The way the Nephites kept track of their historical records changed with the first year of the reign of the judges. At that point, the previous sporadic listing of years from the time Lehi left Jerusalem became a very complete listing of years. At first, the counts were fixed to the reign of the judges and later were altered to have a starting point with the signs of Christ’s birth. Mormon’s personal record continues the later tradition of accounting for years, allowing us to either directly or indirectly date the events he describes for his life.

The following is a summary of the years that can be discerned for events in Mormon’s life. It must be noted that all years are given as they appear in the text. I suggest that these be understood as Nephite years, which may have marked a year that followed a lunar calendar or some other calendar that counted a year as fewer than the normally assumed 365 days. I have added the AD to provide a generalized link to our modern calendar (starting at AD 1). It is also presumed that the listed ages would be in Nephite years. During a single lifetime, there would not be a significant variation, although in his later years Mormon’s age according to our calendar might be slightly younger that it would be recorded in Nephite years.

AD 310. Born

This date is not stated in the text. We learn in Mormon 2:2 that he was 16 in the year 326. Simple subtraction gives us the birth year. There is no indication of when during the year he was born. We learn that Mormon’s father takes him southward to the land of Zarahemla, indicating that for at least his first years, Mormon was living in the northern reaches of Nephite lands, but south of the land Desolation/Northward. The Nephites will be driven north of that line during Mormon’s lifetime.

AD 320 (10 years old). Ammaron finds Mormon and commissions him to retrieve plates when Mormon is twenty-four.

This date is also calculated. Mormon indicates that he is ten at the time (Mormon 1:2).

AD 321 (11). Mormon’s father takes him south to the land of Zarahemla.

Mormon 1:6 indicates that when Mormon was 11 his father took him to the land of Zarahemla. In that same year (Mormon 1:8) there was war between the Nephites and Lamanites. Lamanites come up from the south, “in the borders of Zarahemla, by the waters of Sidon.” This suggests the typical entry of Lamanites from the south, near the city of Manti—which may or may not have continued to this time. After many battles, the Lamanites are repulsed.

It is a plausible assumption that Mormon’s father was a military man and perhaps was training his son by taking him near the engagement with the Lamanites.

AD 321-322 (11-12). Lamanite incursion is rebuffed. Peace begins.

It appears that the peace occurred in the same year that Mormon’s father took him near the battle. So much had happened this year that peace may have begun near the end of AD 321.

AD 325 (15). Mormon is “visited of the Lord.”

The date is derived from Mormon being 15 (Mormon 1:15). Mormon “was visited of the Lord.” At that time, he was forbidden to preach to Nephites. “And there were no gifts from the Lord, and the Holy Ghost did not come upon any, because of their wickedness and unbelief” (Mormon 1:14).

AD 325 (15). Robbers infest the land.

“And these Gadianton robbers, who were among the Lamanites, did infest the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof began to hide up their treasures in the earth; and they became slippery, because the Lord had cursed the land, that they could not hold them, nor retain them again.

And it came to pass that there were sorceries, and witchcrafts, and magics; and the power of the evil one was wrought upon all the face of the land, even unto the fulfilling of all the words of Abinadi, and also Samuel the Lamanite (Mormon 1:18–19).

The appearance of the Gadianton robbers is a significant marker in Mormon’s writing. In the book of Helaman, Mormon had noted: “And behold, in the end of this book ye shall see that this Gadianton did prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi” (Helaman 2:13). The explicit inclusion of the Lamanites presages the coming end of the Nephites. From this point on, the end is a foregone conclusion and Mormon is simply relating the details.

AD 325 (15). War with the Lamanites (and Gadiantons, though they are not explicitly mentioned).

“In that same year” there was a war between Nephites and Lamanites. Mormon was appointed leader of the armies. (Mormon 2:1).

AD 326 (16). Mormon leads the Nephite armies.

“Therefore in my sixteenth year I did go forth. . . . 326 years had passed away.” (Mormon 2:2).

AD 327 (17). Lamanites come “with exceedingly great power.”

The Nephites were driven from the cities of Angola and David. The Nephites came to the land Joshua, which was in the borders west by the seashore. The date comes from Mormon 2:3.

AD 330 (20). Mormon is in the land Joshua.

Mormon is in Joshua and repulses a Lamanite attack. See Mormon 2:6-9. The date is listed in verse 9.

AD 334 (24). Mormon retrieves a set of plates.

This is a date that is imputed from the command Ammaron gave Mormon to retrieve the plates and become the historian. “Therefore, when ye are about twenty and four years old I would that ye should remember the things that ye have observed concerning this people; and when ye are of that age go to the land Antum, unto a hill which shall be called Shim; and there have I deposited unto the Lord all the sacred engravings concerning this people.” (Mormon 1:3)

Mormon didn’t record that he retrieved the records when he was twenty-four. However, this appears to have been an oversight. It is unlikely that he would have forgotten such an important request.

In Mormon 2:17, when discussing a second visit to the land near the hill Shim, he mentioned: “and I had gone according to the word of Ammaron.” I see this statement as a realization that he hadn’t mentioned that he had done as asked, so he is reminded by being in this location.

The next question is what Mormon took from the hill. At this point, Ammaron had asked Mormon to be the Nephite historian just as Ammaron (and previous recordkeepers) had been. There is no indication that Ammaron foresaw the Book of Mormon, or that even Mormon had that idea at the time he went to the hill Shim as Ammaron requested.

The hill Shim contained the entirety of the Nephite archive. The dimensions of the gold plates delivered to Joseph Smith make it fairly clear that the original records from which Mormon abridged his record had to have been much larger. It is plausible that each dynastic book was bound as a set of plates (representing a book of Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, etc.). However, the book of Lehi covered nearly four hundred years and it is therefore likely that multiple sets of plates were required to hold the texts covering those years.

Mormon indicated in Words of Mormon 1:3 that he had to search the archive to find the small plates that Amaleki gave to king Benjamin. This suggests that there were sufficient numbers of collected plates that it was not obvious which would have been the small plates. All of this suggests that Mormon took only what was needed to be the historian for his own lifetime, much as others would have done. The entirety of the archive was not retrieved until later.

AD 344 (34). The Nephites are somewhat repentant and there is short peace.

The date is from Mormon 2:15. The Nephites had sort of repented, but Mormon doesn’t count it as a righteous repentance. There appears to have been a time of peace, but severe wars led Mormon to say: “I saw that the day of grace was passed with them, both temporally and spiritually; for I saw thousands of them hewn down in open rebellion against their God and heaped up as dung upon the face of the land. And thus, three hundred and forty and four years had passed away” (Mormon 2:15). The duration of the peace is unknown.

AD 345 (35). Hostilities begin again.

The date is from Mormon 2:16. The Nephites began to flee before Lamanites. They proceeded to the land of Jashon. The city of Jashon is near “where Ammaron had deposited the records unto the Lord” (Mormon 2:17), which was the hill Shim. It was at this point that Mormon inserted the aside that he had already gone to the hill Shim for the records. Thus, the entry that he retrieved the record (we must assume that it was when he was twenty-four, as directed) comes ten years later. The fact that he is near that location reminded Mormon that he had not recorded the information in the correct year.

“In this year” the Nephites were forced to the land Shem.

AD 346 (36). The Lamanites come again.

The date comes from Mormon 2:22. The Nephites defeated the Lamanites and Gadiantons and proceeded to recover lost territory until they had “again taken possession of the lands of our inheritance” (Mormon 2:27). That might indicate to the land of Zarahemla, though possibly only to Mormon’s homeland (which may have been in Bountiful). Zarahemla was further south and had ceased to be an important Nephite center at least by the time it was destroyed in the cataclysm announcing Christ’s Old World death (see 3 Nephi 8:25). Zarahemla was rebuilt a couple of decades later, but there is no indication that it was an important Nephite city (4 Nephi 1:8).

AD 350 (40). A treaty cedes lands south of narrow pass to the Lamanites and Gadiantons.

The date comes from Mormon 2:28. This begins a ten-year peaceful interim before war begins again.

AD 360 (50). King of the Lamanites sends a letter initiating hostilities.

The date comes from Mormon 3:4 (also says 10 years had passed). Mormon gathered the Nephite people at the city Desolation, in the land Desolation. The fact that Mormon made sure to use the name Desolation for this city and land above the narrow neck intentionally connected it to the Jaredites and their destruction. Mormon continues to foreshadow the inevitable end of the Nephites. He continues to link that destruction conceptually to the Jaredites, and also the Gadiantons who he used as the contemporary representatives of the Jaredite evils which led to their destruction.

AD 361 (51). Lamanites attack the city Desolation.

The Lamanites are repulsed. The date comes from Mormon 3:7.

AD 362 (52). Lamanites come against the Nephites again. Mormon refuses to lead the Nephites.

Again, they are repulsed. The date comes from Mormon 3:7. Because of Nephite pride in their victories, Mormon refuses to lead them (Mormon 3:11). This must be in year 362 as the next event is 363. It is also possible that it could have begun in the year 361, as the date is implied from the next event.

AD 363 (53). Nephites “go up to battle out of the land Desolation.”

The Nephites are driven back and the Lamanites take the city Desolation. The Nephites retreat to Teancum. The date comes from Mormon 4:1.

AD 364 (54). The city of Teancum withstands the Lamanite assault.

The Nephites retake the city (and land?) Desolation. The date comes from Mormon 4:7.

AD 366 (56). Lamanites wreak terrible destruction on the Nephites.

The Lamanites conquer the cities of Desolation and Teancum. The date comes from Mormon 4:10.

AD 367 (58). The Lamanites are driven from Nephite lands.

Based on the treaty of AD 350, the Nephite lands are all north of the narrow neck. They no longer includ the traditional cities of Zarahemla and Bountiful. The date comes from Mormon 4:15.

AD 375 (65). Lamanites come again. Mormon retrieves the Nephite archives from the hill Shim. Mormon again leads the Nephites.

The date comes from Mormon 4:17. The Lamanites did not come again until AD 375 when they came with “all their powers” (Mormon 4:17). The Nephites were driven from the city Desolation. They fled to Boaz but were forced from there as well. Mormon then noted: “And now I, Mormon, seeing that the Lamanites were about to overthrow the land, therefore I did go to the hill Shim, and did take up all the records which Ammaron had hid up unto the Lord” (Mormon 4:23). It is important to note that he takes “all the records which Ammaron had hid up.” This was after taking a record from the hill forty years before. It is at this time that he realizes that the end is coming and therefore retrieves all the Nephite records to keep them from Lamanite hands.

I see the description: “And from this time forth did the Nephites gain no power over the Lamanites, but began to be swept off by them even as a dew before the sun” (Mormon 4:18), as the event that is referenced in the letter Mormon wrote to Moroni, recorded as Moroni 9:3, where Mormon fears destruction of the Nephites.

I put the second letter to Moroni (Moroni 9) in the year 375, after the defeat at Boaz (Mormon 4:20/ Moroni 9:2) and after retrieving the records from the hill Shim (Mormon 4:23). It is at that time that Mormon noted: “wherefore, write somewhat a few things, if thou art spared and I shall perish and not see thee; but I trust that I may see thee soon; for I have sacred records that I would deliver up unto thee” (Moroni 9:24). I do not see this statement as indicating that Mormon has finished his book, but rather than he knows that he will have records to give to his son after they meet again.

It is only after Mormon retrieved all the records from the hill Shim that that Mormon has the records necessary to write his Book of Mormon. The Nephites fled to the city Jordan (Mormon 5:3). The wording of that verse allows for the Nephites to have arrived in Jordan after the defeat at Boaz and therefore perhaps in AD 375-76. That allows at about five years for Mormon to write his Book of Mormon before the Nephites are forced from Jordan and then on to Cumorah.

Mormon 5:1 does not give a specific year but follows directly the information that Mormon retrieved the records from the hill Shim. It is in Mormon 5:1 that we learn that Mormon “did repent of the oath which I had made that I would no more assist them; and they gave me command again of their armies.”

AD 379 (69). The Lamanites destroy those who are not located in strongholds.

The date comes from Mormon 5:5.

AD 380 (70). The Nephites flee Jordan.

While in the city of Jordan for 5 years, I suggest that Mormon planned, and significantly composed, his Book of Mormon. The date is from Mormon 5:6.

AD 384 (74). The Nephite demise.

Mormon and his people arrive at Cumorah. Mormon writes a letter to request a date for battle. That year sees the Nephite demise. The date comes from Mormon 6:5.