I was watching Michael Wood's excellent documentary "The Story of India" last night (netflix, check it out). In Part 2, he talked about the great emperor of the Maurya Dynasty, Ashoka.

Ashoka ruled an empire covering most of modern day India from 269 BC to 232 BC, yet he was unknown in western history until a number of British archaeologists began piecing together his story in the early 1800's.

How did we learn about Ashoka? There a large number of pillars and rocks around India with inscriptions. There are many ancient Buddhist inscriptions carved in rock. There are many relics and archaeological sites . There is also oral traditions, passed down through the Brahmins.

The evidence was virtually laying on the ground all over the place. It simply took archaeologists to process all of the evidence and recreate the history.

A civilization who's history had been unknown to the west until recently has been rediscovered. The geographic territory and population size and time period are all roughly similar to the great Book of Mormon civilizations.

So where is any evidence of the great Nephite and Lamanite civilizations, covering most of North and Central America?

[crickets]

I have a friend who is a Mormon and a professor at a community college....when I told him that I was taking Archeology he made a bunch of Indiana Jones jokes and didn't think very highly of the subject. I think I know why....