© 2025 The Interpreter Foundation. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
All content by The Interpreter Foundation, unless otherwise specified, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available here.
Interpreter Foundation is not owned, controlled by or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All research and opinions provided on this site are the sole responsibility of their respective authors, and should not be interpreted as the opinions of the Board, nor as official statements of LDS doctrine, belief or practice.
There is an example of PreColumbian writing on a gold disk, Disk G, from Chichen Itza. Although it is not a plate, the concept is the same. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/722159
Also as far as finding Book of Mormon names, there actually has been the name of Aaron found in the form of the Maya name “Siyaj Kʼakʼ. In Mesoamerica this form of converting the meaning of words and names (called calques) is a common practive in Mesoamerica. https://www.academia.edu/115565518/Book_of_Mormon_Name_etymological_meaning_of_born_of_fire_or_conceived_in_flame_
Great article! While it’s true there’s no technically no official writing on metal plates, we do know of indigenous practices of making inscriptions on metal plates. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagwagane
Thank you for this series. I am grateful for the research and presentation. At the risk of displaying my ignorance and misunderstanding, I do have a question regarding claim number 208. It is my understanding that at the archaeological site Palenque, in southern Mexico, there is an inscription of a king named Kish, a book of Mormon name. This name would not have been known to Joseph Smith at the time of the Book of Mormon’s translation. Wouldn’t this inscription be at least partial confirmation for inscriptions with Book of Mormon names? Thank you again.
Unfortunately, the Kish reading was based on old information that misread a glyph. The name isn’t there at all based on the new phonetic reading of the glyph. I thank Mark Wright for this. I think the paper was presented but maybe not published? He titled it “Kish this one goodbye.”
Much thanks. I appreciate the clarification