Why does the Book of Mormon often refer to the “four quarters of the earth”?

Thomas R. Valletta

“Book of Mormon writers commonly spoke of their land as being divided into four quarters. … Accordingly they described each area of their lands by reference to the cardinal directions, such as ‘the land northward’ and ‘the land southward.’ Recent research … shows that similar ideas existed in pre-Columbian America and the Old World” (Wirth, “Four Quarters,” 145).

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