Book of Mormon Metallurgy and Wishful Thinking
“Mormons and Archaeology: An Outside View”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (Summer 1973) pgs 40–48; “There is an inherent improbability in specific items that are mentioned in the Book of Mormon as having been brought to the New World by Jaredites and/or Nephites. Among these are the horse (extinct in the New World since about 7,000 B.C.), the chariot, wheat, barley, and metallurgy (true metallurgy based upon smelting and casting being no earlier in Mesoamerica than about 800 A.D.). The picture of this hemisphere between 2,000 B.C. and A.D. 421 presented in the book has little to do with the early Indian cultures as we know them, in spite of much wishful thinking.” – Michael D. Coe, Yale University
