[All-American]

My first thought when I saw those plates was, "Aw, nuts. Now somebody is going to try to show that this proves the Book of Mormon is true."

For one, trying to relate anything that has to do with the Book of Mormon is only going to detract from what we can learn about the Romans. I'm somewhat biased as a student in Classics, sure, but I don't think we do nearly enough of the latter.

More importantly, the connection is poor, if non non-existent. The idea that the plates show that "one ancient society" used metal plates isn't evidence that another ancient society used metal plates. We denizens of the 21st century use the term "ancient" to describe pretty much anything before 500 AD-- and that's just not a fair way to do it. Trajan was separated from Lehi by about 700 years, chronologically. As far as technology, ideology, culture, et cetera goes, you could make the argument that the Roman Empire during Trajan's reign had more in common with us in the 21st century than Lehi in 600 BC. To use the term "ancient" as a blanket enveloping both Lehi and Trajan belies the significant number of differences between the two.