Were the Olmecs Jaredites? Part VI--One Last time, the Olmecs Were Not Jaredites!

In trying to promote the Olmec as the Jaredites of the Book of Mormon and give the Jaredites a space in Mesoamerica, John L. Sorenson and other Theorists have claimed that “Mesoamerica's First Tradition culminated in Olmec culture, much as classical Roman civilization was the climax on its line. The name Olmec has been conferred by modern investigators on a people (although more than one may have been involved) and their culture manifested in a remarkable set of archaeological sites and a distinctive art style. The remains are located primarily in a semi-circular area in and just north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.”

Such a statement is totally misleading. While the so-called Olmec culture was apparent in San Lorenzo, just north of the Mesoamericanists’ narrow neck, it remained on the north (Mesoamericanists East) coastal area, including such sites as Cascajal, Laguna de los Cerros, Llano del Jicaro, Cobata, and Tres Zapotes—all along the coastal region, with Las Limas the furthest south (Mesoamericanists’ west), many miles from the coast. They were also settled just to the north of their narrow neck in Tenochtitlan, Portero Nuevo, El Azuzul and El Manati—all within a very short distance of the Mesoamericanists' narrow neck. This hardly sounds like the dispersion of the Jaredites in the Ether account. But more importantly, the Olmecs were south of the narrow neck, in the Mesoamericanists’ Land Southward, in the large settlements of La Venta and San Andres, and also in Arroyho Sonso.

Now according to Sorenson, archaeologists have dated La Venta to about 1500 B.C., a large Olmec settlement in their Land Southward, yet the scriptural record is very clear about the fact that the Jaredites never came south of the narrow neck of land, except to occasionally hunt the animals driven there by the poisonous serpents (Ether 10:21). Therefore, there could be no Jaredite settlements in the Land Southward—but the Olmecs were in the Mesoamericanists’ Land Southward. Obviously, either the archaeological record the Mesoamericanists’ rely upon so heavily is wrong, or the Mesoamericansts’ themselves are wrong, or the scriptures are wrong. Take your pick.

Speaking of La Venta, we find that following the decline of San Lorenzo, La Venta became the most prominent Olmec center, lasting from 900 BC until its abandonment around 400 BC. La Venta sustained the Olmec cultural traditions, but with spectacular displays of power and wealth. The Great Pyramid was the largest Mesoamerican structure of its time. Even today, after 2500 years of erosion, it rises 34 meters above the naturally flat landscape. Buried deep within La Venta, lay opulent, labor-intensive "Offerings" — 1000 tons of smooth serpentine blocks, large mosaic pavements, and at least 48 separate desposits of polished jade celts, pottery, figurines, and hematite mirrors.

Sorenson also writes: “Finally, we cannot help being fascinated by, as one scholar put it, "the way the thing ends .... We are left without anything Olmec even to be considered ... [that is much] later than ... 600 B.C." Yet, the archaeological record these Theorists constantly quote shows that the Olmec as a culture existed to 400 B.C., not 600 B.C., so there is not connecting date with the Nephites to be “fascinated by.” In fact, Sorenson writes: “The Olmec settlement at Izapa extended over 1.4 miles, making it the largest site in Chiapas. The site reached its apogee between 600 B.C. and 100 A.D.; several archaeologists have theorized that Izapa may have been settled as early as 1500 B.C., (some sayo 1200 B.C.) making it as old as the Olmec sites of San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlan and La Venta.

Now something not often mentioned about Izapa is, that while it is near the Guatemala border, the site is 220 miles south of the Mesoamericanists’ narrow neck of land. 220 miles south—can anyone claim that these were Jaredites? In the Land Southward? Moroni, who translated Ether’s record knew where the narrow neck of land was located, he knew the poisonous serpents chased Jaredite animals into the Land Southward, and knew that the Jaredites did not settle there, but kept the Land Southward for an animal preserve. He knew that and wrote about it. Yet, Sorenson and other Mesoamerican Theorists, ignore the scriptural record to maintain that the Olmecs were the Jaredites. And if they want to claim that not all these Olmec settlements were Jaredite settlements, let us consider that the Jaredites came to a “quarter of the land where no man had ever been” (Ether 2:5).

In a somewhat humorous vein, speaking of Jaredites being in the land where and when Lehi landed, Sorenson wrote: “Laman's and Lemuel's ambition (we might compare them to Cortez) could well have thrust the immigrants into dominance and led the locals to recast their views to agree with the story told by the immigrant rulers, effectively making the newcomers into a replacement for the former Olmec chiefs they had been serving. The rapid expansion in numbers of Lamanites, suggested in the Nephite record, had to owe more to a scenario like this than to an unlikely dramatic biological expansion and ecological.

After reading the book of Ether, I challenge anyone to think that the Jaredites, following a history of civil wars, brutality and wiping out millions of people, no matter how small a surviving group, are going to let Laman and Lemuel, who had never been in a single combat situation, with a tendency to run from Laban’s guards, etc., would overcome the large-of-stature and strong Jaredites.