Redaction: Mormon is presenting a severely edited version here. He has omitted, for instance, any mention of where or when this event took place; but it could not have been a continuation of Limhi’s discourse. Naturally the plates would have been heavier than paper and stored in a safe place—probably the palace of the king. In Mesoamerican public architecture, the residence of the king was often near the main temple in the smaller cities, where the public assembly would have been held. Perhaps this is why Mormon makes no mention of a new location.
Because Mormon is abbreviating so severely, why does he even include this reference to Zeniff’s history, which he will quote more fully in the next chapter? I hypothesize that this particular verse has no intrinsic importance except to explain the question Limhi asks Ammon in the next verse. Verse 6 is a transition to the next important subject (seers and prophets), and it is this topic, not Zeniff’s history, that is important to Mormon.
History: Zeniff apparently brought with him the Nephite custom of recording official dynastic history on plates (e.g., the large plates of Nephi). He probably did not bring blank plates with him from Zarahemla but had them made in the land of Nephi after they had met their first requirement of assuring adequate food and shelter. While the Lamanite king may have simply moved some of his people out of a village, letting Zeniff’s people move into an intact village, probably some adaptation (and certainly annual maintenance) of the home would have been required. It seems less likely that the Lamanite king would have dispossessed his own people of fields under production. Rather, the Zeniffites may have been assigned adjacent but uncultivated lands. In either scenario, they would have had to give agriculture their first attention. Making metal plates would have been considerably lower on the priority list.