Speaking of DNA and the Middle East Tree of Life, Etc.

[JacobSmith]

Speaking of DNA and the Middle East Tree of Life, Etc.

National Geographic Geno 2.0 was given a PC review on 20 Oct 2015. "National Geographic's Geno 2.0 isn't so much about you, but about your ancient ancestors. The scientific-minded will find the results fascinating, while those curious about their own genetic makeup will be disappointed." Preconceived conclusion: [it traces migration patterns back about 200,000 years ago, to Africa, "the cradle of humanity."] [According to National Geographic, nearly everyone born outside of Africa is made up of between one and four percent Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA, and the average for both is 2.1 percent.] Neanderthals or Neandertals became extinct around 40,000 years ago, and by some estimates, Denisova hominin last shared a common ancestor around 1 million years ago.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2490077,00.asp

 IBM and others take up the same tune: "When humans first ventured out of Africa some 60,000 years ago, they left genetic footprints that are still visible today."
http://www.ibm.com/podcasts/howitworks/091806/

So then, we come to the apex of "science", with the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) . . . provides information about biodiversity, the characteristics of different groups of organisms, and their evolutionary history.
http://www.tolweb.org/tree/

However, [The concept of a tree of life is a widespread mytheme or archetype in the world's mythologies, related to the concept of sacred tree more generally, and hence in religious and philosophical tradition.]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life

Here are some images for the Egyptian Tree of Life.
https://www.google.com/search?q=tree+of+life&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwir2NGc76vRAhXGLyYKHbCgB9EQ7AkIXQ&biw=1600&bih=767#tbm=isch&q=tree+of+life&chips=q:tree+of+life,g_2:egyptian

What I see within these images, is the mixing of animals with human forms, etc. I check the List of Egyptian deities for verification.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Egyptian_deities

I look for further insights concerning Egyptian, Deities and Memphis on Pinterest.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/510806782713125888/

I search further for some professional backbone,  using the Pitt Rivers Museum of [archaeological and ethnographic objects from all parts of the world and all time periods. It is truly a global museum. The museum is also a teaching and research institution and the curators are also university lecturers in either cultural anthropology or prehistoric archaeology. A number of degree courses are taught to both graduate and undergraduate studies.]
https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/

Ancient Egyptian Religion.
[For the majority of Ancient Egyptian religious history, the association of an animal with a deity did not make the species sacred nor did it prevent them from being farmed or hunted. However, in later periods some animal species did come to be seen as sacred. Representations of gods and goddesses were created to serve specific functions and the depiction of a deity as an animal was a device to convey attributes of the deity.]
https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/AnimalMummification.html
[There were some however, like Charles Darwin, who had a very different message: Man was but another rung on the evolutionary ladder, and could never hope to raise himself to greater levels of awareness. Darwin’s man-from-mud theory, the idea that life was a chance happenstance resulting from a chain reaction in a sea of ammonia, soon took hold in the scientific community. Ironically, however, that very same theory may be traced to an ancient Egyptian myth wherein man was seen as emerging from a primordial ocean.]
http://www.whatisscientology.org/html/Part01/Chp02/pg0060.html

A new view of the tree of life . . .
[Molecular methods dramatically broadened the diversity that could be included in the tree because they circumvented the need for direct observation and experimentation by relying on sequenced genes as markers for lineages. Gene surveys, typically using the small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA) gene, provided a remarkable and novel view of the biological world, but questions about the structure and extent of diversity remain. Organisms from novel lineages have eluded surveys, because many are invisible to these methods due to sequence divergence relative to the primers commonly used for gene amplification. Furthermore, unusual sequences, including those with unexpected insertions, may be discarded as artefacts.] Sophisticated doublespeak: We cannot obtain direct primary evidence; findings different from preconceptions are discarded.
http://www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol201648

I have come to the conclusion that the DNA "scientific" Tree of Life, has anti-religious teachings, having nonexistent, animalistic Tree of Life interconnections; which, from a genealogical research standpoint, can be mapped back into the time of Ancient Egyptian religious history, in which we, in the modern generations of time, the last days, are to be attached to lower forms of life, due to lack of faith, and be allowed thereby to act out basic instincts, without godliness. This also, inherently, by its teachings and methodologies, denigrates LDS Temple Ordinance Work, Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the New Jerusalem, data in the Doctrine and Covenants, the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., Etc. [Darwin had made his genealogical tree more compelling by associating it to religious themes of unity and continuity. Secularization may have undermined our hopes of eternal life in heaven, yet evolutionary theory has enabled us to see a genetic continuation in our descendants, whether humans or not. The tree of life is dead; long live the tree of life.]
https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2016/apr/19/the-tree-of-life-with-darwin-from-genesis-to-genomics
https://www.facebook.com/notes/thomas-milton-tinney-sr/biblical-genealogies-god-is-all-knowing-evolution-and-big-bang-atheism/160936413942369

REFERENCES: References
http://www.academic-genealogy.com/science.htm#References

Book of Mormon Archaeology Inquiry
http://archive.is/FGoJS

BOOK OF MORMON GENOCIDE WARS: The American Civil War and History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - An American Perspective.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10155057953101424&id=261975771423

EVALUATING BOOK OF MORMON GEOGRAPHY FROM A GENEALOGICAL STANDPOINT
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10201492174961218&id=261975771423

LIGHT THE WORLD WITH A HAPPY NEW YEAR GIFT
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10154951916051424&id=261975771423

MAHOGANY TREES DNA: Establishing Nephite - Lamanite supply sources, for shipbuilding and geographic connectedness; "having a close relationship with other things or people".

Nephites - And I, Nephi, "did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance."
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/5?lang=eng

On the other hand, Lamanites - The Encyclopedia of Mormonism
http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Lamanites
Lamanites lived in the wilderness, in tents, among other places, among trees, forests, etc. Getting back to the basics: [In Yucatán and other parts of rural Mexico, the league is still commonly used in the original sense of the distance that can be covered on foot in an hour, so that a league along a good road on level ground is a greater distance than a league on a difficult path over rough terrain.] In the [English-speaking world, On land, the league was most commonly defined as three miles, though the length of a mile could vary from place to place and depending on the era. At sea, a league was three nautical miles (3.452 miles; 5.556 kilometres).] [One score is a unit of measurement equal to 20 units.]

[Of the Fruits, Trees and Animals that are found at Hispaniola.
Besides these, divers other sorts of trees are natives of this delicious island, that produce very excellent and pleasant fruits. Of these I shall omit to name several, knowing there are entire volumes of learned authors that have both described and searched them with greater attention and curiosity than my own. Notwithstanding, I shall continue to make mention of some few more in particular. Such are the Cedars, which trees this part of the world produces in prodigious quantity. The French nation calls them Acajou; and they find them very useful for the building of ships and canoes) These canoes are like little wherry-boats, being made of one tree only, excavated, and fitted for the sea. They are withal so swift as for that very property they may be called "Neptune's post-horses." The Indians make these canoes without the use of any iron instruments, by only burning the trees at the bottom near the root, and afterwards governing the fire with such industry that nothing is burnt more than what they would have. Some of them have hatchets, made of Hint, wherewith they scrape or pare off whatsoever was burnt too far. And thus, by the sole instrument of fire, they know how to give them that shape which renders them capable of navigating threescore or fourscore leagues with ordinary security.]
http://wap.kellscraft.com/BuckaneersofAmerica/BuccaneersofAmerica06.html

Thus, the Indians, therefore, from records originally published in 1678, were capable of navigating threescore or fourscore leagues with ordinary security, in canoes, or about 207.12 to 276.16 miles .[A nautical mile is a unit of measurement defined as exactly 1852 meters (about 6,076.1 feet or 1.1508 statute miles).] [The shortest distance across the Gulf is about 500 miles between the Mississippi Delta and the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula.]
http://www.gulfmex.org/about-the-gulf/gulf-of-mexico-facts/
Mississippi Mound Builders Images
https://www.google.com/search?q=mississippi+mound+builders&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiUv8ab07HRAhWnhVQKHZT9AsYQsAQIYg&biw=1600&bih=767#tbm=isch&q=mississippi+mound+builders&chips=q:mississippian+mound+builders,g_3:mississippi

[Where do mahogany trees grow?
True mahogany trees, scientific name Swietenia mahogani, are endemic to the humid, tropical environments of the Americas. Mahogany is most abundant in the Amazon basin, parts of Central America and various humid locations in Mexico, such as the Yucatan peninsula. . . .; the natural range of mahogany in Honduras and Haiti. . . . Some mahogany can be found in the extreme southern reaches of Florida . . .]
https://www.reference.com/science/mahogany-trees-grow-6d76ad2c81b66040
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahogany
Verifying the geographic origin of mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King) with DNA-fingerprints [For the database, leaves and/or cambium from 1971 mahogany trees sampled in 31 stands from Mexico to Bolivia were genotyped.]
http://www.fsigenetics.com/article/S1872-4973(12)00136-6/abstract?cc=y=

Encyclopedia of American Indian Contributions to the World
https://books.google.com/books?id=QIFTVWJH3doC&pg=PA161&lpg=PA161&dq=ancient+american+indian+shipbuilding&source=bl&ots=Yd3BHb3V3-&sig=ipjsGnp2uuJ_X7-oJSMI0Y5KPlc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK4aS-mLHRAhVGq1QKHVoUDag4ChDoAQg6MAk#v=onepage&q=ancient%20american%20indian%20shipbuilding&f=false
Mentions [Precontact Indians of both Meso- and South America utilized mahogany for making tools and utensils and as a building material because it was strong and waterproof.] . . . Spanish explorers quickly adapted mahogany . . . for shipbuilding in 1521 . . .

[Native mariners discovered the Caribbean thousands of years before Columbus arrived. When Spanish ships landed at Guanahani, on October 12, 1492, the Greater Antilles were densely inhabited by diverse Native peoples. Speaking several languages, they lived in independent and self-sufficient communities. Centuries earlier, large Taíno chiefdoms had expanded over several islands, establishing a sphere of influence that extended from Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, through most of Cuba, to the Lesser Antilles. Far from isolating different islands, the Caribbean Sea linked Native communities to one another and allowed for the constant exchange of goods and ideas. Distinctive objects, such as the stone or wood duhos (ceremonial seats) exhibited here, show South American influence, evidence of long-distance links as early as 400 BC to AD 500. The presence of these seats suggests an exchange not simply of goods, but also of specific hierarchical forms of social and political life.]
http://nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/infinityofnations/mesoamerica-caribbean.html
St. Croix, V.I.: Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve (U.S. National Park Service)
https://www.nps.gov/articles/saltriver.htm
Taino ritual seat - 100 Objects British Museum
https://sites.google.com/site/100objectsbritishmuseum/home/taino-ritual-seat
The Connected Caribbean: A socio-material network approach to patterns of homogeneity and diversity in the pre-colonial period
https://books.google.com/books?id=7qJZBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT269&lpg=PT269&dq=amazon+stone+or+wood+duhos+(ceremonial+seats)&source=bl&ots=-ZekFUlUZ5&sig=MW0VZJk4TFw7S8wZ93nVXfVvM7g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJ0Z_d3rLRAhVIwGMKHWWyBMoQ6AEINDAE#v=onepage&q=amazon%20stone%20or%20wood%20duhos%20(ceremonial%20seats)&f=false
Of Ceremonial Stools and Judgment Seats
http://moriancumr.blogspot.com/2009/06/of-ceremonial-stools-and-judgment-seats_16.html

The Buccaneers of America
https://books.google.com/books?id=2Uu8AQAAQBAJ&dq=The+Buccaneers+of+America&source=gbs_navlinks_s
https://books.google.com/books?id=2Uu8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PT20&dq=The+Buccaneers+of+America&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjm_NKNrbHRAhWCxFQKHViLB1YQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Buccaneers%20of%20America&f=false

[A TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE MOST REMARKABLE ASSAULTS COMMITTED OF LATE YEARS UPON THE COASTS OF THE WEST INDIES BY THE BUCCANEERS OF JAMAICA AND TORTUGA (BOTH ENGLISH AND FRENCH)]
http://wap.kellscraft.com/BuckaneersofAmerica/BuccaneersofAmericaContentPage.html

[Our readers living in the present age of highly organized communications with all parts of the globe, cannot sufficiently realize the magnitude of the task undertaken by the first explorers and colonisers of the New Continent, still less the extraordinary rapidity with which the work of exploration and colonisation was carried on by the Spanish and Portuguese, upon means that to us would appear ludicrously inadequate, to the enormous extent of the newly discovered territories. Scant justice has been done by posterity to the enthusiastic energy and perseverance of the natives of the Iberian peninsula, who during the first half of the sixteenth century, at least fifty years in advance of any other European nation, established their rule over the West India Islands, Central and South America, subdued the great and powerful empires of Mexico and Peru, and filled the conquered territories with numerous and flourishing settlements, extending from Florida to the River Plate on the one side, and from California to Chili on the other.]
http://wap.kellscraft.com/BuckaneersofAmerica/BuccaneersofAmerica01.html

Joseph Smith, Jr. translated the record called the Book of Mormon when he was an unlearned young man. President Ezra Taft Benson gave a significant key to understanding the Book of Mormon, when he suggested reading the Book of Mormon, over and over again, from different viewpoints. Read the Book of Mormon from the viewpoint of an unlearned young man; look at it from the standpoint of a little child of god; teachable, uneducated in the things of the world; not like Martin Harris.Sometime in February, (1828) as previously arranged between them, Martin Harris arrived in Harmony from New York; and taking the transcription of characters Joseph had made from the plates, he departed for the city of New York, in order to submit them to men of learning for their inspection, and in order also that they might translate them if they could. It was not a success.
https://www.lds.org/church/news/speaker-gives-new-insights-on-martin-harris-1828-visit-to-charles-anthon?lang=eng

Next, Martin Harris aids in the loss of 116 pages of manuscript.
http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Manuscript,_Lost_116_Pages

Briefly - Two Items:
The course that Lehi traveled from the city of Jerusalem to the place where he and his family took ship, they traveled nearly a south south East direction until they came to the nineteenth degree of North Lattitude, then nearly east to the Sea of Arabia then sailed in a south east direction and landed on the continent of South America in Chile thirty degrees south Lattitude.
http://publications.mi.byu.edu/publications/PreliminaryReports/Scanned%20Set%201/Frederick%20G%20WIlliams%20III,%20Did%20Lehi%20Land%20in%20Chile,%201988.pdf

[W]e read in the Book of Mormon that Jared and his brother came on this continent from the confusion and scattering at the Tower, and lived here more than a thousand years, and covered the whole continent from sea to sea with towns and cities; and that Lehi went down by the Red Sea to the great Southern Ocean, and crossed over to this land, and landed a little south of the Isthmus of Darien [Panama].
http://en.fairmormon.org/Book_of_Mormon/Geography/Statements/Nineteenth_century/Joseph_Smith%27s_lifetime_1842
http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Jaredites

The Sea in the pre-Columbian world : a conference at Dumbarton Oaks, October 26th and 27th, 1974
http://www.worldcat.org/title/sea-in-the-pre-columbian-world-a-conference-at-dumbarton-oaks-october-26th-and-27th-1974/oclc/3294338
Contents: Seaborne contacts between early cultures in lower southeastern United States and Middle through South America / William H. Sears --
Navigators of the winter sun / Johannes Wilbert --
Factors influencing exploitation of marine resources / Elizabeth S. Wing --
Old myths, new myths: the role of sea traders in the development of ancient Maya civilization / Jeremy A. Sabloff --
The Maya and the sea: trade and cult at Tancah and Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico / Arthur G. Miller --
Patterns of maritime trade between south coastal Ecuador and western Mesoamerica, 1500 B.C.-A.D. 600 / Allison C. Paulsen --
Coastal fishermen, merchants, and artisans in pre-Hispanic Peru / Maria Rostworowski de Diez Canseco
It is shown as a reference in: Mesoamericans in Pre‐Spanish South America
https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/sites/default/files/reexploring_62_-_mesoamericans_in_pre-spanish_south_america.pdf

Benson, Elizabeth P., has 92 works in 465 publications in 8 languages and 16,391 library holdings. There is: Adventures in Pre-Columbian studies : essays in honor of Elizabeth P. Benson; dated 2010
Pre-Columbian Society of Washington, D.C.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/adventures-in-pre-columbian-studies-essays-in-honor-of-elizabeth-p-benson/oclc/839045723
http://www.pcswdc.org/
http://www.pcswdc.org/links/

If you really want a Jaredite site to sink your teeth into, go to Poverty Point, a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation; [910-acre site, . . . described as "the largest and most complex Late Archaic earthwork occupation and ceremonial site yet found in North America"; . . . a settlement, a trading center, and/or a ceremonial religious complex.] . . . [The vast majority of artifacts uncovered at Poverty Point are small, baked shapes made of loess, which are usually balls, bicones or ropes, all of which have been described as “Poverty Point Objects” or PPOs. Archaeologists have long debated their uses. They have concluded the fired earth objects were used in cooking, a conclusion reached through experimental archaeology. When placed in earth ovens, the objects were shown to hold heat and aid in cooking food. Stone boiling was an alternate way of heating up food before pottery could withstand the heat. The soil of the lower Mississippian Valley located at Poverty Point does not contain proper pebbles, manufacturing of artificial stones was therefore necessary.]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_Point

[A bicone or dicone (bi- comes from Latin, di- from Greek) is the three-dimensional surface of revolution of a rhombus around one of its axes of symmetry. Equivalently, a bicone is the surface created by joining two congruent right circular cones base-to-base. A bicone has circular symmetry and orthogonal bilateral symmetry.] Cross comparison, from a genealogical research specialist, a professional, generational historian standpoint: [These boats, similar to the ones built four years earlier, are described as "small, and they were light upon the water, even like unto the lightness of a fowl upon the water", with structural integrity such that they were "exceeding tight," top and bottom, entirely leak proof and air-tight ("tight like unto a dish")] . . . [Following the Lord's specifications, the workmen built each boat with just one tight-fitting door, and no window or other opening.] . . . [holes are hacked into that finished structure, one in the top and one in the bottom (because when it flops upside down in stormy seas, the bottom becomes the top).] . . . ["When thou shalt suffer for air thou shalt unstop the hole and receive air."] Answers: The ships were built by construction size and standards, to be as hard as a diamond; approximating a bicone design. The occupants were not turned over, or made to stand on their heads, because the internal portion of the boats were built gyroscopically. Waste removal was done through the tight-fitting door, as necessary, when properly positioned above the water line. [And it came to pass that the brother of Jared, (now the number of the vessels which had been prepared was eight) went forth unto the mount, which they called the mount Shelem, because of its exceeding height, and did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones; and they were white and clear, even as transparent glass . . . behold, the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the stones one by one with his finger. . . . And the Lord saw that the brother of Jared had fallen to the earth; and the Lord said unto him: Arise, why hast thou fallen?] The Lord already knew the answer, but he wanted to talk to the brother of Jared and get his opinion on the matter.  The holes and the lights were made afterwards, because the Lord, the Son of Man, was waiting for the prayerful request. The brother of Jared, even Mahonri Moriancumer, had a problem: "And it came to pass at the end of four years that the Lord came again unto the brother of Jared, and stood in a cloud and talked with him. And for the space of three hours did the Lord talk with the brother of Jared, and chastened him because he remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord." The Lord allowed the colonists to exercise their own free agency and figure things out on their own, until the impossible arrived, and they started asking the Lord again for instructions to get out of their self-created dilemma.] Again, [The soil of the lower Mississippian Valley located at Poverty Point does not contain proper pebbles, manufacturing of artificial stones was therefore necessary.] It follows the pattern of Mahonri Moriancumer making small stones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicone#/media/File:Bicone.svg
https://www.purebeads.com/Other/bead-types-old.htm
http://web.calstatela.edu/curvebank/sphericon2/sphericon2.htm
http://www.mathias.org/steve/sphericons/series.htm
https://www.google.com/search?q=gyroscopically.&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjv5eSGwdjRAhVhqlQKHZY_BtcQsAQIUQ&biw=1600&bih=732#tbm=isch&q=gyroscope
https://www.google.com/search?q=doors+in+the+jaredite+ships&biw=1600&bih=732&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8g53JydjRAhVKziYKHc6pBy8QsAQIIA
http://packham.n4m.org/ships.htm
https://bookofmormonresearch.org/book-of-mormon-criticisms/glowing-stones-in-the-jaredite-barges

Following the trail of transportation and commerce, Native Indian use of Mahogany Trees indicates broader expansive connections in social interrelationships, by shipping, outside the Central American, or Yucatan regions, going up to the Mississippi regions; going down coastal protective areas, principally into the Amazonian rain forests, and points between. Nephi was fully impressed, as he stated so clearly, that the Lamanites and Nephites were going to be in an almost constant state of warfare; like, current tourists, who avoid wilderness areas in northern South America, due to fear of death and destruction from local thieves and robbers. Lamanite Chiefs, or any hostile chief, residing just south of present day Panama, would cut off supply and trade connections for their enemy brothers, who had taken away their ancestor's rights to rule and had absconded with their ancient possessions. So what are Nephite descendants left to do, to carry on trade? Well, they are going to use the Caribbean waterway, to circumvent the narrow neck of land.

The land north of the neck of land, and environs, would have pre-built remains from the Jaredite nation populations. The Jaredite nation populations, filling all of North America, would have encompassed treeless areas, requiring the use of cement and rocks for building materials for housing, fortification, and administrative needs, and thus the patterns brought down from the north and left extant for later general Lamanite / Nephite populations, in Mesoamerica, and used further south, in the Andes mountain ranges. [Some Jaredites, "during great dearth upon the land", began to flee before poisonous serpents, with their flocks "towards the land southward, which was called by the Nephites Zarahemla. And it came to pass that there were many of them which did perish by the way; nevertheless, there were some which fled into the land southward."] Now the land south was also "called Lehi, and the land north was called Mulek, which was after the son of Zedekiah; for the Lord did bring Mulek into the land north, and Lehi into the land south." [Bountiful . . . bordered upon the land which they called Desolation, it being so far northward that it came into the land which had been peopled and been destroyed, of whose bones we have spoken, which was discovered by the people of Zarahemla, it being the place of their first landing.] Identifying the Book of Mormon, as a whole animal elephant, can only be done by describing each separate individual part, as a subset within the total, integrated historical framework. Secularized conclusions, based upon disjointed, objectified theoretical findings, do not have the capacity of presenting the Book of Mormon landscape fully, completely, or correctly, as they glorify man as the central tenant of their research, with no attempt to glorify God.
http://www.josephknew.com/category/jaradites/
http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Jaredites
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/ether/9?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/hel/6.10?lang=eng#9
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/22.30?lang=eng#29

Ancient America: In Notes on American Archaeology
[Page 246 - The Peruvian Civilization - "It may be that all the old American civilizations had a common origin in South America, and that all the ancient Americans whose civilization can be traced in remains found north of the Isthmus came originally from that part of the continent. This hypothesis appears to me more probable than any other I have heard suggested."]
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000091
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7505085
https://books.google.com/books?id=p5ALAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA243&lpg=PA243&dq=roads+in+ancient+america&source=bl&ots=6t4OjbFuoN&sig=d2TP9_ZjLEMdsSuSful31oPBR0o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjD7cWe67rRAhWKqlQKHQC9CeUQ6AEIQTAG#v=onepage&q=roads%20in%20ancient%20america&f=false

Laman and Lemuel, and their posterity, landed and stayed, initially within the North West coastal / mountain ranges of South America; beginnings only; for Nephi and his followers after their second brutal "exodus", fearing death, origins from same area; but, using the Liahona; yes, they moved to unspecified places in or around the Guiana Highland; altered by physical disruptions during the time Christ died. [Thunder, lightning, storm, tempest, and quaking, would have easily disrupted asphalt depositories, oil and gas reserves, into flaming cauldrons of fire and smoke, causing three days of darkness, in which no light could be ignited.] Later migrations of the posterity of Lehi, after 600 B.C.,spreading outward by both the Nephites and Lamanites; for the Nephites, first throughout current Venezuela regions; as well as both branches or groups, into all North and South American areas, from Chile to the Hill Cumorah in New York State.
http://www.hillcumorah.org/

What is said, but is not specifically stated, is that Nephi, as a prophet of God, used the "ball". There is no other way to explain "And after we had journeyed for the space of many days we did pitch our tents." . . . They had "flocks, and herds, and animals of every kind." . . . It was a geographical location that could be protected from a military standpoint. "And I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many swords, lest by any means the people who were now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy us; for I knew their hatred towards me and my children and those who were called my people." The first permanent buildings were built there. "And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, [cement not mentioned] and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance." In other words, with the "ball", they were directed to a land with excellent herds of animals, wood, with mineral deposits that produced iron, copper, bass, steel, gold, silver, and other precious ores which were in great abundance.
http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Liahona

Jacob, the brother of Nephi speaks, About 559-545 B.C. Even with the high birth rate suggested, the city would be of "Nauvoo" vintage.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/6?lang=eng

The first temple built in America after the pre-Noah period and the Jaredite destruction, was built after the manner of those residing in Jerusalem. "And I, Nephi, did build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it could not be built like unto Solomon’s temple. But the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon; and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine." This means that the sanitation system would have been developed in a similar manner after the city of Jerusalem. [A section of the so-called Lower Aqueduct was discovered in the modern-day neighborhood of Umm Tuba, in East Jerusalem, during efforts to construct a new sewer line. The Lower Aqueduct was originally built more than 2,000 years ago by kings in the Hasmonean dynasty, who ruled Judea and its surrounding regions from about 140 B.C. to 37 B.C., and preceded King Herod the Great,] . . . [Other sections of the extensive aqueduct have been uncovered in the past, including in the Armon Ha-Natziv tunnels in the City of David, on the Sherover promenade in southern Jerusalem and around the Sultan's Pool along the west side of Mount Zion in Jerusalem, IAA officials said.]
http://www.livescience.com/50951-ancient-jerusalem-aqueduct-uncovered.html

The Calixtlahuaca Head
http://econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/calix.htm
The article asks: "Even granting the possibility that a Roman ship might have reached the New World 1800 years ago, how could a relic of such a visit have ended up in a barely pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican burial?  This reminds me of my limited understanding of Roman History, acquired as a teenager, while studying Latin at West Carrollton High School, in Ohio. I was taught from an excellent teacher, who believed in the greatness of the Middle East, Southern and Western European cultural capabilities, while at the same time, acquiring from other history classes, the "historical" traditional downplaying of any significantly related achievements from Native American cultures. This is apparent in the given statement: "a Roman ship might have reached the New World". From a genealogical research standpoint, the reasonable answer to the question presents itself, when considering an opposite viewpoint. Turn the ships around. Ancient Native American mariners reaching the Old World, and bringing home to America, the goods and foreigners. This comes from following the trail of transportation and commerce, from an economic, not religious standpoint. If there was an enlightened civilization on the America continents, with river ports, geographical movements, and sea ports, that would allow such consideration. The primary evidence is written in the Book of Mormon. It says: Yes. The Romans had no apparent connectivity to the origins of peoples in the Americas. Conversely, the Jaredites, the Nephites, the Lamanites, etc., all had historical yearnings, passions and desires, passed down through long periods of time, centered around cross oceanic, to Jerusalem, Babylon, or other areas in and around the ancient Middle East, Asia and the Pacific.

The first century before the birth of Christ witnessed a turning point in ancient Nephite society. Remarkable social and economic changes took place which transformed the people's way of life. . . .  the establishment of elaborate trade networks with the express purpose of accumulating wealth and power. This in turn stimulated the rise of a class society and the desire among those of noble lineages to reinstitute kingship to control international trade.. . . the sudden increase in wealth made possible by these new long-distance trade relationships. . . . During the two centuries of righteousness following the visit of the resurrected Jesus Christ to the Americas, the people once known as Nephites and Lamanites. . . grew and prospered together, becoming "exceedingly rich, because of their prosperity in Christ". .The establishment of long-distance trade networks appeared among the Lamanites . . . trend beginning among the Nephites as the trade networks grew to include both the Nephite and Lamanite nations. . . "For there were many merchants in the land, and also many lawyers, and many officers" . . . Etc. .
https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/sites/default/files/archive-files/pdf/christenson/2015-12-09/14_allen_j._christenson_nephite_trade_networks_1992.pdf

There were no road systems when Nephites separated from the Lamanites.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/5?lang=eng
POINT: There were roads before and after the death of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, road systems would not be created except as civilizations became more firmly entrenched: like European colonization of the Americas. Plymouth Colony was established in 1620. Congress did not get involved in road improvements, that were deplorable, until 1893, because of bicycle clubs, 273 years later. By historical American standards, depending on the use of the wheel, 600 B.C. - 273 = 327 B.C. Ezekiel mentions a "wheel within a wheel" circa 593-571 B.C. Chariots are frequently mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
https://www.google.com/search?q=map+of+colonization+of+the+americas&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizsdrFoLjRAhXmwlQKHQthD7oQsAQIHA&biw=1600&bih=767

[The top layer of a macadam road is mostly made of asphalt and rocks, now some builders use other ingredients to help deter road wear and add traction to the surface. Nowadays asphalt is made synthetically, but true asphalt in its natural state was originally found in only one place in the world, in a pitch lake on Trinidad Island. Sir Walter Raleigh, in his third voyage in 1595, discovered the still-famous pitch lake of asphalt on the Island of Trinidad, the largest natural asphalt lake in the world. [Bordering the Caribbean to the north, it shares maritime boundaries with other nations including Barbados to the northeast, Grenada to the northwest, Guyana to the southeast, and Venezuela to the south and west.] "Trinidad Asphalt" as it was known, was much prefered (sic) over the manmade variety, because it had a good record for standing up to time and the elements. Trinidad was the first source of asphalt made available in America; the second source was the Bermudez Lake in Venezuela.] . . . [Early roads in the United States were simply ruts carved into the ground by the many horses and wagons that traversed across this great land. Travel was brutal at best, add to that any inclement weather conditions and you get the picture. Cobblestones were common from late medieval times into the 19th cent.] . . . [The highway builders of the late 1800s depended solely on stone, gravel and sand for road construction. Road surfaces could be stabilized by adding water to the surface sand to form a binder, which would support horsedrawn traffic. Mud and dust did not become a major problem until the introduction of the automobile.] . . . [The deplorable conditions of the nations roads became a great public concern in the late nineteenth century with the invention of the bicycle and later the motor car. In the early 1890's bicycle clubs in the United States pushed hard for road improvements. These efforts brought about the "National League for Good Roads" in 1892. Continued dissatisfaction with the conditions of the nations roads resulted in the creation of the "Office of Road Inquiry" by Congress in 1893.]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh%27s_El_Dorado_Expedition
http://curbstone.com/_macadam.htm

"Evidence exists that cultures east of the Missouri River were using it (asphalt) as a waterproofing agent . . ."
https://books.google.com/books?id=QIFTVWJH3doC&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&dq=asphalt+use+by+native+americans&source=bl&ots=Yd3CAcaR__&sig=AMLB-5NCbcG0u_HLv159xxZWR3s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4-6Hcs7rRAhVj0FQKHSBKBTAQ6AEIMTAD#v=onepage&q=asphalt%20use%20by%20native%20americans&f=false

I look at archaeological findings from a global perspective. [Spanish explorers traveling through California in the late 1700s observed Yokuts Indians using asphalt for many purposes. In particular, the Tulumne Yokuts collected tar from natural seeps that oozed up near their village of Wogitu, near McKittrick on the west side of the valley. The asphalt was molded into fist-sized tar balls for trading, waterproofing, and as an adhesive. It was also used for decorating by inlaying bits of abalone shell into tar stuck on pottery, knives, masks, and clothes. . . . The pioneers used the tar they collected mainly for waterproofing roofs and greasing wagon wheels.]
http://www.sjvgeology.org/history/tarpits_hist.html

Pre-Columbian Natives in the now area of Venezuela, did have access to asphalt from the Bermudez Lake in Venezuela; [it has been known for a long time by the Warao people who used the asphalt for their canoes] . . . [The Warao are an indigenous people inhabiting northeastern Venezuela and western Guyana. . . . The term Warao translates as "the boat people," after the Warao's lifelong and intimate connection to the water. Most of the approximately 20,000 Warao inhabit Venezuela's Orinoco Delta region,]
http://www.geulogy.com/guanoco_lake_bermudezlake_pitchlake_largo_la_brea_venezuela.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Bermudez
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warao_people

Later road networking systems cannot be used to detect civilization origin locations, transitioning over geographic catastrophic events. If you actually believe in the Book of Mormon, then catastrophic instantaneous events occurred. If you don't believe the Book of Mormon, you are up a creek without a paddle, in my opinion. For example, The Guiana Highlands. [The Guiana Shield is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a 1.7 billion-year-old Precambrian geological formation in northeast South America that forms a portion of the northern coast. The higher elevations on the shield are called the Guiana Highlands, which is where the table-like mountains called tepuis are found. . . . a table-top mountain or mesa found in the Guiana Highlands of South America, especially in Venezuela and western Guyana. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran Sabana. . . . These table-top mountains are the remains of a large sandstone plateau that once covered the granite basement complex between the north border of the Amazon Basin and the Orinoco, between the Atlantic coast and the Rio Negro. Throughout the course of the history of Earth, the plateau was eroded, and the tepuis were formed from the remaining monadnocks. There are 115 such mesas in the Gran Sabana in the south-east of Venezuela on the border with Guyana and Brazil, where the highest concentration of tepuis is found. The precipitous mountains tower over the surrounding area by up to 1,000 meters. Tepuis range in elevation from 1,000–3,000 metres (3,300–9,800 ft). Because of their great age, some tepuis exhibit surface features and subsurface caves typical of karst topography, formed in more water-soluble rocks such as limestone. Caves here include the 671 meters (2,201 ft) deep Abismo Guy Collet, the deepest quartzite cave in the world. Some of the mesas are pocked with giant sinkholes up to 300 meters (980 ft) in diameter and with sheer walls up to 300 meters (980 ft) deep. These sinkholes are formed when the roofs of tunnels carved by underground rivers collapse.]
https://www.google.com/search?q=Guiana+Highlands&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjM1vmC4rbRAhUBWCYKHUVBCC4Q_AUICSgC&biw=1600&bih=767#tbm=isch&q=Guiana+Highlands&chips=q:guiana+highlands,g_2:south+america

From the standpoint of the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine of Covenants, the time frames are wacky, or "funny or amusing in a slightly odd or peculiar way". On the other hand, I have heard it said, nicely, that Mormons are a peculiar people. So, I can see insights from both directions. Nevertheless, the bottom line; I have noted apparent evidence of structures, on flat land, in the Cuban area, under water circa 2200 feet, as well as suggestions of flat areas, hundreds of miles long, in the deep recesses of the waters east of the Americas. To me, it seems, if you do not doubt the Lord's power, there is a similarity, in the heights of flat lands in the Guiana Highlands, with parallel flat drops in the seas or waters around the Americas. Thus, I then clarify my search for the elusive Book of Mormon geography, by saying: Jacob, the brother of Nephi speaks, About 559-545 B.C. Even with the high birth rate suggested, the city would be of "Nauvoo" vintage. So from an archaeological standpoint, genealogically speaking, I am not looking for highways and byways, I'm looking for a way to determine Nephi's geographic location. I mentioned: The Guiana Highlands are rich in mineral deposits. Iron ore, containing high concentrations of iron, is mined at Cerro Bolívar and El Pao. Other minerals include deposits of manganese, nickel, vanadium (a metallic element used to form alloys), bauxite, and chrome. There also are deposits of gold and diamonds.

There is the significant key in the Book of Mormon, wherein Nephi says, in the same sentence, And I did teach my people . . . to work in all manner of wood, and of iron . . . and of steel . . . Joseph Smith, Jr. was a true translator, and records both iron and steel in one sentence. Invaluable. Throughout history, [Crucible steel . . . is made by melting iron and other materials in a crucible; . . . alloying elements such as manganese, nickel, chromium and vanadium are added to produce different grades of steel.] I have just noted before: The Guiana Highlands are rich in mineral deposits. Iron ore, containing high concentrations of iron, is mined at Cerro Bolívar and El Pao. Other minerals include deposits of manganese, nickel, vanadium (a metallic element used to form alloys), bauxite, and chrome. There also are deposits of gold and diamonds. This, from a genealogical research standpoint, is incredibly important to me, as it correlates, in my mind, with Nephi's new residence, after his departure from the Lamanite tribal culture.

The River Sidon is the key.
https://sites.google.com/site/bomgeography/internal-map/new-world-commentary/r/river-sidon
Specifically, evaluate and review: ORINOCO
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/venezuela_orinoco
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Orinoco_River
http://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/orinoco-river-basin-report-card
The Guiana Highlands are rich in mineral deposits. Iron ore, containing high concentrations of iron, is mined at Cerro Bolívar and El Pao. Other minerals include deposits of manganese, nickel, vanadium (a metallic element used to form alloys), bauxite, and chrome. There also are deposits of gold and diamonds.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Orinoco-River

Cataclysmic effects on Orinoco river flows during the time of the crucifixion of Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, are a consideration, for establishing locations for Lamanite - Nephite - Mulekite Book of Mormon settlements. Any uplift, occurring during the time of the death of Jesus Christ, and not millions of years ago, establishes a north south river with different sea outlets and locus of population centers. The changing course of the Orinoco River during the Neogene: A Review [Recent studies have revealed that the rich fresh-water vertebrate fossil fauna of the Urumaco Formation in northwestern Falcón, of Late Miocene age, belongs biogeographically to the Orinoco River system. This finding, together with other evidence, can be used to chart the changing course of the Orinoco River during the Neogene and thus date the uplift of various mountain ranges that affected the change in this course. Presence of the Misoa delta in the Middle Eocene of the Maracaibo Basin has been suggested as evidence for a large river, running in a south-north direction and draining the Central Cordillera of Colombia and the Guayana Highlands. The late Middle Eocene uplifting of Western Venezuela changed the paleogeographic setting, and a new delta-building shifted to the south, represented by the extensive Carbonera Formation of Late Eocene to Oligocene age in the Llanos Basin of Colombia and Southwestern Venezuela.]
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223701283_The_changing_course_of_the_Orinoco_River_during_the_Neogene_A_review
https://www.britannica.com/place/Guiana-Highlands
Cordillera Central | mountains, Colombia
https://www.britannica.com/place/Cordillera-Central-mountains-Colombia
Central Cordillera of Colombia
https://www.google.com/search?q=Central+Cordillera+of+Colombia&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZgY2x_73RAhXPaCYKHcWXAsEQsAQINQ&biw=1600&bih=767

Item: . . . evidence of a hydrographic connection in what is today desert regions of northern Colombia and Venezuela . . . of the persistence of a fluvial drainage system inflow into the South Caribbean . . . The Amazon and Orinoco rivers of South America are major reservoirs of aquatic biodiversity in their waters and in the drainages surrounding them. Thus, reconstructing the history of those major river systems is paramount to understanding the origin and evolution of that biodiversity and its geographic history. . . . The resulting changes in the drainage system produced loss of habitat and regional faunal extinction, in what is today an arid zone along the South Caribbean coast. . . .
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0076202

Item: Sir Walter Raleigh . . . [In 1595 he led an expedition to what is now Venezuela, in South America, sailing up the Orinoco River in the heart of Spain’s colonial empire. He described the expedition in his book The Discoverie of Guiana (1596), Spanish documents and stories told by Indians had convinced him of the existence of Eldorado (El Dorado), the ruler of Manoa, a supposedly fabulous city of gold in the interior of South America. He did locate some gold mines, but no one supported his project for colonizing the area.] Indians believed Eldorado, a place of gold, was situated in northern South America, with gold found in abundance next to the waters of the Orinoco River.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walter-Raleigh-English-explorer
https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/book-mormon-3-nephi-9-30-my-gospel/4-geological-upheaval-and-darkness-3-nephi-8-10

Currently: Members of the Kuyujani Organization – a coalition of almost fifty indigenous tribes – are engaged in meetings with representatives of the Venezuelan government. At stake is the protection of their water source which comes from the mighty Orinoco River. The indigenous people that depend on this water for their livelihood are concerned by the government’s plans for a ‘National Strategic Development Zone’ along the Orinoco. The people have . . . protested against Venezuela opening up its ‘Arco Minero’ lands to foreign mining interests. ‘Arco Minero’ means ‘arch of minerals’ and is a vast stretch of land that follows the curve of the Orinoco River. It contains incredibly rich reserves of oil, coal, iron ore, bauxite and gold. Nineteen indigenous tribes inhabit that land.
https://www.ecodefenseradio.org/2016/11/01/this-weeks-news-12/

To me, this is the beginning point for establishing a geographic locus for the Nephite origins; noting tepui means "house of the gods", or Temple: House of the Lord; yet, remembering, that many great cities were sunk; etc.; all within a period of about three hours, NOT "x" hundreds, thousands, millions, or billions of years. It should be carefully noted that the destruction in the Americas occurred during a short period of approximately three hours, at the same time that the Lamb of God was bleeding on the Cross. This, attesting to the fact that the darkness that was covering the whole earth was indeed of global proportions; with earthquakes. On the other hand, the three days of darkness following thereafter, is attested to as an event covering only the lands of the Americas. There were many saints who did arise from the dead, and did appear unto many, and ministered unto them, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/crucifixion?lang=eng

[Thunder, lightning, storm, tempest, and quaking, would have easily disrupted asphalt depositories, oil and gas reserves, into flaming cauldrons of fire and smoke, causing three days of darkness, in which no light could be ignited. Carbon dioxide is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas. Carbon dioxide extinguishes flames by flooding the environment around the flame with the gas vapor. It does not itself react to extinguish the flame, but starves the flame of oxygen by displacing it.] Jesus Christ will do a repeat performance, when the mountains and valleys are again "leveled" by the power of His voice; with the immediate, full force of His Word, returning the world landscape to rest.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/8?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/133?lang=eng

Obviously, the living earth did not like the death of its Creator, and convulsed profusely, which broke up highway systems in a big way; similarly, the earth did not like the crimes and sins in the days of Noah, and was baptized with a worldwide flood, to be cleansed, before the Throne of Jehovah, which indeed also took away a lot of primary source evidence. Secular beliefs exclude religious faith conclusions of the origins, time-frames, and ultimate earth destiny; like mixing iron and clay, there is little cohesive power, and trying to obtain conviction from material evidence is sign seeking, which can never replace the witness of the Holy Ghost, wherein the Spirit of God speaks directly, through prayer, to all of mankind. Many professional scholars, geographers and geologists, and the scientific community, who believe in evolutionary time-spans, are clearly contradicted by the plain reading of the Book of Mormon.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/tg/great.t1?lang=eng&letter=g

. . . that according to our record, and we know our record to be true, [primary source evidence] . . . And the earth was carried up upon the city of Moronihah, that in the place of the city there became a great mountain. [NOTE: the city there became a great mountain.] And there was a great and terrible destruction in the land southward. But behold, there was a more great and terrible destruction in the land northward; for behold, the whole face of the land was changed, because of the tempest and the whirlwinds, and the thunderings and the lightnings, and the exceedingly great quaking of the whole earth;
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/8?lang=eng

There is a double witness and testimony of these facts by the prophet Samuel the Lamanite; namely: Yea, at the time that he shall yield up the ghost there shall be thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours, and the earth shall shake and tremble; and the rocks which are upon the face of this earth, which are both above the earth and beneath, which ye know at this time are solid, or the more part of it is one solid mass, shall be broken up; Yea, they shall be rent in twain, and shall ever after be found in seams and in cracks, and in broken fragments upon the face of the whole earth, yea, both above the earth and beneath. And behold, there shall be great tempests, and there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great. [NOTE: mountains, whose height is great.]
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/hel/14?lang=eng

Thus, PRIMARY SOURCE EVIDENCE from the Book of Mormon, [NOT changing topography to satisfy a particular model], indicates generic "science" declarations of time periods for uplift and depressions, to be unsound secondary or tertiary sources; found wanting and false. These theoretical postulations of "science", do not have correlating conviction; (calculating capabilities that can be certified by attesting scriptures); by use of all current learned methodologies, to identify and validate correct historical time frames; "dinosaur times" included. It is like a lying spirit has gone abroad, to deceive the learned in all the nations of the earth, so that the inhabitants they influence, will not receive the testimonies of LDS missionaries, and thus prepare themselves in a timely manner, for the second coming of Jesus Christ.
https://www.lds.org/manual/teachings-joseph-smith/chapter-33?lang=eng

There were some areas of the Americas that were preserved, more or less intact, throughout the Americas; else, no humans would have ever survived the destruction during the time of Christ; the ignorant and uninformed, the heathens and the untaught Gentiles, worldwide; the more righteous seed of Israel, and the prayers of the ancient ancestors for earlier locations on the earth, such as the Hill Cumorah in New York State and areas around Adam-Ondi-Ahman, in Daviess County, Missouri; places I have personally seen and observed. Can anyone really, really comprehend the forces of life and death (as Lucifer sought to destroy the whole earth globally; the Solar System, and its Creator); as Christ bled on the Cross, (rejected and alone, despised, hated, disbelieved and dishonored); the very existence of the continuation of earth life here upon this planet, was in the balance, as Christ's body gave up the ghost (His spirit)? We should always thank God every day for another day of life, in this probationary state, no matter how painful with sufferings, to walk upon this designed, celestially destined Globe, as it is, collectively speaking, a future "House of the Lord". The biggest test of faith today, that I have observed among the Mormon scientific community, as well as DNA genealogists and family historians, LDS and non-LDS generational historians alike, is from another source of truth, the Doctrine and Covenants. It is time, or the age of the earth; Section 77.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/77

This book has the personal witness of Jesus Christ Himself, to "Search these commandments, for they are true and faithful", in Section 1. Also, the written testimony of Twelve Apostles, in the Explanatory Introduction; and the statement by Joseph Smith, Jr., that "I received the following explanation of the Revelation of St. John". It is just like being too lazy to search, to see, for example, the significance of information given before, concerning Sir Walter Raleigh; re: "stories told by Indians had convinced him of the existence of Eldorado (El Dorado), the ruler of Manoa, a supposedly fabulous city of gold in the interior of South America." It just so happens that: Mānoa means thick, solid, vast, depth or thickness in the Hawaiian language; a Polynesian language, [spoken in geographical Polynesia and on a patchwork of "Outliers" from south central Micronesia, to small islands off the northeast of the larger islands of the Southeast Solomon Islands and sprinkled through Vanuatu. They are classified as part of the Austronesian family, belonging to the Oceanic branch of that family. Polynesians share many unique cultural traits that resulted from about 1000 years of common development, including common linguistic development, in the Tonga and Sāmoa area through most of the first millennium BC.]
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament?lang=eng
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manoa#cite_note-2

ArchaeologyExpert
http://www.archaeologyexpert.co.uk/
There are various "Dating Techniques in Archaeology".
http://www.archaeologyexpert.co.uk/ArchaeologicalDating.html
However, way back, on 26 Apr 2012, Philip J. Aston, was questioning: Is Radioactive Decay Really Exponential? He mentions: "The decay of 14C can be calibrated over a period of 12,550 years by comparing radiocarbon dates with dates obtained from dendrochronology (dating tree rings). It is well known that this approach shows that radiocarbon dates of over 3,000 years are in error, which is generally attributed to past variation in atmospheric levels of 14C." Two problems: First, item (1) Dendrochronology calibrated over a period of 12,550 years is about double for the age of the earth, in the D&C statement of Joseph Smith, Jr.; that is, as to the current temporal age of this earth, as well as the further mentioned second item (2), that radiocarbon dates of over 3,000 years are in error.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1204.5953

The most current findings, dated Sunday, January 08, 2017, profess "Indications of an Influence of Solar Neutrinos on Beta Decays". Eckhard D. Falkenberg, who found evidence of an annual oscillation in the beta-decay rate of tritium, was either the first or one of the first to propose that some beta-decay rates may be variable. He suggested that the beta-decay process may be influenced by neutrinos, and attributed the annual variation to the varying Earth-Sun distance that leads to a corresponding variation in the flux of solar neutrinos as detected on Earth.
http://www.2physics.com/2017/01/indications-of-influence-of-solar.html

Other observations show solar activity and subsequent alterations on the earth, on the surface and beneath, are such as item (1), The Frozen Thames, Looking Eastwards towards Old London Bridge, London;1677 painting by Abraham Hondius [Spörer noted that, during one 28-year period within the Maunder Minimum (1672–1699), observations showed fewer than 50 sunspots, as opposed to a more typical 40,000–50,000 spots in modern times.]
http://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-frozen-thames-looking-eastwards-towards-old-london-bridge-london-50510
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maunder_Minimum

The biggest solar storm on record happened in 1859, the Carrington Event, with northern lights noted as far south as Cuba and Honolulu, and southern lights being seen as far north as Santiago, Chile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859

Recently, in March, 1989, "the sun had released a billion-ton cloud of gas. It was like the energy of thousands of nuclear bombs exploding at the same time. The storm cloud rushed out from the sun, straight towards Earth, at a million miles an hour." Interestingly, for evaluation of effects during the birth and death of Jesus Christ, "The violence of this 'geomagnetic storm' caused spectacular 'northern lights' that could be seen as far south as Florida and Cuba. The magnetic disturbance was incredibly intense. It actually created electrical currents in the ground beneath much of North America." Note in particular, from the standpoint of Book of Mormon Archaeology: "Power systems in areas of igneous rock (gray) are the most vulnerable to the effects of intense geomagnetic activity because the high resistance of the igneous rock encourages geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) to flow in the power transmission lines situated above the rock. " There were of course no power lines that we know of, in Book of Mormon times. Nevertheless, there are areas of igneous rock (gray), in the Mesoamerican region, that can be evaluated, from the standpoint of what the effects would be from their presence, in relation to the destruction that befell the Nephites and Lamanites; from "bright" Birth of Jesus Christ; carrying on down to the aftermath at the death of Christ, and shortly thereafter.
https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/sun_darkness.html

Caribbean-South American plate interactions; Venezuela. [Representing about 20 years of field work by students and faculty from Rice University, this report describes the work done in originating and refining a plate tectonic model for the origin and development of the Caribbean-South American plate boundary.]
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Caribbean-South+American+plate+interactions%3B+Venezuela.-a0142886523
https://books.google.com/books?id=IjxEfjiu8-0C&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=igneous+rock+in+south+america&source=bl&ots=cLAhVLeIuy&sig=zrMTtezrO89NO7-cwebecClM-YY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjwls6Dw8XRAhXsz1QKHX8UBwkQ6AEIODAI#v=onepage&q=igneous%20rock%20in%20south%20america&f=false

Thus, Book of Mormon historical written dated statements, as well as worldwide written history, just before and previous to the period of the birth of Jesus Christ, to A.D. 35, become incredibly complex to combine within, to assimilate with certainty, into any scientific theoretical assertions; either from dating techniques in archaeology, or DNA genetic assertions, going back in time; especially with the added human age differentials, extending back from the time of the historical Abraham, to the time of Adam and Eve.
http://www.academic-genealogy.com/science.htm#Intelligent_Design_and_the_Fallacy_of_Annihilation