FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Source:Echoes:Ch9:14:New World archaelogy: Hagoth
Book of Mormon "Hits": Hagoth
Book of Mormon "Hits": Hagoth
Hagoth is reported to have built ships and sent explorers northward from a spot on the coast of the west sea "by the narrow neck of land" (see Alma 63:5–6). The time was shortly before the birth of Christ. This is the only instance in Book of Mormon history when mention is made of shipbuilding and exploring by sea in the Nephites' promised land. It so happens that on the west-sea side (Pacific) of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which qualifies on many criteria as the narrow neck of land, there are a pair of large, placid lagoons, over thirty miles long. They could have provided a sheltered place not only to construct Hagoth's ships but also to master their use. In the mountains overlooking the lagoons, the Spaniards long afterward located timber that they found ideal for their own shipbuilding purposes. Also, it is generally agreed by Mesoamericanists that over a period of many centuries large seagoing rafts (de facto "ships") from Ecuador actually came up the Pacific coast to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and beyond on trading expeditions.69 No other spot north of Panama fits the Hagoth story as well as the Pacific coast "by the narrow neck of land."[1]
Notes
- ↑ John L. Sorenson, "How Could Joseph Smith Write So Accurately about Ancient American Civilization?," in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, edited by Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2002), Chapter 9, references silently removed—consult original for citations.