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Writer's picturestephenstrent7

Pre-Columbian Fortifications in America


View along the main wall and the moat from the outside the Great Circle. The break in the wall - the traditional entrance - is visible in the far distance. Wikimedia


Where Science Meets the Book of Mormon: Come Follow Me Lesson: August 19-25; Alma 53-63


These eleven chapters cover a time period of roughly thirteen years, from around 64 BC to about 52 BC. Those thirteen years witnessed some of the most intense fighting between the Lamanites and Nephites, as huge numbers of Lamanites invaded parts of the Nephite kingdom. This also appears to be a time of de novo fortification of many of the Nephite cities. 

 

For example, we are told in Alma 53:3-5, “And it came to pass that after the Lamanites had finished burying their dead and also the dead of the Nephites, they were marched back into the land Bountiful; and Teancum, by the orders of Moroni, caused that they should commence laboring in digging a ditch round about the land, or the city, Bountiful. And he caused that they should build a breastwork of timbers upon the inner bank of the ditch; and they cast up dirt out of the ditch against the breastwork of timbers; and thus they did cause the Lamanites to labor until they had encircled the city of Bountiful round about with a strong wall of timbers and earth, to an exceeding height. And this city became an exceeding stronghold ever after; and in this city they did guard the prisoners of the Lamanites; yea, even within a wall which they had caused them to build with their own hands. Now Moroni was compelled to cause the Lamanites to labor, because it was easy to guard them while at their labor; and he desired all his forces when he should make an attack upon the Lamanites.”


These verses give, in some considerable detail, what appears to be the de novo fortification of the city Bountiful. The walls were built almost exactly like early European forts: a ditch was dug and “a breastwork of timbers [was built] upon the inner bank of the ditch.” Then the walls appear to have been further built up by casting “dirt out of the ditch against the breastwork of timbers.” The walls around Bountiful were built up “to an exceeding height,” perhaps among the first, and certainly the strongest, being “an exceeding stronghold ever after,” of the Nephite fortified cities.


Some eight years earlier (72 BC; Alma 48 and 49) the cities of Ammonihah and Noah had been fortified with new dirt banks (Alma 49:2, 13-14). Moroni had also ordered such “forts” to be built around all the Nephite cities (Alma 49:13). Some walls, perhaps rarely, were even made of stone (Alma 48:8). 

 

Apparently, walls similar to those around Bountiful were built around the cities of Nephihah and Moroni. The Nephite general, Moroni walked on top of the wall at Nephihah (Alma 62:20), and ropes and ladders were used to scale the wall (Alma 62:21-24). Teancum apparently also used ropes to scale the wall around the city of Moroni (Alma 62:36). Other verses throughout these chapters refer to fortifications (c.f. Alma 55:25, 26; 56:15; 57:4; 62:42) and strongholds (c.f. Alma 55:33; 56:21; 58:1, 2, 6, 23).


Then, around 6 BC, the Lamanite prophet, Samuel, prophesied of Christ’s coming, from atop the wall at Zarahemla (Helaman 13:4). That is apparently the last reference to walls in the Book of Mormon. So, they were built up apparently around all of the Nephite cities, starting around 72 BC; they persisted until at least the time of Christ’s birth — and then it is unclear what happened to them after that. Does any remanent of any of them still exist? Apparently, as yet, no one has found any such remanent — we don’t know where those Nephite cities were located and, therefore, we don’t know where to look for the remnants of the walls.


At almost exactly the same time that the Nephites were fortifying their cities, members of the Hopewell culture were building elaborate mounds and earthen walls (around 100 BC to 400 AD) in what is now North America. The Great Circle at the Newark Earthworks in Ohio is the largest earthen enclosure in the world. However, there is no evidence that the Hopewells had fortified settlements, let alone cities, fortified or otherwise. Rather, it appears that their earthworks were built for burial and ceremonial purposes.1

 

In reference to another Hopewell site, called the Mound City Group, the National Park Service website states: “There is no evidence that people lived within this enclosure full time. In fact, the Hopewell people did not even live in large villages. No more than three Hopewell homes have ever been discovered in one place. They may have lived in single extended family units scattered along the waterways of the great forest. Yet, even with this relatively simple social organization, the Hopewell people created immense public works that required complicated engineering. These walled complexes were likely gathering places of people who wanted to form community even though they were not living together in villages.”2 


So, how do we know that the Great Circle was not a defensive fortification? One major reason is that the ditch is on the wrong side of the wall. As stated above (in Alma 53:3-5), the fortification at Bountiful was built by digging a ditch, building a breastwork on the inner bank of the ditch and “cast[ing] up dirt out of the ditch against the breastwork of timber.” Conversely, the wall of the Great Circle has the ditch on the inside of the dirt rampart.

    

It is very interesting that the description of the wall around Bountiful is very much like how the earthwork walls around European Iron Age settlements were built, with the ditch on the outside of the wall to help repel would-be attackers. Conversely, the wall of the Hopewell Great Circle was built exactly the same way as those of ceremonial structures, such as the great Avebury circle in England, with the ditch on the inside of the dirt rampart. As a fortification wall, having a ditch on the inside of the wall would be a great disadvantage for those defending the city wall — being down in the ditch instead of higher up, behind the upper part of the rampart — with the attackers down in the ditch.

      

It is almost certain that there are a lot of “lost cities” in the Americas, perhaps including most, if not all, of the fortified Nephite cities. Apparently, even well-known ancient American cities do not have well-researched walls. For example, the Mayan fortified city of Uxmal (7th to 10th century AD), in the Yucatan Peninsula, had a two-mile-long wall around part of the city to protect the elites from invasion. Even though the wall was discovered in the 19th century, little attention has been paid to the wall until quite recently.3 

 

 

Trent Dee Stephens, PhD

 

References

 

2.      National Park Service; nps.gov/hocu/lea; retrieved 14 August 2024

3.      Georgiou, Aristos, The Ancient Maya Built a Two Mile Wall Around This City to Protect the Elites From Invaders, Newsweek, 2019; newsweek.com; retrieved 15 August 2024

 

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