Where is the evidence of iron in the ancient Americas?
Evidence for iron has been presented in several of the answers previously given on this page. However, an excellent brief answer has also been given by Daniel Peterson in his article, “Yet More Abuse of B. H. Roberts,” FARMS Review of Books, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1997, pp. 69-86: Iron was, evidently, relatively rare in the ancient New World, as the Book of Mormon itself attests. [13] But iron of one origin or another was indisputably present and used in pre-Columbian America, and the question of whether or not iron was ever smelted in Mesoamerica is by no means closed. [14] Several tons (tons!) of worked iron ores were very recently found at the Olmec site of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, in southern Mexico. [15] Amusingly, one piece of carefully fashioned iron ore recovered from ancient Mesoamerica appears to function as a compass needle, from what Professors Michael D. Coe and Richard A. Diehl identify as perhaps the “world’s first compass.” [16] I call this discovery amusing because critics of
