Welcome to the Jungle! Ceibal

Structure A-3

Yesterday, we made our way to Rio Pasión, a major tributary of Rio Usumacinta. Although I personally favor Rio Grijalva as the River Sidon, Usumacinta is also a leading candidate. We took a boat along the Pasión for about 2 hours, and the scenery was gorgeous! We were far from civilization, in the midst of the jungle by the time we got off the boat. From there, we hiked into the depths of the jungle until we came to Ceibal.

A shot from Rio Pasion

Some of my fellow travelers, on the trail to Ceibal

Just getting there was quite the adventure. The trail was uphill and muddy. It is a rainforest, so we did experience intermittent showers. Never in a million years did I think I would ever be tromping through the jungle like this! On the way back, the howler monkeys—which sound more like a ferocious beast that can eat you alive—were getting very close, on both sides of the trail. We couldn’t see them, but we could hear them, and it was a little terrifying.

A small part of the 3D site map

Ceibal is a Pre-Classic and Classic site, first founded in the 9th century BC, flourishing between 400 BC–AD 200 before experiencing a collapse sometime in the early Classic, ca. AD 200–600. It recovers in the Late Classic, peaking in the 9th century AD before again experiencing a collapse (along with the rest of the Maya region). Ceibal is a fairly large site, though much of it remains unexcavated and unrestored.

Mark Wright lectures with
Structure A-3 in the background

If the Usumacinta is Sidon, then Ceibal may very well have been involved in Book of Mormon events. The dates of its Pre-Classic flourishing are squarely within the Book of Mormon timeframe, and its collapse between AD 200–600 is consistent with the Book of Mormon, which reports a decline ca. AD 200, or 4 generations after Christ’s visit, with the ultimate collapse of Nephite society coming late in the 4th century AD.

Me, at the base of a large Ceiba Tree,
one of the many in the Ceibal area

The name Ceibal was given to the site by the Spanish, because of the many Ceiba trees there at the site. The Ceiba is the largest tree in the Mesoamerican region, and was the sacred tree to the Maya and many other cultures throughout the area. While probably not the tree Lehi saw in vision, the Ceiba is probably what Alma and his audience envisioned as he discoursed on planting the seed of faith and cultivating it into the great tree of life (Alma 32).

A Ceiba Tree, actually from Tikal

In the Maya mythos, the Ceiba, or “World Tree,” connected waters of the underworld, the earth, and the heavens. This tripartite worldview is similar to that found among the Hebrews, and expressed in Exodus 20:4, which is quoted by Abinadi in Mosiah 13:12: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of things which are in heaven above, or which are in the earth beneath, or which are in the water under the earth.”

From cruising along the river, to hiking in the rainforest, to seeing the ruins, it was all-in-all an incredible experience. We were able to catch the sunset on the river on our way back. A picturesque ending to an incredible day!

Sunset on the River

Nephite History in Context 1: Jerusalem Chronicle

Editor’s Note: This is the first contribution to my new series Nephite History in Context: Artifacts, Inscriptions, and Texts Relevant to the Book of Mormon. Check out the really cool (and official, citable) PDF version here. To learn more about this series, read the introduction here. To find other posts in the series, see here.
Jerusalem Chronicle (ABC 5/BM 21946)
Background
The so-called “Babylonian Chronicles” are an important collection of brief historical reports from Mesopotamia, found in Iraq in the late-19th century.1 They are written on clay tablets in Akkadian using cuneiform script, and cover much of the first millennium BC, although several tablets are missing or severely damaged, leaving gaps in the record. One tablet, colloquially known as the “Jerusalem Chronicle” (ABC 5/BM 21946),2 provides brief annal-like reports of the early reign of Nebuchadrezzar II (biblical Nebuchadnezzar), including mention of his invasion of Jerusalem.
Biblical sources report that King Jehoiac…

Nephite History in Context 2a: Apocryphon of Jeremiah

Editor’s Note: This is the first part of the second contribution to my new series Nephite History in Context: Artifacts, Inscriptions, and Texts Relevant to the Book of Mormon. Check out the really cool (and official, citable) PDF version here. To learn more about this series, read the introduction here. To find other posts in the series, see here.
Apocryphon of Jeremiah (4Q385a)
Background
Between 1947 and 1956, a few well preserved scrolls and tens of thousands of broken fragments were found scattered across eleven different caves along the northwest shores of the Dead Sea near Qumran. Now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, they are arguably the most significant discovery ever made for the study of the Bible and the origins of Judaism and Christianity. Among the writings found are the earliest copies of nearly every Old Testament book, many of the known apocryphal and pseudepigraphic works, and several other texts discovered for the first time at Qumran. Altogether, more than 900 differe…

Nephite History in Context 2b: Letters of ʿAbdu-Ḫeba of Jerusalem (EA 285–290)

Editor’s Note: This is the second part of the second contribution to my new series Nephite History in Context: Artifacts, Inscriptions, and Texts Relevant to the Book of Mormon. Check out the really cool (and official, citable) PDF version here. To learn more about this series, read the introduction here. To find other posts in the series, see here.
Letters of ʿAbdu-Ḫeba of Jerusalem (EA 285–290)
Background
The Amarna Letters make up the bulk of the 382 cuneiform tablets found at Amarna, Egypt in 1887. The letters date to the mid-fourteenth century BC (ca. 1365–1335 bc), with most of them coming from the reign of Akhenaten (ca. 1352–1336 bc), though some date to the reigns of Amenhotep III (ca. 1390–1352 bc) and perhaps Smenkhkara (ca. 1338–1336 bc) and Tutankhamun (ca. 1336–1327 bc). The collection includes international correspondence between Egypt and other nations, such as Assyria and Babylonia, but most of the letters are to and from vassal kings in the Syria-Palestine region, whic…

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