k and FARMS, 1992), 212–214; 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; John W. Welch, “A Steady Stream of Significant Recognitions,” in Echoes and Evidences, 372–374.
- 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. David S. Hyman, Precolumbian Cements: A Study of the Calcareous Cements in Prehispanic Mesoamerican Building Construction (PhD dissertation, John Hopkins University, 1970), ii.
- 4. Hyman, Precolumbian Cements, ii; sec. 6, p. 15.
- 5. Matthew G. Wells, “Cement in Ancient Mesoamerica: A Survey,” unpublished manuscript, October 1991 (updated February 1998), p. 2. A copy of this report is in Book of Mormon Central’s possession.
- 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. Rene Millon and James A. Bennyhoff, “A Long Architectural Sequence at Teotihuacán,” American Antiquity 26, no. 4 (1961): 516–523; Rebecca Sload, “Radiocarbon Dating of Teotihucán Mapping Project TE28,” FAMSI, 2007, online at famsi.org, each mention finding charcoal underneath concrete structures which was radiocarbon dated to ca. 50 BC–AD 110, although both dated the use of concrete at their respective sites to later phases of development. For Latter-day Saint discussion connecting Teotihuacán to the land northward, 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.
- 10. This story is related in Heber J. Grant, Conference Report, April 1929, p. 129; cited in Matthew Roper, “Exceedingly Expert in the Working of Cement (Howlers #9),” Ether’s Cave: A Place for Book of Mormon Research, July 1, 2013, online at http://etherscave.blogspot.com/2013/07/exceedingly-expert-in-working-of-... (accessed August 8, 2016). Roberts to Grant, March 1, 1932, identified the antagonist as a Mr. Morgan, brother of John Morgan.
- 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. Sorenson, “How Could Joseph Smith Write So Accurately,” 287. Welch, “A Steady Stream,” 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.”
- 13. Welch, “A Steady Stream,” 274.
- 14. See Book of Mormon Central, “Did Ancient Israelites Write in Egyptian? (1 Nephi 1:2),” KnoWhy 4 (January 5, 2016); Book of Mormon Central, “Why Are Horses Mentioned in the Book of Mormon? (Enos 1:21),” KnoWhy 75 (April 11, 2016); Book of Mormon Central, “Why was Coriantumr’s Record Engraved on a ‘Large Stone’? (Omni 1:20),” KnoWhy 77 (April 13, 2016); Book of Mormon Central, “How Can Barley in the Book of Mormon Feed Faith? (Mosiah 9:9),” KnoWhy 87 (April 27, 2016); Book of Mormon Central, “What is the Nature and Use of Chariots in the Book of Mormon? (Alma 18:9),” KnoWhy 126 (June 21, 2016).
- 15. H. Curtis Wright, “Introduction,” in John A. Tve