostile response to Alma's message. (An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, p 201)

 

Archaeological research in Mirador show that it was an important city in Alma's day.  It was on a major trade route from Chiapas to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.  According to Sorensen: One tomb contained remnants of two ancient bark paper books or codices.  These are the only definite books recovered so far in Mesoamerican excavations [as of 1996. - p 201]

 

The site of Mirador is in a beautiful valley, almost bowl-shaped.  This supports the Book of Mormon description that people came up out of Ammonihah or went down into Ammonihah.

 

Alma went down into Ammonihah to preach repentance to the people.  The people soundly rejected him.  In sorrow, he came up out of Ammonihah and headed to the City of Aaron, but someone intervened.  We'll discuss who the someone was tomorrow.

 

Text copyright August 2013, Gebara Education

 

Pictures

Temple from www.skyscraperpage.com

People reject Alma from www.lds.org

Map from www.poulsenll.net

Temple relief carving from www.mysterycasebook.com

Waterfall at Mirado from www.inchiapas.com