Scripture Study

The Know

As Moroni concludes his portion of the Book of Mormon, and indeed the entire book itself, he announces his intent to “seal up these records” (Moroni 10:2). Moroni did not specify how he planned to seal up the record, but when he returned as an angel to reveal the plates to Joseph Smith, the record was found “deposited in a stone box . . . formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement” (Joseph Smith—History 1:51–52). While many people are understandably fascinated by the gold plates and other artifacts that came out of this stone box, few have stopped to consider the box itself as one of the tangible artifacts of the Restoration. As Anthony Sweat observed,

Often overlooked, the stone box from which the plates were retrieved is one of the first physical evidences of Joseph’s origin story of the Book of Mormon plates and text. . . . Ironically, while much of Joseph’s later persecution may have arisen out of others doubting the existence and possession of golden plates, originally the difficulty was due to the exact opposite: certain persons were convinced he had actually retrieved the record. Part of their certainty was due to their interaction with the place where the plates were buried.1

Witnesses to the Box

David Whitmer first heard rumors about the gold plates from young men in Palmyra who were certain Joseph really had them. When David asked them how they knew, they explained that it was because “they had seen the place that he had taken them from, on the hill Cumorah, about two miles from Palmyra, New York.”2 Josh Gehly has noted, “Ironically, it was these enemies who forcefully convinced the future witness that Joseph Smith Jr. had indeed found something.”3

David himself eventually went to the hill and saw the stone box there on three different occasions.4 Oliver Cowdery also visited the spot on the hill and provided a detailed description of the box.5 By the late nineteenth century, the exposed box had washed down the hill and the slabs of stone had been hauled away.6 As Gehly has noted, however, the testimony from believers combined with “the admission by enemies that they had seen the ‘place that he had taken [the plates] from’ secures the cemented [stone] box in reality.”7

Ancient Records and Relics in Stone Boxes

The basic concept of storing records and other relics in stone boxes was likely familiar to Moroni from practices among neighboring ancient cultures. During recent excavations of the Templo Mayor at the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, “a small chest made of volcanic stone” was discovered.8 The stone box dated to the reign of Moctezuma I (circa 1440–1469), but the relics found inside the box were from a much earlier period, between 500 BC and AD 680. The sacred objects were placed in the stone repository and buried in the foundation of the temple as an offering to the Aztec rain god, Tlaloc.9

Under the belltower of the colonial-era church at Santiago Atitlán, four carved stone boxes were also found that had apparently been buried by Indigenous Maya as foundation caches at the time of the church’s construction. Among the boxes’ contents was “a triangular-shaped obsidian piece with an incised design,” which a local shaman identified as an “instrument for seeing” that “the ancestors utilized to divine the future.”10

A carved stone box found in the Hun Nal Ye cave in central Guatemala “dates to the late phase of the Early Classic period, approximately the late-fifth or sixth centuries.”11 The dimensions of the box are consistent with the size of surviving Maya codices, and seated figures reading from a screenfold book are carved into the sides of the box.12 This has led some scholars to propose that “the box originally held a codex.”13

In the Old World, numerous examples of inscribed metal plates have been found in stone boxes.14 These are usually found in the foundation stones of ancient temples. Perhaps the most famous example are the gold and silver plates of Darius found at Persepolis that date to approximately 516 BC. Examples from Mesopotamia demonstrate that the practice goes back to the second millennium BC.15

The Construction of Moroni’s Box

Moroni’s stone box, placed in the Hill Cumorah, was likely constructed from local materials after Moroni had identified the divinely appointed place to bury the record.16 A geological survey of the surrounding region identified a wide variety of large stones with at least one smooth, flat side available to use in the construction of such a box.17 Perhaps more significant is the availability of all the needed ingredients to make durable cement that could have sealed the box for 1,400 years.

Moroni would have been familiar with cement making techniques known to the Nephites and other ancient American cultures.18 To make a durable cement requires “a mixture of lime, sand, and clay.” Once again, geological investigation confirms “all three of these materials exist in close proximity to the Palmyra hill, and in sufficient quantities to make the cement necessary to form a stone box of the size described by Joseph and Oliver.”19

The Why

All these details help deepen our appreciation of the stone box and its importance as a sacred receptacle of divine records and other items sacred to the Nephites. They also help us understand that the stone box was more than just a matter of practicality. Certainly, some kind of receptacle was needed to protect the plates and other items included with the record. But the stone box served a greater divine purpose as well.

For those in the Palmyra area in the 1820–1830s, the opened and emptied box stood as a testament that Joseph Smith was telling the truth about the ancient record he had recovered. Its visible presence on the hill convinced David Whitmer that there was substance to the rumors about the gold plates, leading to him and his family playing a vital role in the early stages of the Restoration.

The ancient precedents in both the Old and New Worlds not only provide evidence that ancient peoples really did store records (including metal documents) in stone boxes but also link the practice to temples—the sacred sites where ancient covenants were made and renewed. Mountains and hills often represented temples in the ancient world.20 It therefore seems likely that Moroni intended a temple connection when he chose to store the sacred Nephite record and other relics in a stone box buried on a hill. The coming forth of the Book of Mormon represents the renewal of the Lord’s covenant with ancient Israel.

Finally, the presence of all the needed materials to construct the box within close proximity to the hill itself was no doubt providential for Moroni’s purposes. As Benjamin R. Jordan and Warren P. Aston conclude, “The fact that the stone materials and all the cement ingredients are readily available in the vicinity, made the Palmyra hill uniquely situated for the purposes of Moroni.”21