Riplakish uses forced labor to build his cities. The specific mention of gold is anachronistic according to known archaeology. The presence of the idea of working “fine gold” in the prisons certainly paints the right picture, but it may be a later addition to the story. It is even possible that it is an interpretation given by Joseph Smith for what a valuable forced labor might be doing. In Joseph Smith’s world, gold would be the standard used for a valuable produced work. However, in Olmec times, that valuable material would have been jade. It is a plausible hypothesis that the original text had the working of jade, something with which Joseph Smith would not be familiar. When he needed to translate the forced creation of something of clear value, the translation used gold as the modern “translation” of the concept of the value of jade in the ancient Olmec culture.