1. Early Use of Plates.

References to the use of plates of metal or other substances for the keeping of records are not at all uncommon in recorded history. Important information-- treaties, sacred knowledge and history--was preserved by the ancients on parchment, wood, clay and stone, but especially in countries under considerable rainfall or rapid changes of temperature, great thoughts and events were preserved on something more durable--metal plates.

In the British Museum there are twenty-five silver plates, approximately eighteen by two inches, bound together by thongs, a Pali manuscript on which are beautifully engraved in Sinhalese characters, according to the legend, Buddha's first sermon preached at Benares, India. Also on display, next to the silver plates, is a very thin gold plate, approximately two by nine and a half inches on both sides of which is engraved, also beautifully in Javanese characters, a letter probably from one of the native princes.

In the Evkaf Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, there are some silver plates about one inch thick and 4 1/2 x 3 inches, on which is engraved a part of the Koran in fine script. (Museum number 1440.)

About 1254 B.C., after a long war between the Hittites, whose land was just north of Palestine, and the Egyptians, a treaty was concluded by Rameses II of Egypt and Khattusil, king of the Hittites. A translation of the Egyptian copy of the treaty begins:

"This is a copy of the contents of the silver tablet, which the great king of the Hittites, Khattusil, had caused to be made and which was presented to the Pharaoh by the hand of his ambassador Taltesub and his ambassador Remes, to propose friendship with the king Ramessu-Miamun (Ramses II)." (A. H. Sayce, The Hittites, 1925, p. 41.)

This was not an unusual thing at that time for according to Sayce, the famous scholar, "We may gather that the oldest writing material of the Hittites consisted of plates of metal, on the surface of which the characters were hammered out from behind." (Sayce, The Hittites, p. 170.)

"The kings of Egypt employed inscribed tablets of gold and silver and copper to honor their gods." (Seck, From the Pyramids to Paul, p. 224.) Rameses III says, "I made for thee great tablets of gold in beaten work, engraved with the great name of thy majesty, bearing my praises-- I made for thee great tablets of silver in beaten work, carved with the graver's tool bearing the decrees and the inventions of the houses and temples which I made Egypt." (Breasted, Ancient Records, paragraph 202.)

From time immemorial legal documents in general, as well as treaties, have been inscribed on metallic tablets, such as of brass. Polybius mentions (III. 26) that the treaties between Rome and Carthage written on plates were in his time still preserved in Rome. (Cambridge Bible, note on 1 Maccabees 8:22.)

The oldest Greek records are inscriptions carved in stone or engraved on metal surfaces; and treaties between Greek states were frequently engraved on bronze plates and attached to walls of temples. (Chambers Encyclopedia, 1927, vol. 10, pp. 755, 756.) Such bronze plates are now found in the National Museum in Athens.

But most interesting of all are the references in Hebrew history to records and inscriptions on metal. "And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like to the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD." (Exodus 39:30.) "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond; it is graven upon the tablet of their heart." (Jeremiah 17:1.)

Referring to these two passages Elder J. M.. Sjodahl concludes: "That proves beyond a question that the Israelites were familiar with engraved tablets, for otherwise the words of the prophet would have been unintelligible to them." (Sjodahl, p. 46.)

Isaiah, in recording instructions which the Lord gave to him, says: "Then said the Lord to me, Take a great tablet, and write upon it in easily legible characters, Speeding to the spoil, hastening to the prey. And get me reliable witnesses to attest the writing, Uriah the Priest, and Zechariah, the son of Jeberechiah." (8:1-2; Smith and Goodspeed translation). On this passage Dr. Adam Clarke in his Commentary states: "I have a metalline mirror found in Herculaneum which is not above three inches square. The prophet is commanded to take a mirror, or brazen polished tablet, not like these little hand mirrors, but a large one; large enough for him to engrave upon it in deep and lasting characters * * * with a workman's graving tool, the prophecy he was to deliver."

The Book of Maccabees (8:22) in the Apocrypha states: "And this is a copy of the writing which they (the Roman Senate) wrote back again on tablets of brass, and sent to Jerusalem, that it might be with them for a memorial of peace and confederacy." Later, in chapter 14, verses 16 to 18, it is recorded that the Spartans wrote to Simon, on tablets of brass, to renew the friendship which they had had with Judas and Jonathan his brethren.

Richard Watson, in his Bible and Theological Dictionary, in the article on writing, says: "The Hebrews went so far as to write their sacred books in gold, as we may learn from Josephus compared with Pliny." According to John Kitto lead plates were also used. (Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, Art. Lead.)

The contention that writing on plates was also to be found in the New World is supported by evidence mostly made available since the Book of Mormon was published. In the New World various metals have been used as material for writing. Copper alone and also alloyed with other metals has often been used. Recently, copper plates were found in Georgia by Dr. Warren K. Moorehead. (Improvement Era, 30:531.) Adair in his History of the North American Indians tells of five copper tablets and two brass ones among the Tuccabatchey Indians. Old Bracket, an Indian, gave the following description of them: "The shape of the five copper plates: One is a foot and a half long and seven inches wide, the other four are shorter and narrower. The shape of the two brass plates is circular, about a foot and a half in diameter." (Improvement Era 30:531.)

These records, according to tradition, "were given to them by the man we call God." (Roberts, 3:64, 65.)

The Book of Mormon plates were of gold. Gold was to be found in abundance in ancient America, especially in the highly developed civilizations, in Mexico and Peru. Indeed, the Inca of Peru bought his ransom from the Spaniards by filling a room 17 by 22 feet to a depth of 9 feet with gold. The worth of this gold was estimated at 3,500,000 pounds sterling. (Prescott, Conquest of Peru, pp. 205, 221.) Montezuma, the native ruler in Mexico, at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, late from "fair large dishes made like platters all of gold, very elaborately worked, as big as a large shield."

Marshall H. Saville in his book The Goldsmith's Art in Ancient Mexico tells of the fine quality of the gold workmanship and lists many of the gold articles that have been found, including several references to gold plates. (pp. 44, 175, etc.) As an instance of the fine art and craftsmanship in metal of the Indians, the Chimus of Peru are especially outstanding. They were skilled in hammering, casting, welding, plating, embossing, etc. A Hyatt Verrill says: "They wrought huge vessels of solid gold and of gold alloyed with silver and copper; objects of great beauty of form, magnificently chased, embossed and carved or decorated by open fretwork." (Under Peruvian Skies, p. 27.)

Skill such as this enabled the early Americans to make thin plates of gold suitable for engraving with characters, the quality of which is attested to by Rivero and Tschudi, who say: "The hieroglyphics of the Mexicans were very distinct and grayed on stone or metal." (Tschudi, p. 105.)

During the course of excavating for a cistern near Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1847, a gold plate was discovered three or four inches in length, averaging about three-fourths of an inch in width, about one-eighth of an inch in thickness, with the edges scalloped. In the face of it was beautifully set another plate of the same material, and fastened together by two pins, running through both. This latter plate was full of ancient raised characters, beautifully engraved upon its surface; the whole exhibiting fine workmanship. The plate was examined by Dr. Wise, a learned Rabbi of the Jewish synagogue in Cincinnati, an editor of a Hebrew paper there, who pronounced the characters to be mostly ancient Egyptian. (Millennial Star, Vol. 19, p. 103, facsimile of plate on p. 632.)

Padre Gay mentions (Historia de Oaxaca, Vol. 1, cap. 4, p. 62) that the Mexican 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 hieroglyphs." (Saville, The Goldsmith's Art in Ancient Mexico, 1920, p. 175.)

"Their graves (Indians of Colombia) contained plates of gold and tablets of earth (clay) with various curious characters which probably had among them conventional significance." (Geografia y Compendio Historico del Estado Antioquia en Columbia, Paris, 1885, p. 517.)

Although most of the articles of gold have found their way into the melting pot, there are still some which have been preserved to the present time, as for example, in the Field Museum, Chicago, and the British Museum, London. Elder Melvin J. Ballard describes some plates he saw thus: "Brother Pratt and myself saw in a museum in Lima, Peru, a stack of gold sheets almost identical 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, not a thing upon either side but just gold sheets, prepared for just such work as the plates of the Book of Mormon." (Deseret News, April 30, 1932.)