Maya and Olmec Connections to the Book of Mormon: Pasión River Model

What the book covers

The book sets out the Pasión River Model in full. It begins with the greater land of Zarahemla in the Petén of Guatemala and Ceibal as the city of Zarahemla, then moves south to the land of Nephi in the Salamá Valley, north to the narrow neck of land at the Tikal earthwork, and on to the land of Bountiful along the Belize River.

Later chapters set the Early Classic kings of Tikal beside Mormon's account of Lamanite kings, follow the final Nephite wars to Cerro Achotal as the hill Cumorah, and close with the Jaredites, read as the early Maya.

The authors

Robert C. Roylance is an agricultural economist who has studied Book of Mormon geography for some 30 years and lived in Guatemala from 2021 to 2023. Dr. Richard E. Terry is Professor Emeritus of Soil Science at Brigham Young University; he has written dozens of papers on ancient Mesoamerican soils and worked at Ceibal from 2006 to 2010 with archaeologist Takeshi Inomata.

The episodes and map on this site follow the book. Where the site notes open questions, those reflect published archaeology and are offered so readers can weigh the model fairly.