Moroni’s description of the world in which he now lives describes warfare, a warfare so widespread that “the whole face of this land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed, and no one knoweth the end of the war.” This is the precise conditions we see at this point in time in the Maya area. It is worthwhile to recall the statement cited earlier about the conditions after the arrival of the Teotihuacan influence in the area of the world we are associating with the Book of Mormon:
“Before the fourth century, we believe, warfare was not the wholesale slaughter that it later became. It was fought by rigidly observed codes – the intent not to destroy neighboring kingdoms but to take captives for sacrifice. Long before the Teotihuacan allies of Tikal arrived on the scene, the Maya War jaguars had prowled for victims on the open savannas of the lowlands. It was the changing of the rules of conduct and the intent of war associated with the new imagery that eventually led to the downfall of Maya Kingships… We suspect that the harnessing of Teotihuacan military statecraft to that of the Maya unleashed a slow-moving, ever-widening cycle of conflict and destruction.” (David Freidel, Linda Schele, Joy Parker. Maya Cosmos. William Morrow & Co., 1993, p. 323-4).
The epigraphic record of the Classic Maya is rife with depictions of warfare. Indeed, “few themes are more obtrusive in Classic Maya inscriptions and art than war.” David Webster. The Fall of the Ancient Maya. Thames & Hudson, 2002, p. 167). The epigraphic and archaeological record all support Moroni’s contention that “no one knoweth the end of the war.” Sadly, it was not just the wars that Moroni witnessed. It was a way of life and war that would continue in one form or another to the time of the conquest by the Spanish.