Alma 2:19-20 says that, “the Nephites did pursue the Amlicites all that day, and did slay them with much slaughter … And it came to pass that when Alma could pursue the Amlicites no longer he caused that his people should pitch their tents in the valley of Gideon … for the night.” The logical assumption in reading these two verses is probably that the battle began at the hill Amnihu and progressed to the valley of Gideon all in the same day. (Maybe from sunrise to a little before sunset. It usually takes a little light to pitch a tent for the night and get organized.) [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
“The Nephites Did Pitch Their Tents for the Night”
According to John Sorenson, even though Bernal Diaz and other Spanish historians have mentioned that the Aztec soldiers “erected their huts” in the field, critics still complain that for the Book of Mormon the comparison is inadequate because the Aztecs were of central Mexico rather than southern Mexico. In reality the Aztecs fought or had garrisons in many parts of Mesoamerica, including Chiapas. No groups who interacted with them could have failed to know about their tents (or vice versa). If the Aztecs, who were great cultural copycats, were smart enough to figure out field shelter for their soldiers, were other Mesoamericans so benighted that they had never solved the same problem over millennia of warfare? Hassig’s answer is self-evidently correct: “Given Mesoamerican technology, any material innovation in warfare could diffuse rapidly and come within the grasp of every group.”
Critics respond by saying that the Aztec “tiendas” were known only at the time of the Conquest, about one thousand years after the end of the Nephite civilization. The reader must understand that even for the Aztec tents, the only evidence we have is in the historical documents written by the Spanish historians; the evidence is not in archaeological findings. So if archaeological evidence is lacking for the temporary overnight “tiendas,” “chozas,” or “jacales,” of the Aztecs less than five centuries ago, then what hope has an archaeologist of finding the still slimmer traces of a temporary encampment dated two thousand years before that? Until archaeologists come up with an operational solution to this dilemma, it seems sensible to accept the Book of Mormon as documentary evidence of tents in the first century B.C. on a par with historical testimonies for the sixteenth century A.D. [John L. Sorenson, "Viva Zapato! Hurray for the Shoe! in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 6, Num. 1, pp. 333-335] [See the commentary on 2 Nephi 5:7; Mosiah 2:6; Mosiah 18:34; Alma 46:31; Mormon 6:4]
Note* John Tvedtnes mentions that he knows of only one instance (Timna) where remnants of an ancient tent have been found in the territory of ancient Israel, despite the frequent mention of tents in the Bible. In this light, the discussion of the lack of evidence for tents in ancient Mesoamerica loses some of its impact. [John Tvedtnes, “Review” of Brent Lee Metcalfe, ed., New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 6, Num. 1, p. 30]
Geographical [Theory Map]: Alma 2:15-20 The Amlicite War Begins--An All Day Battle (5th Year)
Alma 2:21-34 ([Illustration]) The Amlicites &* Lamanites march to the west bank of Sidon