Evidence #103 | September 19, 2020
Book of Mormon Evidence: Cement
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
Abstract
The use of cement as a building material in ancient Mesoamerica is consistent with the reported timing and (according to some geographical theories) the location of its use and development in the Book of Mormon.Cement in the Book of Mormon
Mormon reported that because of “much contention and many dissensions” in the mid-first century BC, some Nephites “did travel to an exceedingly great distance” into “the land northward,” where they found “large bodies of water and many rivers” (Helaman 3:3–4). Because there was “little timber” in the region, these people “became exceedingly expert in the working of cement,” and thus built “houses of cement” and even built “many cities, both of wood and of cement” (vv. 7, 9, 11).
Cement in Ancient America
Ancient American cement was made using limestone, and has, thus far, only been found in Mesoamerica.1 While some people were aware of pre-Columbian American cement in the early 19th century,2 its origins, history, and development remained obscure well into the 20th century. In 1970, for instance, David S. Hyman was unable “to uncover clues relative to the origins of American cement manufacturing.”3 The earliest samples he found dated to the first century AD but were so “technically well advanced” that Hyman was convinced there must have been earlier, less developed forms.4
Since that time, earlier precedents have indeed been found. Non-structural lime plasters and stuccos were used as early as 1100–600 BC.5 During the Middle Preclassic period (ca. 800–300 BC), “the Maya of the lowlands had discovered … that if limestone fragments were burnt, and the resulting powder mixed with water, a white plaster of great durability was created.”6
According to Maya experts Michael D. Coe and Stephen Houston, it was not until the Late Preclassic period (300 BC–AD 250) that the Maya “quickly realized the structural value of a concrete-like fill made from limestone rubble” and lime-rich mud.7 This led to “an explosion of activity around 100 BC” in the Northern Petén.8
In the Valley of Mexico, fully developed cement appeared at Teotihuacán from seemingly out of nowhere in the 1st century AD.9 By AD 300, “most inhabitants lived in substantial plaster-and-concrete compounds composed of multiple apartments.”10
Conclusion
The “explosion” of cement building activity in Mesoamerica around 100 BC nicely corresponds to the reported timing and (according to some geographical theories) the general location of its reported use in the Book of Mormon. John L. Sorenson observed, “The first-century-BC appearance of cement in the Book of Mormon agrees strikingly with the archaeology of central Mexico.”11 Moreover, both Sorenson and John W. Welch remarked, “No one in the nineteenth century could have known that cement, in fact, was extensively used in Mesoamerica beginning at about this time, the middle of the first century BC.”12
Book of Mormon Central, “When Did Cement Become Common in Ancient America? (Helaman 3:7),” KnoWhy 174 (August 26, 2016).
John L. Sorenson, “How Could Joseph Smith Write So Accurately about Ancient American Civilization?,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2002), 287–288.
Matthew G. Wells and John W. Welch, “Concrete Evidence for the Book of Mormon,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1992), 212–214.
- 1. See Edwin R. Littman, “Ancient Mesoamerican Mortars, Plasters, and Stuccos: Comalcalco, Part I,” American Antiquity 23, no. 2 (1957): 135; David S. Hyman, Precolumbian Cements: A Study of the Calcareous Cements in Prehispanic Mesoamerica Building and Construction (PhD dissertation, John Hopkins University, 1970), i; George Kvbler, The Art and Archetacture of Ancient America (Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1975), 201; Raymundo Rivera-Villarreal and Stefan Krayer, “Ancient Structural Concrete in Mesoamerica,” Concrete International, June 1996, 67.
- 2. In a letter written to President Heber J. Grant, dated March 1, 1932, B. H. Roberts shared some sources from the late 18th and early 19th century which mentioned the use of cement in the construction of buildings by pre-Columbian Native Americans. A copy of this letter is in Book of Mormon Central’s possession.
- 3. Hyman, Precolumbian Cements, ii.
- 4. Hyman, Precolumbian Cements, ii; sec. 6, p. 15.
- 5. See María Isabel Villaseñor Alonso, Lowland Maya Lime Plaster Technology: A Diachronic Approach (PhD dissertation, University College London, 2009), 47–50.
- 6. Michael D. Coe and Stephen Houston, The Maya, 9th edition (London, UK: Thames and Hudson, 2015), 81.
- 7. Coe and Houston, The Maya, 81. The full quote mentions “rubble and marl,” which is a “lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and silt.” See Wikipedia, s.v., “Marl,” online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marl (accessed August 9, 2016).
- 8. Coe and Houston, The Maya, 81.
- 9. See Hyman, Precolumbian Cements, ii; 6.15.
- 10. George L. Cowgill, “Teotihuacán (México, Mexico),” in Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia, ed. Susan Toby Evans and David L. Webster (New York, NY: Routledge, 2001), 722. Teotihuacán is in the land northward of some Book of Mormon geography models. See John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1985), 266–267; Joseph L. Allen and Blake J. Allen, Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, revised edition (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2011), 193–213; Brant A. Gardner, Traditions of the Fathers (Salt Lake City, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2015), 327–337.
- 11. John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2013), 322.
- 12. John L. Sorenson, “How Could Joseph Smith Write So Accurately about Ancient American Civilization?,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2002),” 287; John W. Welch, “A Steady Stream of Significant Recognitions,” in Echoes and Evidences,” 372–373, differs only slightly in wording: “No one in the nineteenth century could have known that cement, in fact, was extensively used in Mesoamerica beginning largely at this time, the middle of the first century BC.”