Archaeology & Anthropology
To discover archaeological evidence of the Book of Mormon, we have to look in the right place. Like the Bible, the Book of Mormon does not give specific directions or locations. Imagine trying to figure out where biblical events took place if all you had was the Bible, but no modern place names.
For the Bible, places such as Egypt and Jerusalem have been continuously inhabited, so we can tell where these places are today. Because the Book of Mormon relates the history of a people in America whose records and civilization were destroyed, we don't have continuously inhabited locations that retained the same place names.
This is why the Hill Cumorah in western New York is so important. It is the only place identified by the prophets both anciently and in modern times. Everything else, in terms of archaeology, must be derived from that.
Without Cumorah as a "pin in the map," people can interpret the text of the Book of Mormon to describe just about anywhere on earth, both in terms of geography and the culture described. This explains the great variety of proposed settings for the Book of Mormon.
However, the opening chapters of the Book of Mormon describe settings in the Middle East, including Jerusalem by name and sites in Saudi Arabia by implication, such as Salalah, Oman.
Photos of Salalah are here.
The Newark Earthworks
[Text from the poster]
Two thousand years ago, people came to this place to meet, to reflect, to worship and to celebrate. They came not once but many times over the course of their lives. People they may have known had moved more than seven million cubic feet of earth – one basket load at a time – into set of perfect geometric shapes spread over more tan four square miles.
The shapes include two circles, an oval, a square, and an octagon connected by sets of parallel walls. When they were built, they were the largest set of connected earthworks in the world. Today they are called the Newark Earthworks, -- a National Historic Landmark, Ohio’s official prehistoric monument, and a powerful testimony to the accomplishments of the people who lived here between 100 BC and AD 400. The earthworks continue to be a sacred site to American Indians.
National Great Rivers Museum
The US Army Corps of Engineers manages the Mississippi River. The museum explains the history of the works along the Mississippi, along with information and artifacts about the ancient inhabitants of the area.
The images below show some of the exhibits in the museum.