Sensititve Religious Question - Mormon

[bup]

Apologies if this question isn't even the right question (which it may not be because of my vast ignorance), or if I offend in any way.

What is the LDS church's official stance on what happened to all the things in the Book of Mormon?

If I understand right, the two tribes warring were from the old country - I think they were lost tribes of Israel. Presumably, like the old world, they had their technology - metallurgy, writing, money, the wheel. In fact, Joseph Smith translated writing from one of the tribes (right?).

I also believe the LDS claims native Americans are descendants of these two tribes (or at least one of them).

What happened to all the metalwork- swords, armor, shields, money? Why aren't there ever archaeological finds of writings or money or anything one might find around the Mediterranean?

[Exapno Mapcase]

This is frequently asked in GQ.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=277447

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=278831

There's probably even more in GD and other places.

[bup]

I wish I hadn't put the word 'archaeological' in my question.

The biggest piece I'm interested in is "what happened to the winning army (not the Nephites)? Were they still here when Eurpoeans finally colonized, albeit with different names? Why didn't any American tribes have writing or metallurgy or wheeled vehicles?"

So, not archaeology, but why were the people here in 1500 less technogically advanced, in qualitative terms, than those in the Book of Mormon?

[Anne Neville]

So, not archaeology, but why were the people here in 1500 less technogically advanced, in qualitative terms, than those in the Book of Mormon?

IANAMormon and I don't share their beliefs about Native Americans, but this scenario is possible. See Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel for real-world examples of societies losing technologies when they settle a new land.

[dangermom]

There have been an awful lot of threads about this over the past few years. Look around.

There are a lot of false assumptions about the events in the BoM. Many people think that the BoM claims that all Native Americans are descendants of the peoples described therein, which is not true. Scholars have thought for a long time that they were a small people, who intermarried with other local tribes and assimilated. They are thought to have lived in Central or South America, not what is now the US.

A careful reading of the BoM gives a somewhat different picture than popular assumption thinks. I'm not prepared to spend a lot of time going over it today, though. You may like to head over to www.fairlds.org for essays and a sometimes-less-than-helpful message board (there are sensible posters, and more than a few nutjobs making static).