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I was in Manchester, New York, a few years ago for my brother's wedding. While out sightseeing with some family, we stopped by Hill Cumorah, where Joseph Smith allegedly found the Golden Plates. The land is owned by the Mormon Church, of course, and is set up as a museum and a meditation garden.
According to the Book of Mormon, Moroni stood on that very hill and watched as the last of the Nephites were slaughtered in a great battle. It was on that hill that Moroni wrote down the last of his account, added it to the other golden plates, and hid what would become the Book of Mormon. I got to thinking.... Battlefields around the world have been excavated, and lots and lots of evidence of the battle has been recovered even millennia after the fact: buckles from sandals lost in the fray, metal arrow heads, coins, bits of armor, broken weapons, bits and pieces from chariots that had been destroyed, carbon left from camp fires and funeral pyres. So when we got back to the museum after walking around a bit, I asked one of the docents that very question. He hemmed and hawed. I pointed out that a vast battle such as the one described in the Book of Mormon would have left some evidence, seeing as it occured only about 1300 years ago. If this really was the Holy Hill of the LDS Church, and if the Book of Mormon is actual fact as claimed, the area should be rife with irrefutable archaeological evidence of the BoM's accuracy as a historical document.
He finally admitted that, to his knowledge (and he had earlier admitted to having been a caretaker of the farm for more than twenty years) there had never been any kind of archaeological work done at the site.
I would think that, if there was ever any meaningful work done, it would have been done there.
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