Gold artifacts among the Aztecs

In April of this year, a cache of what has been described as 'some of the finest Aztec gold ever found' was uncovered near the main square in Mexico City. The capital city of Mexico, long known as a center of three cultures: Aztec, Colonial Spanish, and modern, seems an unlikely place for a new discovery of this magnitude. But like the new excavations at Chichén Itzá, this find shows that no matter how much we think we know about these famous and commonly-visited sites, there still exists the opportunity to find something new which increases our understanding of these ancient cultures.

Buried in a stone box and situated behind a Catholic cathedral in the vicinity of the principal Aztec temple, the gold was part of a buried offering and adorned a sacrificed wolf. The ceremonial items were interred some 500 years ago. It's obvious that the Aztec culture is far removed from any direct Book of Mormon involvement, but we find discoveries such as this one interesting in that they show the technology and inclination to create such items did exist in ancient America, even if it hasn't been connected to the Book of Mormon yet. The fact that such discoveries continue to be made and were unknown in the 19th century are also encouraging. Our curiosity is always piqued when we hear about pre-Columbian gold buried in stone boxes.

Admittedly, ancient American metallurgy is a complex and difficult topic, one that does not currently support many of the claims made in the Book of Mormon. We have discussed these issues many times and have found that, along with the lack of evidence, there are also some encouraging but little-known finds that show that there was more metal working going on in the New World than has previously been thought. We will look forward to further developments in this area.

Click here to read more about the discovery of this discovery of Aztec gold.
Click here to read about the current understanding of metallurgy in pre-Columbian America.