The Hill Cumorah

This page is based on an answer to a question submitted to the FAIR web site, or a frequently asked question.

Question

"While trying to finish the Book of Mormon by year end, I read Mormon chapter 6, which describes the last great battle at the hill of Cumorah. Assuming the chapter is pretty much a literal description of what happened — approximately 100 thousand were killed by swords and axes — why hasn't any evidence of the battle been found at the site the Church identifies as hill Cumorah in western New York state?"

Answer

There are a couple of incorrect assumptions in this question.

Where is the hill Cumorah?

First, it is not the case that the Church authoritatively identifies the drumlin in western New York as the same Hill Cumorah mentioned in the text of the Book of Mormon. The Church has consistently made it clear that it does not endorse any particular view of Book of Mormon geography.

While we call the drumlin in New York "Hill Cumorah" based on a usage initiated early in Church history (probably by Oliver Cowdery or W. W. Phelps), that does not necessarily make the two hills the same. Most LDS scholars do not think they are the same, because the New York drumlin does not meet the textual requirements for the geographic placement of the hill in relation to the narrow neck of land.

Also note that the Book of Mormon does not state that the plates of Mormon were buried in the Cumorah; in fact, it says exactly the opposite:

"And it came to pass that when we had gathered in all our people in one to the land of Cumorah, behold I, Mormon...made this record [the plates of Mormon] out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save [except] it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni." (Mormon 6:6)

This took place in approximately A.D. 385. Moroni did not bury the plates of Mormon until A.D. 421. During this 36-year period Moroni explained:

"[The Lamanites] put to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ. And I, Moroni, will not deny the Christ; wherefore, I wander whithersoever I can for the safety of mine own life." (Moroni 1:3)

During that 36-year wandering to escape the Lamanites, it seems likely that he would have traveled a great distance, eventually coming to modern New York state where he buried the plates.

Large population counts in the scriptures

A second questionable premise is that the numbers recited in the text should be understood as accurate in the same sense we would understand those numbers today. Ancient militaristic texts, including those of the Bible, frequently exaggerated the numbers involved in battle for their own propagandistic purposes, or to simply convey the general concept of 'a very large number'. Very large numbers in the scriptures should always be taken with a grain of salt, since ancient authors (having their own purposes and approach) did not use such terms with the same precision as a modern military historian.

It has also been noted that "so-and-so and his 10,000" may use the term "10,000" as a designation for a millitary unit. Roman armies had "centuries" (or centuria) which were lead by a "centurian," which implies a hundred men. While such units originally had 100 men, the normal size of such units (even at full strength) was only 60–80 men.^[1]

Interestingly, at the time of the Spanish Conquest, Bernal Diaz described Tlascalan armies in the same terms:

Of the followers of the old Xicotenga . . . there were ten thousand; of another great chief named Moseescaci there were another ten thousand; of a third, who was called Chichimecatecle, there were as many more...^[2]

Without further information, it is difficult to know whether the Book of Mormon uses the term literally, in a symbolic/propagandist sense to convey a great number of dead, or as a technical millitary term familiar to Mormon and Moroni but opaque to the modern reader.

Endnotes

1. [note] A. Brent Merrill, "Nephite Captains and Armies," in Ricks and Hamblin, eds., Warfare in the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1990), 270. Reference cited is Graham Webster, The Roman Imperial Army (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1969). GL direct link
2. [note] Bernal Diaz del Castillo, The Bernal Diaz Chronicles, trans. and ed. A. Idell (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1956), 161–162, 110, 103; cited in John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Co. ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1996 [1985]), 263. GL direct link

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

• Book of Mormon archeology
• Book of Mormon demographics

FAIR web site

• FAIR Topical Guide: Book of Mormon Geography