Should bones still remain on the land after AD 400?
- Within 30 minutes of death flies arrive entering orifices and lay eggs.
- Within 24 hrs the eggs turn into flesh eating maggots.
- Within 6 days a body could become skeletonized, depending on conditions.
- Within 20 years what bones the rodents have not destroyed will be completely dissolved.
Things that speed up the decomposition process:
- Temperature
- Moisture
- Sun exposure
- Freezing/thawing cycles
- Animal scavengers: raccoons, possums, skunks, squirrels, rodents, etc.
- Insect scavengers: maggots, flies, beetles, mites, moths, butterflies, etc.
- Clothed bodies provide shelter for insects (maggots) and rodents speeding up the process.
Q. Were the dead bodies buried in the final battles?
A. No. In the final Nephite battle the Land of Cumorah was chosen because they knew it was an extermination battle and the winner did not want the burden of burying the dead. Cumorah was an uninhabited piece of land lying east of the East Sea and had been used for logging. In the final Jaredite battle, they fought on the west and moved east never stopping to bury the dead. After their final battle, only one person remained. No one buried their dead either.
Q. Were any dead at any point in time buried?
A. Yes. However not many Nephites lived to old age; they were continually at war and in their smaller battles the dead were buried under mounds of dirt and some Lamanites practiced tomb, mound burials.
Q. Have such burial mounds been discovered in Western New York?
A. Yes. It should be noted that the Iroquois Indians (occupants of Book of Mormon lands when the Gentiles arrived) did not build nor bury their dead the way Book of Mormon peoples did. What remains in Western New York of ancient fortifications and mound burials are the remains of their predecessors of the Book of Mormon. On our Google Interactive Map we identify several such burials containing thousands of skeletons.
Q. Since the Nephites were a sub-culture of a larger pre-existing Lamanite culture, should their bones be found?
A. No. All of the Nephites (i.e. believers) who died before the coming of Jesus were resurrected at his coming. In other words, the majority of ancient Nephite burials spanning 600 BC to 0 AD were gone. [If in your model you claim the existence of pre AD Nephite burials then they’re not Book of Mormon lands.] The Nephites (i.e. “believers”) were resurrected and their bones removed:
25 and many graves shall be opened and shall yield up many of their dead and many saints shall appear unto many (Helaman 14)
21 And there cometh a resurrection, even a first resurrection; yea, even a resurrection of those that have been, and who are, and who shall be, even until the resurrection of Christ—for so shall he be called.
22 And now, the resurrection of all the prophets, and all those that have believed in their words, or all those that have kept the commandments of God, shall come forth in the first resurrection; therefore, they are the first resurrection. (Mosiah 15)7 and it came to pass that he saith unto Nephi Bring forth the record which ye have kept
8 and when Nephi had brought forth the records and laid them before him he cast his eyes upon them and saith
9 verily I say unto you I commanded my servant Samuel the Lamanite that he should testify unto this people that at the day that the Father should glorify his name in me that there were many saints which should arise from the dead and should appear unto many and should minister unto them and he saith unto them Were it not so
10 and his disciples answered him and said Yea Lord Samuel did prophesy according to thy words and they were all fulfilled
11 and Jesus saith unto them How be it that ye have not written this thing that many saints did arise and appear unto many and did minister unto them
12 and it came to pass that Nephi remembered that this thing had not been written
13 and it came to pass that Jesus commanded that it should be written therefore it was written according as he commanded (3 Nephi 23)