Pre-Columbian era

The Pre-Columbian era serves in the book as a historical frame against which claims about the ancient Americas in The Book of Mormon are measured. Its significance lies in the gap the author draws between the book’s descriptions of past societies and the historical and scientific objections raised by critics—and in the contrast between those objections and the continuing religious force of the text.

Historical Frame in the Book

The book invokes the Pre-Columbian era when discussing horses and wheeled carts in The Book of Mormon. It says that neither existed in the Western Hemisphere during this period, making their appearance in the book an example of what the author calls an anachronism. The era thus functions less as a narrated setting than as a chronological standard against which the text’s historical claims can be tested.

Anachronisms and Historical Criticism

The discussion places horses and wheeled carts alongside references to steel and a seven-day week, which the author says the book sets in ancient history before those things were invented. It also cites DNA analysis as contradicting the claim that American Indians descended from a Hebraic people, and notes that critics point to the absence of archaeological artifacts connected to the supposedly widespread Nephite civilization. Together, these objections present the book’s ancient American narrative as facing difficulties not only of chronology, but also of material evidence and ancestry.

Faith Beyond the Historical Dispute

The book does not treat historical criticism as decisive in explaining the Book of Mormon’s religious standing. It argues that faith is generally resistant to intellectual argument, and places criticism of the Book of Mormon alongside challenges that could also be made against other sacred texts. Its account therefore distinguishes the question of historical verification from the question of religious meaning.

That distinction is reinforced by the book’s emphasis on the text’s reach: it reports that more than one hundred million copies had been printed and points to the crowds attending the Hill Cumorah Pageant each July. In this framing, the Pre-Columbian era marks a point of friction between a sacred narrative and historical scrutiny, while the book’s popularity demonstrates that this friction has not erased the narrative’s appeal.