I took it for granted that the degree of civilization in ancient central America was discovered mostly after the BoM. Mormon lore is that Smith had no way of knowing most things the BoM "accurately" says about ancient American cultures.
Actually, Cortez landed at Veracruz in 1519...311 years before the BoM. Cortez and Montezuma were more history to Smith than the BoM is to us! His career of treasure-seeing (fraud) took advantage of "Spanish*" legends" of treasure harvested from the very ancient civilizations he supposedly couldn't have known about. The BoM was based on already-historic assumptions and observations about ancient American cultures. Mormons act like it's such a miracle the BoM gets so many things right...which it doesn't.
*On the subject of Spanish, the white-bearded god Quetzalcoatl, which I cited as a missionary as evidence of Christ-in-America, was actually probably Spanish propaganda.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2014 04:00PM by amos2.