Olmec Alternative Origin Speculations - Jaredite Origins

Jaredite Origins

See also: Archaeology and the Book of Mormon

In the Book of Mormon, a text regarded as scripture by churches and members of the Latter Day Saint (LDS) movement, the Jaredites are described as a people who left the Old World in ancient times and founded a civilization in the Americas. Mainstream American History and Literature specialists place the literary setting for the Book of Mormon among the “Mound-builders” of North America. The work is therefore classified in the American “Mound-builder” genre of the 19th century. LDS scholars and authors seek to demonstrate that events described in the Book of Mormon have a literal foundation. A popular Book of Mormon geography model places the scene of the Jaredite arrival and subsequent development, in lands around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mesoamerica. The tradition leading to this Central American model, however, does not clearly originate with the Book of Mormon (first published in 1830) but with enthusiastic interest in John Lloyd Stephens’ 1841 bestseller, Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan. LDS founder Joseph Smith Jr. placed the arrival of the Jaredites in “the lake country of America” (region of Lake Ontario), allowing for the eventual migration of Book of Mormon peoples to Mexico and Central America.

Some LDS scholars identify the Olmec civilization with the Jaredites, citing perceived similarities and noting that the period in which the Olmec flourished and later declined corresponds roughly with the Jaredite civilization timeline.

LDS researcher and anthropology professor John L. Sorenson is among those authors who have put forward the idea that the Olmec civilization resembles, and may be equated to the Jaredites in the Book of Mormon. Sorenson advances this idea particularly in his 1996 book, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon. Writing in an earlier 1992 article, Sorenson notes some parallels:

• " was one of the great centers of Olmec civilization, whose distribution and dates remind us of Jaredite society."
• " is thought to date to about 600 B.C., or a little later, at or just after the late Olmec (Jaredite?) inhabitants abandoned the site." Sorenson also asserts that the bearded "prominent man" depicted on Stela 3 (see drawing below) "appears to a number of (non-Mormon) art historians like a Jew". (Famed artist and ethnographer Miguel Covarrubias also describes this figure, known by the nickname "Uncle Sam", as "strangely Semitic".)

Conventional Mesoamerican scholarship does not support any proposal that allows for the presence or influence of Old World cultures in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. No accepted material evidence has been found that would indicate contact between Mesoamerica and Old World cultures. Among other criticisms leveled against the belief that the Olmec had Jaredite origins or identity, Mesoamerican archaeologists note that many of the things described in the Book of Mormon are known not to have been part of or present in Olmec culture, including iron, silk, and elephants.

Writing in the Mormon studies journal Dialogue, Yale University anthropology professor and eminent Mesoamericanist archaeologist Michael D. Coe lays out the mainstream archaeological assessment of material claims found in the Book of Mormon, as they relate to the known archaeological record of the New World. Specifically addressing the case for any ancient New World presence of the peoples and technologies described in the Book of Mormon, and whether the Olmec and other ancient Mesoamericans resemble these or bear traces of such external influences, Coe states:

There is an inherent improbability in specific items that are mentioned in the Book of Mormon as having been brought to the New World by Jaredites and/or Nephites. Among these are the horse (extinct in the New World since about 7,000 B.C.), the chariot, wheat, barley, and metallurgy (true metallurgy based upon smelting and casting being no earlier in Mesoamerica than about 800 A.D.). The picture of this hemisphere between 2,000 B.C. and A.D. 421 presented in the book has little to do with the early Indian cultures as we know them, in spite of much wishful thinking.