Joseph Smith reported that he found the gold plates in a stone box buried in the ground—a claim that most of his critics did not believe. However, in the mid 1900s, such discoveries became quite common. In 1945, several volumes of Christian writing from the fifth century AD were discovered in Egypt, followed two years later by the discovery of over eight hundred scrolls in caves near the Dead Sea. Many of the Dead Sea scrolls, which contain ancient religious writings including the Old Testament, were concealed inside fired clay pots. Recently discovered writings speak of hundreds of ancient records hidden away for future discovery—many of them written on metal plates and buried in stone boxes. (See Echoes, 232–233.)