Source:Nibley:CW06:Ch2:5

Plates from Lehi's era

Plates from Lehi's era

[In the 1950s] some silver plates from the time of Lehi have turned up not far from his home. They were found in the "Bertiz" valley, carefully laid away in a bronze vessel. The plates measured 4.5 by 5 centimeters, were quite thin, and were entirely covered with writing, twenty-two lines of Semitic characters "pressed into the metal with a hard sharp object." Almost at the same time small plates made of gold and silver foil and covered with Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions were found: they seem to have been carried about as talismans, and the writing on them included magic words and names of power, along with the name of the God of Israel.[1]

Notes

  1. Hugh W. Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, 3rd edition, (Vol. 6 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), edited by John W. Welch, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1988), Chapter 2, citing Muhibble Aüstock-Darga, "Semitische Inschriften auf Silbertäfelchen aus dem 'Bertiz'-Tal," Jahrbuch für kleinasiatische Forschung 1 (1950): 199—200 and André Dupont-Sommer, "Deux lamelles d'argent à inscription hébréo-araméenne trouvés à Agabeyli (Turquie)," Jahrbuch für kleinasiatische Forschung 1 (1950): 201—17..