I wrote a response last night to the recent BOMC blog post about the new discoveries in Guatemala and their possible relationship to the Book of Mormon. Check out my post here:

http://www.mormonapologies.com/book-of-mormon/4-ways-the-new-maya-discoveries-prove-the-book-of-mormon-false/

All the other Maya cities were conclusively not "Lamanite," and so there was no reason to think that this new one would be either.

The next Maya city to be found will be yet another non-"Lamanite" city, and the next after that, etc, etc…

The tired excuse of "well, we haven't explored ALL the Americas" become even less TBM-defensible with each new discovery.

And the Maya didn't disappear or go extinct. If the Maya were "Lamanites," they'd have had Semitic DNA in 900 CE, and Semitic DNA now, which they don't.

One of the more concrete proof of the age of the cities is the writtings of the Maya themselves. The have numerous monuments dating significant events.

Using these dates we can get a pretty good idea in what year each event occured.

By looking at known events like the recording of an eclipse, we can fit the timing of other events into the timeline.

Thanks for the link. It was a good read.

In addition to the Mormon claims, there is valid skepticism about the National Geographic article itself. Here is one example.
http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com/2018/02/why-i-am-skeptical-about-new-maya-lidar.html

I have seen some Mormons claim that the discovery of causeways supports the Book of Mormon, as if this latest LiDAR survey found them for the first time. That is simply wrong. They have been known about from the very beginning of Spanish explorations in Mayan regions. Mayans were even observed using them and this was reported in some of the earliest Spanish writings which were translated into English and republished long before Joseph Smith came alone. But that doesn't help the narrative of Mormons, how could Joseph have known?

This latest National Geographic on the Mayan isn't the first overly sensationalized report to the media. The lost city of the Monkey God created quite a controversy with informative responses from the scientific community.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/did-recent-expedition-really-discover-lost-city-honduras-180954559/

Some Mormons grab onto headlines for hope but they seem oblivious to the over sensationalized nature of those reports and just won't listen to reason. That tends to cause even more doubt from an intelligent and rational believer who can see through the BS.

I noticed on the blog that a Heartlander commented, as if their claims of the Hopewell somehow are better than the Mayan claims. The LDS church is really in a sad state of affairs when the members can't even come to an agreement over something as simple as where those ridiculous Book of Mormon stories were supposed to have happened.

Agreed with everything you said!

Thanks Mosiah for fighting the good fight and thanks Mike for the further details.

Tom in Paris