The Voyage of the Jaredites

The Voyage of the Jaredites

INTRODUCTION

As PREVIOUSLY DISCUSSED, the heartland of the Classic Period of the Jaredite civilization (1500 BC-600 BC) appears to have been along the Gulf of Mexico. That area probably continued to function as the proverbial headquarters for the Jaredites until their destruction around 300 BC. The area also may have been the central location of the Preclassic Jaredites (2500 BC- 1500 BC).

These deductions, however, do not specifically localize the landing spot of the Jaredites. Moroni, the 4th Century AD Book of Mormon writer, gave us an account of the ancient inhabitants who were destroyed by the hand of the Lord upon the face of "THIS NORTH COUNTRY." (Ether 1: 1)

Ixtlilxochitl, who wrote in the 16th Century, also told us that the first settlers, who came from the Tower of Babel, "populated the major part of the land, and more particularly the NORTHERN PART." (Ixtlilxochitl:2 1)

The "north country" of Moroni and the "northern part" of Ixtlilxochitl are, in all probability, the Gulf of Mexico area that today is called the "faja de oro," or Golden Lane, because of the abundance of oil that has been discovered there. This is the same area where archaeology bears testimony of the most ancient civilization of Mesoamerica.

However, the above rhetoric does very little to establish the landing site of Jared and his family, the brother of Jared and his family, and their friends and their families, sometime after the confusion of tongues estimated at about 2700 BC. In fact, we can virtually land the initial colony of Jaredites about anywhere in the New World and still get them to the Gulf of Mexico in time to build the monuments that have been discovered there.

Ixtlilxochitl reported that the first settlers wandered for 104 years before they even settled in Huehue Tlapallan, along the Gulf of Mexico. This statement suggests that the Jaredites DID NOT land along the shores of Veracruz.

Be that as it may, the point here is that simply establishing the heartland of the Jaredite culture along the Gulf of Mexico in no way justifies our landing the Jaredites along either the Atlantic or the Pacific side. We must look for other "landing-site" evidence.

TOWER OF BABEL

Perhaps if we can determine where the Jaredites launched their eight barges, we may have some idea as to the side of the American continent on which they landed. The Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the 16th-Century Mexican writers all reference a great tower.

The granddaddy of the pyramids in Mesoamerica, La Venta, is located at the top of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec along the Gulf of Mexico. The largest-based pyramid in the world is located at Cholula, Puebla, between Veracruz and Mexico City and, according to Ixtlilxochitl, was built with the same idea as was the great Tower of Babel. The pyramid of Cholula was destroyed by a massive earthquake at the time of Christ. (Ixtlilxochitl:42)

The Biblical account of the great tower is as follows:

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:1-9)

Shinar is the name of the place given where the great tower was built. Shinar was located in the Valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. This location is in the same area where the ancient City of Ur was located, the birthplace of Abraham of old. It is generally accepted that Shinar was in the area of ancient Babylon, about 60 miles south of where the present-day city of Baghdad, in the country of Iraq, is located.

The Tower of Babel was probably a multi-storied temple-tower, or ziggurat, similar to those developed in Babylonia in the early 3rd millennium BC. (Alexander and Alexander 1974:135)

Ironically, the Jaredites lived in the Persian Gulf area and subsequently settled in the Gulf of Mexico, the two richest oil-producing areas in the world today.

The Book of Mormon refers to the Tower of Babel as "the great tower9' or just "the tower" in describing what apparently is the same event mentioned in the Bible. Moroni wrote in the Book of Ether as follows:

... Jared came forth with his brother and their families with some others and their families, from THE GREAT TOWER, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered upon all the face of the earth; and according to the word of the Lord the people were scattered. (Ether 1:33; see also Ether 1:3, 5; Omni 1:22; Mosiah 28:17; and Helaman 6:28)

Ixtlilxochitl referred to the event as both "the very high tower" and the "tower of Babel." (Ixtlilxochitl:6, 21) He reported that after the flood:

... the earth began again to be populated, [and] they built a Zacualli, very high and strong, which means "THE VERY HIGH TOWER," to protect themselves against a second destruction of the world.

As time elapsed, their language became confounded, such that they did not understand one another; and they were scattered to all parts of the world. (Ixtlilxochitl:6-7)

Without any question, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and Ixtlilxochitl are all talking about the same event. None of the accounts, however, provides us with a clue as to where the Jaredites launched their boats in the Old World or where the port was located when they landed in the New World.

A CASE FOR AN ATLANTIC CROSSING

The Book of Mon-non provides us with the following evidence, which may give us a hint about where the Jaredites set sail. Perhaps if that can be determined, we can at least surmise as to which side of the Americas the Jaredites landed on-that is, the Atlantic or the Pacific.

And it came to pass that Jared and his brother, and their families, and also the friends of Jared and his brother and their families, went down into THE VALLEY WHICH WAS NORTHWARD, (and the name of the valley was Nimrod, being called after the mighty hunter) ....

Obviously, Jared was the leader of the tribe; and, with one exception, the genealogical record from Jared to Coriantumr follows the lineage of Jared. This conclusion suggests that the Jaredite record was indeed a dynastic history, which is confirmed by the Mesoamerica Olmec tradition. More than 17 giant stone heads of the Olmec style have been uncovered. Each head is a different caricature, suggesting that each represented a ruler or someone who held a high position in the Olmec culture.

The brother of Jared was the spiritual leader of the group. Friends of both Jared and his brother accompanied them on what was to become an arduous trek. They went down into a valley that was northward of Shinar (Ur, Babylon, Baghdad). This direction took them away from the Persian Gulf and led them in the direction of the present-day country of Syria. Some 500 years later, Abraham may have followed somewhat the same route.

And it came to pass that the Lord commanded them that they should go forth into the WILDERNESS, yea, into that quarter where there never had man been. . .

No direction is given, but if the Jaredites were still traveling northward from Shinar, they were traveling through the great Syrian desert or wilderness.

Ether 2:6-The Wilderness-Many Waters

And it came to pass that they did travel in the WILDERNESS, and did build barges, in which they did cross MANY WATERS .....

With the limited information available in the Book of Mormon, we have difficulty claiming accuracy from this point on. We do not know how much distance the Jaredites covered or how long they took to travel from Shinar to a place where they launched their barges to cross "many waters." Assuming they traveled in a northward direction, we are still left to speculate whether the direction was northeast or northwest.

If the Jaredites were still traveling northward, they may have launched barges in the Euphrates, although this location is unlikely as it would be upstream and would lead them only into the mountains of modem-day Turkey. Neither would it qualify for the statement of "many waters." If they reached the coastline in a northerly direction from Shinar (Iraq), they would need to launch barges on the Black Sea north of Turkey or the great Mediterranean Sea located on the western borders of Lebanon and Israel.

Of the two options, because the movement was toward the Promised Land (the Americas), the Mediterranean is apparently the most likely. This direction would carry them toward Spain and would be reminiscent of Paul the Apostle's journeys over 2,000 years later, as recorded in the New Testament.

Both the Book of Mormon and the Spanish Chronicles inform us that the Jaredites traveled great distances over both land and water. Ixtlilxochitl wrote the following about the people who came from the Tower of Babel:

. . they came to this land [Mexico], having first crossed many lands and waters, living in caves and passing through great tribulations.... (Ixtlilxochitl:8)

Ether 2:7-Beyond the Sea in the Wilderness

And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop BEYOND THE SEA IN THE WILDERNESS,.. . .

The only sea in the vicinity of the Middle Eastern World, other than the ones mentioned above, is the Red Sea. However, the Red Sea does not seem to be a likely candidate because it is in the wrong direction from the initial movement of the Jaredites and because that direction eventually would have taken them into the same ocean (Arabian Sea) that was already near the Persian Gulf from whence they originally left. In addition, the Lord ". . . stood in a cloud, and gave directions whither they should travel." (Ether 2:5)

If the Jaredites crossed the Mediterranean and eventually ended up in, let us say, Morocco or Portugal, they would then be on the borders of the great Atlantic Ocean. The mountains of Spain may have been the area described as "BEYOND THE SEA [Mediterranean] IN THE WILDERNESS." At this point, this alternative lacks credibility.

... it came to pass that the Lord did bring Jared and his brethren forth even to that GREAT SEA WHICH DIVIDETH THE LANDS. And as they came to the SEA they pitched their tents; and they called the name of the place Moriancumer; and they dwelt in tents upon the seashore for the space of four years.

If we follow this line of reasoning, then the GREAT SEA WHICH DIVIDETH THE LANDS is the Atlantic Ocean, which divides the European and American continents. The Jaredites called the name of the place by the seashore "Moriancumer," after the brother of Jared. A Mesoamerica (New World) tradition was to name the place of settlement after the person who first possessed it. (See Alma 8:7 and Ixtlilxochitl:22.) Joseph Smith identified the name of the brother of Jared as Mahonri Moriancumer.

Ether 3:3-Wilderness-Raging Deep

. . for these many years we have been in the wilderness; ... suffer not that they shall go forth across this RAGING DEEP in darkness; ....

The colony of Jared had lived in Moriancumer, which was by "the Great Sea which divides the lands," for four years. At the end of four years, the Lord appeared to the brother of Jared and talked with him for three hours, chastening him for not remembering to call upon the Lord. The Lord further instructed the brother of Jared to construct barges after the manner of barges they had previously built to cross what is proposed in Option I to be the Mediterranean Sea. (See Ether 3.)

The above scripture reports that MANY YEARS had elapsed from the time Jared and his group had left the area of the great tower (Shinar). The Lord reminded the brother of Jared that the Jaredites had not completed their journey, as they still needed to cross the ocean to the land of promise (America).

However, before the Jaredites could cross the ocean, the brother of Jared had the awesome responsibility of building barges in which they could transport animals and provisions as well as people. Geographical hints relevant to crossing the ocean are as follows:

And it came to pass that the brother of Jared, (now the number of the vessels which had been prepared was eight) went forth unto the mount, which they called the mount Shelem .....

The colony needed eight vessels to transport its people, provisions, and animals to the New World. Furious winds drove them across the ocean to the Promised Land.

And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.

And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters.

And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind.

And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord.

And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water.

And thus they were driven forth, three hundred and forty and four days upon the water.

And they did land upon the shore of the promised land (Ether 6:6-12)

To justify an Atlantic crossing, we need to allow for a considerable amount of lost time, as only two to four months are normally required to cross the Atlantic from Morocco to Veracruz.

Those who favor an Atlantic Ocean crossing quote Sahagun as a source for the first settlers' landing on the shores of Veracruz, Mexico. His statement, however, may have been referring to the Mulekites or to some other group. Sahagun states:

Concerning the origin of these people, the report the old men give is that they came by sea from the north, and true it is that they came in some wooden boats but it is not known how they were hewn, but it is conjectured by a report found among all these natives that they came from seven caves, and that these seven caves are the seven ships or galleys in which the first settlers of this land came, as gathered from likely conjectures.

The people first came to settle this land from the direction of Florida, and came coasting along the coast disembarking in the port of Panuco, which they call Panco, which means "place where those arrived who crossed the water." This people came in search of the terrestrial paradise, and they had as a family name Tamoanchan, which means "we are looking for our home." (Sahagun, Introduccion al Primer Libro)

More than 4,000 years later, as prophesied in the same Book of Mormon record, the Lord directed another man to cross the many waters. This man we have come to know as Christopher Columbus, who in 1492 is credited with discovering anew the land of promise (America). The Prophet Nephi, who prophesied the Columbus event, wrote:

And I looked and beheld a man [Columbus] among the Gentiles [European nations], who was separated from the seed of my brethren [descendants of Lehi] by the many waters [Atlantic Ocean]; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man [Columbus]; and he went forth upon the many waters [Atlantic Ocean], even unto the seed of my brethren [descendants of Lehi], who were in the promised land [American continent]. (I Nephi 13:12)

Spain and Portugal became the launching pads for Columbus and Cortez. The latter was the great Spanish conqueror of the Aztec nation in the Valley of Mexico beginning in the year 1519.

Columbus landed on the islands of Haiti. Cortez, operating out of Cuba, landed initially along the Caribbean and subsequently along the Gulf of Mexico, not far from the current City of Veracruz, Mexico. The Atlantic Ocean is proposed by some to be the same great water path that the colony of Jared traveled for a period of 344 days, around 2700 BC.

A CASE FOR A PACIFIC CROSSING

The following logic suggests that the Jaredites may ha crossed the Pacific Ocean:

The Book of Ether states that the colony of Jared traveled in a northward direction from the Great Tower (Iraq). The record also states that after they left the Valley of Nimrod, they went forth into the wilderness to ". . . THAT QUARTER WHERE THERE NEVER HAD MAN BEEN." (Ether 2:5)

Well-documented historical evidence shows that people were living in Egypt, Israel, and the countries around the Mediterranean at the time in question. The northward direction apparently would then take them through the great Asian continent to the borders of the Pacific Ocean by China.

2. Length of Time to Arrive at City of Moriancumer

The Pacific route justifies Moroni's statement that the Jaredites traveled many years in the wilderness (Ether 3:3) and Ixtlilxochitl's statement that they traveled a great distance, crossing a large part of the world.

The Book of Ether reports that the Jaredites took 344 days, almost one year, to travel from the point of departure to the Promised Land. If the Jaredites left from the Atlantic side, near Morocco, they would have traveled in circles for 8 or 9 months. Thor Heyerdahl made the trip on a raft from Morocco to the Caribbean in two months. The scripture says, ".. . the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land. . . ." (Ether 6:8) We would not expect the Jaredites to travel in circles. The distance from the Pacific by China to the Gulf of Tehuantepec in Mesoamerica is more than twice the Atlantic's crossing distance, thus placing us closer to the required time for the Jaredites to travel from the Old to the New World.

According to Ixtlilxochitl, the first migrants to Mesoamerica, who came from the great tower, arrived in Mesoamerica from the west, from the Tartary area. Tartary is the traditional name of the vast region of Asia, including present-day China, Mongolia, and the southern part of Russia. The name is derived from linguistic tribes called Tartars. The statement of Ixtlilxochitl is as follows:

The ancestors of the natives of this land that is now called New Spain, according to the common and general opinion of everyone, as well as that which appears demonstrated in their paintings, came from the Occidental areas.

... [All the people in this land I boast and affirm that they are descendants of the Chichimecas. The reason, according to their history, is that their first king, whose name was Chichimecati, was the one who brought them to this new land where they settled. And it was he, as can be deduced, that came from the great TARTARY, and was part of those who came from the division of Babel.... (Ixtlilxochitl:20-21)

The Book of Mormon, the archaeological pattern of Mesoamer-ica, and the traditional history of Mesoamerica all affirm that the early Preclassic Jaredites (2700 BC-2000 BC) did not live along the eastern (Atlantic) sea coast.

Five generations elapsed from Jared to Omer, at which time Omer, much like the later Book of Mon-non prophet Nephi, was warned in a dream to leave his homeland. He and his family traveled many days and passed over by both the Hill Shim and the Hill Cumorah eastward to the seashore, where they settled.

And the Lord warned Omer in a dream that he should depart out of the land; wherefore Omer departed out of the land with his family, and traveled many days, and came over and passed by the hill of Shim, and came over by the place where the Nephites were destroyed, and from thence eastward, and came to a place which was called Ablom, by the seashore (Ether 9:3)

Prior to this time, the headquarters of the Jaredite kingdom were in the Land of Moron. The Land of Moron was near the area that the Nephites called Desolation. (Ether 7:6) Desolation was the area where the Jaredites were destroyed and was also near the seashore. (Mosiah 8:8; Helaman 3:5; Mormon 4:3)

In summary, the Jaredites lived in a region called Moron during the administration of the first five kings, namely, Jared, Orihah, Kib, Shule, and Omer.

This text proposes, as shown in Figure 21-1, that the Valley of Moron is the isolated Oaxaca Valley of Mexico. The State of Oaxaca borders the State of Veracruz, which is "eastward" from Oaxaca, "by the seashore." During the reign of King Shule (Xul in the Quiche language), the headquarters of the kingdom were transferred to the region along the coast. I propose that the time period when the Jaredite kingdom was transferred to the coast was the same time period when the Jaredites settled along the Gulf of Mexico. This proposal merely suggests that the Jaredites probably did not cross the Atlantic Ocean but rather crossed the Pacific Ocean. And five kingships later, they migrated along the Gulf of Mexico.

The archaeological evidence supports earlier settlement patterns in the Oaxaca Valley. This settlement was followed by strong Olmec settlements on the Gulf Coast. The latter reached a classic period from 1200 BC-600 BC.

The early Oaxaca Valley (possibly Moron) is represented by such sites as San Jose Magote, dating to 2000 BC. The Gulf Coast (King Shule forward) is represented by the Olmec sites of San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes. Both the Oaxaca Valley and the Gulf Coast show remarkable Olmec influence.

The traditional history of Mexico reports that 104 years elapsed from the time of the arrival of the first settlers to Mesoamerica before they settled in Huehue Tlapallan, along the Gulf of Mexico. (See Ixtlilxochitl:8-9.)

CONCLUSION

From the evidence we have available to us today, we can deduce that the Jaredites apparently crossed the Pacific Ocean and landed in the area of the Gulf of Tehuantepec. From there, they settled inland in the 5,000-foot-elevation Valley of Oaxaca. Subsequently, the heartland of the Jaredites became established along the Golden Lane Gulf of Mexico. The reasons for these conclusions are the following:

1. The movement of the colony of Jared was from the Great Tower (Babylon) northward to "that quarter where there never had man been" (parts of Asia). This movement placed them in a position to cross the Pacific.

2. The Jaredites traveled 344 days on the ocean, which more closely approximates a Pacific crossing as opposed to an Atlantic crossing.

3. The writings of Ixtlilxochitl and modem histories of the Chinese proclaim an Asian settlement from the great tower.

4. Ixtlilxochitl reports that the first settlers, who originated from the great tower, traveled to Mesoamerica from the west.