LDS Mesoamerican scholars John L. Sorenson, John E. Clark, Brant
A. Gardner, and Mark Alan Wright have all discussed various ways Nephite years might
actually be 360-day tuns of the
Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.[1]
In his article on dating the death of Jesus Christ, ancient Near Eastern
archaeologist Jeffrey R. Chadwick disputed this suggestion. Chadwick asserted, “There is no
indication that the Maya thought of their tun count as a ‘year,’” and
that “[Michael D.] Coe does not refer to the tun as a ‘year’ anywhere in
his discussion of the Mayan calendar system.”[2]
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