Metal Plates in the Ancient World

Metal Plates In The Ancient World

By Elder Cecil E. McGavin

Author of “Cumorah’s Gold Bible” and “Mormonism and Masonry.”

THE Prophet Joseph Smith did many things which no impostor would have done. In fact, most of his work was contrary to what the world generally regarded as orthodox. No deceiver would have related that the Father introduced His Son during the vision in the grove and that the Son gave all the instructions to him, yet the scriptures make it clear that Jehovah was the Deity who was directly concerned with the prophets and seers during the history of man’s existence upon the earth.

One of his statements that was ridiculed extensively and accepted by many as proof that he was a deceiver, was his assertion that the historical records of the Nephites were inscribed on plates of gold. This idea was held up to ridicule from the time it was first reported that a volume of gold plates awaited the attention of this young seer. One intent upon deceiving, probably would have chosen a more popular medium, such as parchment or papyrus.

As books were written against the Book of Mormon, their authors continued to treat with contempt all mention of gold plates. One writer made the following sarcastic comment:

“Nephi is again commanded to manufacture more plates to engrave upon, and in this land of plenty, materials were plenty. The art of making them wihout materials is probably lost. Gold, silver and copper ores are found, and no others mentioned, but brass plates can be made, doubtless, by Nephi, out of gold, silver and copper, as well as out of nothing”—E. D. Howe, “History of the Mormons,” p. 35.

One minister, who must have been woefully ignorant of ancient history, declared that the method of writing on metal sheets “was a new thing under the sun. Solomon was wrong. He had not fathomed the fertile imagination of this modern man, who assembled such a magnificent array of metal tablets, brass and gold, as the whole world had never dreamed of before.”

METAL PLATES USED

There is ample evidence, however, that metal plates were used to write upon in ancient times. In I Maccabees 8:22, we read that a peace treaty signed by two rulers in Palestine long before the birth of Christ, was written upon a plate of brass.

In Chamber’s “Encyclopedia.” we read that:

“From time immemorial legal documents in general, as well as treaties, have been inscribed on tablets of brass. … The Greeks, too, wrote on metal. The oldest Greek records are inscriptions carved in stone or engraved on metal surfaces. Treaties between Greek States were frequently engraved on bronze plates and attached to walls of temples.”

In Bishop Watson’s “Bible and Theological Dictionary,” we are told that “the Hebrews went so far as to write their sacred books in gold.” Kitto declares that lead plates were commonly used for such a purpose.

KNOWN BY ANCIENTS

Bishop Watson said further: “Those books which were inscribed on tablets of wood, lead, brass, or ivory, were connected together by rings at the back, through which a rod was passed to carry them by. The first books were in the form of blocks and tables, of which we find frequent mention in Scripture, under the appellation of Sepher, that is, square table. That form which obtains among us (he quotes from Pliny) is the square, composed of separate leaves; which was also known, though little used, among the ancients.”

Other critics have complained that if the goldsmith’s art was once known by the ancient inhabitants of America, it is strange that we find no sets of metal plates among the ruins or pre-historic civilization, or that the Spaniards did not preserve examples when they collected the golden spoil of the land and sent it across the sea to Spain. The Spaniards’ thirst for gold was so strong that if they had found sets of gold plates containing writing, they would likely have gone to the melting pot, as did tons of golden ornaments taken from the temples.

The historian, Prescott, has written of the vandalism of the conquerors when the beautiful temples of Mexico and neighbouring countries were pillaged:

“The business of melting down the plate was instrusted to the Indian goldsmiths, who were thus required to undo the work of their own hands. They toiled night and day, but such was the quantity to be re-cast, that it consumed a full month. When the whole was reduced to bars of a uniform standard, they were nicely weighed, under the superintendence of the royal inspectors. The total amount of gold was found to be one million, three hundred and twenty-six thousand, five hundred and thirty-nine pesos de oro, which, allowing for the greater value of money in the 16th century, would be equivalent, probably, at the present time, to near three million and a half pounds sterling … ”—Prescott, “Peru,” p. 336.

A recent scientist has written of the ancient metal craftsmen in this land:    

“They cast, hammered and welded bronze into weapons, utensils and ornaments. They drew metals into wire, and even possessed some lost art of plating one metal with another. Many of their copper masks are as perfectly plated with gold as though done by the electrolytic process; there are copper objects plated with silver, and copper bells with metal as thin as paper, so thin, it seems impossible that they could have been cast or hammered, and appearing far more as if produced by depositing a copper solution on a wax or similar form.”— A. Hyatt Verrill, “Under Peruvian Skies,” p. 27.

SAW GOLD SHEETS

Though all the treasures the Spaniards procured reached the melting pot, there are still to be seen examples of the goldsmith’s art resembling the plates Joseph Smith described. Dr. Saville has said of such discoveries:

“Padre Gay mentions that the Mixtecan Indians sold to some European antiquarians, very thin plates of gold, evidently worked with the hammer, which their ancestors had been able to preserve, and on which were engraved ancient hieroglyphics.”—R. M. Saville, “The Goldsmith’s Art in Ancient Mexico,” p. 175.

Elder Melvin J. Ballard has given the following description of gold plates he saw in Peru:

“Brother Pratt and myself saw in a museum in Lima, Peru, a stack of gold sheets almost indentical with the size of the Book of Mormon sheets, approximately eight inches long and seven inches wide, as thin as paper. The whole stack was nearly an inch thick, and not a thing upon either side but just gold sheets, prepared for just such work as the plates of the Book of Mormon.”—The Deseret News, April 30th, 1932.

OTHER PLATES FOUND

Several other plates have been found in America, such as the famous Kinderhook Plates and the Tuccabatchey Plates, most of them bearing hieroglyphic writing.

Thousands of people have seen the gold and silver plates in the British Museum, and the two sheets of gold and silver found in the cornerstone of an old building in Persia have been well publicized. The inscription on these sheets of metal found in Persia gave the date of 515 B.C., as the time they were deposited.

And thus another argument against the “Gold Bible” falls to the ground. The spade continues to uncover valuable evidence in defence of this sublime book, yet the spirit of testimony and truth that is found on every page is worth more than a thousand restored temples or chests full of plates of gold. In the words of Isaiah, truth has sprung from the earth and righteousness has looked from heaven.