Alma 17:14 says that the hearts of the Lamanites "were set upon riches, or upon gold and silver, and precious stones; yet they sought to obtain these things by murdering and plundering [the Nephites]." According to Hunter and Ferguson, the Mesoamerican historian Ixtlilxochitl and the Book of Mormon both comment on the use of precious stones, one mentions their use by the Tultecs or "Bountiful people" and the other by people who occupied the land Bountiful [the Nephites]. Ixtlilxochitl's comment is brief and to the point: "The Tultecas . . . carved precious stones . . . " The expression generally used in the Book of Mormon in referring to gems is "precious things." It is interesting that the term "gem" appears in neither the Book of Mormon nor in the Old Testament. Fr. Bernardino de Sahagun makes the following interesting statement concerning the pre-Conquest lapidaries of Mexico:
They said that to [their] gods was attributed the art of carving precious stone, including . . . black stone earrings and crystal earrings and amber earrings, and other white earrings; to these they also attributed the carving of beads and bracelets, and strings that they wore around their wrists, and all carving of stones and chalchihuites, and the boring and polishing of all stones. (Sahagun, Libro 8, Capitulo 17)
Thus, it is evident that the carving of precious stones and making use of them was continued from the Nephite period down to the coming of the Spaniards. In fact, that the lapidary art was fully developed as early as the Zarahemla/Bountiful occupation (200 B.C.--A.D. 350) of the Book of Mormon period has been confirmed by archaeology. A carved and polished jade pendant, the famous Leyden plate, bears a hieroglyphic date which, correlated with our calendar, falls at A.D. 320. [Milton R. Hunter and Thomas S. Ferguson, Ancient American and the Book of Mormon, pp. 283-284]