Part 8 - Metallurgy

My wife became convinced that the Book of Mormon is not historical primarily because of metallurgy.  The Book of Mormon mentions many metal objects including steel swords, chariots, brass plates, gold plates, silver coins, and gold coins.  The working of several kinds of metal are mentioned in 2 Nephi 5:15.

And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance.

Keep in mind also that this was very early in the Book of Mormon when the total population of Lehi's band could not have been much more than 25 adults plus children.  This article on the Recovery from Mormonism website goes into more detail about the absurdity of expecting that such a small group could have possessed the expertise and industrial complex necessary to work so many different kinds of metals.  The author holds an MS degree in metallurgical engineering.

Each of the metals mentioned requires its own set of tools and skills to mine, process, and form into metal objects. Even without examining the archeological data, the story itself is extremely implausible, but the archeology also fails to support the specifics of the Book of Mormon.  While metallurgy did exist in ancient American, the most predominant metal artifacts are hammer-formed gold, silver, and copper trinkets.  Some areas of South American show evidence of smelting and casting, but the metal objects formed were still primarily ornamental rather than practical.  No evidence for steel production has ever been found.  More information is available in this article.

The lack of artifacts connecting the Book of Mormon with ancient America is most pronounced in case of coins.  Nephite currency is described in Alma 11:5-19

5 Now the reckoning is thus—a senine of gold, a seon of gold, a shum of gold, and a limnah of gold.

 6 A senum of silver, an amnor of silver, an ezrom of silver, and an onti of silver.

 7 A senum of silver was equal to a senine of gold, and either for a measure of barley, and also for a measure of every kind of grain.

 8 Now the amount of a seon of gold was twice the value of a senine.

 9 And a shum of gold was twice the value of a seon.

 10 And a limnah of gold was the value of them all.

 11 And an amnor of silver was as great as two senums.

 12 And an ezrom of silver was as great as four senums.

 13 And an onti was as great as them all.

 14 Now this is the value of the lesser numbers of their reckoning—

 15 A shiblon is half of a senum; therefore, a shiblon for half a measure of barley.

 16 And a shiblum is a half of a shiblon.

 17 And a leah is the half of a shiblum.

 18 Now this is their number, according to their reckoning.

 19 Now an antion of gold is equal to three shiblons.

These verses make it clear that the Nephites used gold and silver coins for currency.  If we combine this claim with an estimate of the size of the Nephite of civilization at its peak it is clear that there should have been many millions of Nephite coins produced.  In Mormon chapter 6, Mormon describes some of the final battles that led to the complete annihilation of the Nephites.  Verses 13 and 14 name 12 separate military leaders along with their 10,000 soldiers who were all killed (except for Moroni who survived even though the 10,000 under his command were all killed).  Verse 15 states that 10 more groups of 10,000 were killed.  These 22 groups of 10,000 along with Mormon's own 10,000 (mentioned in verse 10) makes a total of 230,000 Nephites killed in this final battle.  I will not address how absurd it is to have 230,000 killed in a battle until a future post.  This is just to get an idea of the size of Nephite civilization.  This chapter mentions that they also had the women and children with them, but it does not make clear whether they or older men were counted in the 230,000.  This means that there were anywhere from 230,000 to several million Nephites prior to this last battle.  Presumably there could have been even more earlier because of the attrition caused by years of war with the Lamanites.  Furthermore, the Lamanites are always described as being more numerous than the Nephites.  If they also used coins for currency then there are even more coins to discover.

So where are all these coins?  Not a single Nephite coin has ever been found.  No gold or silver coins of any kind have been found from pre-Columbian times in America.  Contrast this with the case for Roman coins during roughly the same time period as Mormon and Moroni.  This article describes the discovery of 10,000 Roman coins dating from 240 AD to 320 AD by a single amateur with a metal detector.  A casual perusal of sites such as this one and this one gives us an idea of the number and variety of coins that have been found in the old word, some dating from as early 2700 years ago.

Another point relative to metallurgy relates to the great battle mentioned above where 230,000 were killed.  The Book of Mormon describes the use of steel swords, chariots, and armor throughout the book.  Where are all the metal artifacts from this final battle?  No steel swords, chariots, or metal armor have ever been found from pre-Columbian times in America.

The case of metallurgy alone is a slam-dunk case against the Book of Mormon.  However, this is only one of many topics I will explore in these posts, each one just as convincing against the case for Book of Mormon historicity.  One flaw in the apologists' approach is that they address these issues one at a time.  It is their cumulative effect that makes it virtually inconceivable that the Book of Mormon is any more than a 19th century creation.