Book of Mormon Geography: Kamara Model

[Rajah Manchou]

Following a number of discussions on this forum over the past few years, I've slowly cranked out a Book of Mormon geography that conforms with the geography, archaeology and history of a real world setting in the Indian Ocean, the kingdom known anciently as Kamara.

I haven't had the time to put my conclusions together into one place. Rather than dropping bits and pieces all over the place, @smac97 has requested that I put it all together in a thread. @Brant Gardner, who was the only BOM geography expert to fairly review Ralph Olsen's Malay Model. has also stated a willingness to test the model and has recommended that we begin with the geography, and then add the layers of topography, hydrology, and cultural history, and see how well it works. 

I request that this discussion stick to the text of the Book of Mormon only, putting aside all other questions (like how did the Gold Plates get to Joseph Smith in NY or what about revelations placing New Jerusalem in Missouri) aside until the map has been evaluated. We can consider extra-textual accounts, revelations and statements after we've tested the geography against the internal map found in Book of Mormon text itself. 

 

As John Clark said in his Revisiting A Key for Evaluating Nephite Geographies:

"It has been my experience that most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when confronted with a Book of Mormon geography, worry about the wrong things. Almost invariably the first question that arise is whether the geography fits the archaeology of the proposed area. This should be our second question, the first being whether the geography fits the facts of the Book of Mormon—a question we all can answer without being versed in American archaeology. Only after a given geography reconciles all of the significant geographic details given in the Book of Mormon does the question of archaeological and historical detail merit attention. The Book of Mormon must be the final and most important arbiter in deciding the correctness of a given geography; otherwise we will be forever hostage to the shifting sands of expert opinion."

Clark also recommends 6 initial assumptions about the geographic references found in the Book of Mormon: 

1. Assume a literal meaning.
2. Assume no scribal errors unless internal evidence indicates otherwise.
3. Assume no duplication of placenames unless the text is unambiguous on the matter.
4. Assume that all passages are internally consistent and can be reconciled.
5. Assume that the best internal reconstruction is one that reconciles all the data in the Book of Mormon with a minimum of additional assumptions.
6. Assume that uniformitarian rather than catastrophic principles apply to the actual Book of Mormon lands (i.e., that the locality where the Book of Mormon events took place was not unrecognizably altered at the time of the crucifixion, that geographic details in the small plates and in the book of Ether are therefore compatible with those in Mormon’s and Moroni’s abridgment, and that the principles of natural science that apply to today’s environments are also pertinent to Nephite lands).

I'll start with the bird's eye view of the geography in the next post and then will zoom in closer to discuss each place and event in the Book of Mormon in more detail.

[Rajah Manchou]

John E. Clark proposes an elemental geography for the internal map of the Book of Mormon:

"During the days of Alma and General Moroni, Book of Mormon lands consisted of three sectors that could be considered Nephite, Lamanite, and former Jaredite. The depopulated Jaredite lands constituted the land northward; Nephite and Lamanite lands lay in the land southward. Nephite lands, known as the land of Zarahemla, were sandwiched between the ancient Jaredite lands to the north and the Lamanite land of Nephi to the south. A narrow neck of land divided the land northward and the land southward; thus Book of Mormon lands were shaped like an hourglass. The land southward was further divided into northern and southern sectors by a narrow strip of wilderness that ran from the east sea to the west sea. Nephites inhabited the lands north of this wilderness divide, and Lamanites controlled those to the south."

The ancient Kingdoms of Komara and Rahma were located on the Malay Peninsula. Zooming out on the region, the present-day political borders of Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar mark the three sectors identified by John E. Clark:

• Jaredite Land of Moron: Manoron region of southern Myanmar
• Nephite Land of Zarahemla: Tapi River basin in southern Thailand
• Lamanite Land of Nephi: Highlands of northern Malaysia

All geographical features required by Clark's Key for Evaluating a Nephite Geography have their parallel on the peninsula:

• Highlands in the Land of Nephi on the south
• Narrow strip of wilderness separating the Land of Zarahemla from the Land of Nephi
• Large river system flowing north through the Land of Zarahemla
• Headwaters running from the east to the west out of a narrow strip of wilderness
• Wilderness pass between Manti and Moroni
• Valley of Gideon southeast of Zarahemla
• Wilderness pass between Gideon and Gid
• Elevated area between Zarahemla and Melek
• Elevated area between Zarahemla and Sidom
• Elevated area between Sidom and Ammonihah
• Wilderness pass between Judea and the Seashore City
• Marshy area near Moroni
• East to west passage at the Line Bountiful
• Plains to south of Bountiful City
• Land divided by the Sea West near Bountiful
• Land divided by the sea is a natural port where large timber trading ships launched anciently
• Seashores near Mulek
• Land Bountiful leading into a narrow neck of land in the north
• Line Bountiful is a day and a half's journey
• Line Bountiful known anciently as a gathering place for soldiers
• Wilderness on the west of Zarahemla
• Wilderness separating Zarahemla from the cities on the Sea East
• Wilderness pass leading from the Sea West to Ammonihah
• Western mountain wilderness dropping quickly to the coast
• Land of many waters in the Land Northward
• Prominent mountain with many waterfalls on the Sea East in the Land Northward

I'll get into the details later, but its worth mentioning here that the first signs of an iron-age civilization in this map are found in Kedah Tua (marked on the map to the left as "first inheritance". Iron furnaces and slag found in this location are dated to within 5 to 10 years of the Lehite departure from the Arabian Peninsula (source).

Edited November 29, 2020 by Rajah Manchou

[webbles]

18 hours ago, Rajah Manchou said:

The ancient Kingdoms of Komara and Rahma were located on the Malay Peninsula.

@Rajah Manchou, is there another place where I can read details about these two ancient kingdoms?  The link goes to evernote which then goes to Google Books but the book doesn't appear to load for me.  And doing a search online isn't returning obvious results.

[Rajah Manchou]

2 hours ago, webbles said:

@Rajah Manchou, is there another place where I can read details about these two ancient kingdoms?  The link goes to evernote which then goes to Google Books but the book doesn't appear to load for me.  And doing a search online isn't returning obvious results.

There are quite a few references, the catch is that different geographers spanning several centuries referred to the same island/peninsula by dozens of different names. This lends to pages and pages of discussions about which toponym refers to which location. I've updated the link above to include screenshots of the first few pages of the chapter discussing Komara and Rahma. Or you can try this link and do a search for Komara. You can also scan this book discussing Ptolemy's Geography for references to Komar. You'll get a hint of the swarm of toponyms. 

Common readings of Arabic geographies from the 10th century identify Rahma as either Sumatra or Ramañña on the Malay Peninsula. Komara is also on the Malay Peninsula. Kalah or Cala is the point on the map I posted above marked "First Inheritance". This is the point where all ancient traders heading east landed and it is dated to within 10 years of the Lehite departure from Oman. Note that the text mentions Cala/Kalah as the landing point for traders from Oman.

I propose Kalah as the most logical landing point for the Lehites in the 6th century BC.

Edited November 30, 2020 by Rajah Manchou

[CV75]

Something I think would be cool is to use GIS to compare a desired land mass / area range of global GPS-derived mapping with the desired geographical parameters from the Book of Mormon and see what comes up.