Historical: There are two possibilities for the “cement” of Mormon’s account. One might be the lime surfacing used on most of the public buildings in the Maya-influenced areas. Though this could be seen as cement because it was malleable and created smooth surfaces, it is probably not what Mormon meant, as Mormon’s own cultural area would have been quite familiar with this lime-based covering for their buildings, and it would not have been worthy of note.
For Mormon to specifically note buildings built of “cement” we would expect that this was an unusual condition, and one that marked the area as different from expectations. This would describe Teotihuacan. At that tremendously influential city there is extensive use of a true, and high-quality, cement.
“Mesoamerican cement was almost exclusively lime cement. The limestone was purified on a “cylindrical pile of timber, which requires a vast amount of labor to cut and considerable skill to construct in such a way that combustion of the stone and wood is complete and a minimum of impurities remains in the product.” The fact that very little carbon is found in this cement “attests to the ability of these ancient peoples.” (“Concrete Evidence for the Book of Mormon.” Reexploring the Book of Mormon. Ed. John W. Welch. FARMS, 1992, p. 213. Citation is to David S. Hyman. A Study of the Calcareous Cements in Prehispanic Mesoamerican Building Construction. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 1970, ii, sect. 6, p. 7).
What we should note in this reference is not only the presence of true cement in Teotihuacan, but the description of the method for creating the cement. Mormon accurately notes the correlation between the lack of trees and cement, but he gets the causation wrong. Mormon assumes that cement exists because of lack of trees, when actually it was the creation of the cement that led to the rapid deforestation of the area. Once again, we have Mormon describing a world around him rather than the depiction of the historical process that led to the world that he saw and understood.
Further evidence that Mormon is discussing the Teotihucan of his own day comes from the realization that most of the city of cement does not exist until after the time of Christ. The construction of the pyramids and the other monumental architecture took place from around 1AD to 150 AD. (Rene Millon, “Teotihuacan Studies: From 1950 to 1990 and Beyond.” Art, Ideology, And The City Of Teotihuacan. A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 8th and 9th October, 1988. Janet Catherine Berlo, Editor. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection Washington, D.C. 1992, p. 351).