The Jaredites () are one of four peoples (along with the Nephites, Lamanites, and Mulekites) that the

Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

believe settled in ancient America. The

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith as ''The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi''. The book is one of ...

(mainly its

Book of Ether The Book of Ether () is one of the books of the List of Book of Mormon prophets, Book of Mormon. It describes the Jaredites, descendants of Jared (founder of Jaredites), Jared and his companions, who were led by God to the Americas shortly after ...

) describes the Jaredites as the descendants of Jared and his brother, who lived at the time of the Tower of Babel. According to the Book of Mormon, they fled across the ocean on unique barges and established an ancient civilization in America. Mainstream

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

has found no evidence of the existence of Jaredites or any of the other three groups.

Book of Ether

According to the Book of Mormon, the Jaredites are the descendants of Jared, his brother, their immediate family, and their friends. (

Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thou ...

later identified the brother of Jared as Mahonri Moriancumer.) At the time of the Tower of Babel, when the tongues of all nations were confounded, the Lord acceded to the desires of Jared, and his people's language was not confounded. The people were also granted a land of promise. The Lord guided the people through the wilderness and were eventually directed to cross the sea in "barges". The vessels were sealed and watertight and able to be swamped by waves without sinking. Air was obtained from outside the vessels, as needed. They also brought with them animals and food. The recorded length of the miraculous trip was 344 days. Among other things they carried in their voyage were honeybees, which, in the language of the Jaredites were called "deseret". Additionally, they brought seeds.

Ether In organic chemistry, ethers are a class of compounds that contain an ether group, a single oxygen atom bonded to two separate carbon atoms, each part of an organyl group (e.g., alkyl or aryl). They have the general formula , where R and R� ...

is the last in the royal line that began with one of the sons of Jared. From the time of the first king to the destruction of the Jaredites, there were only occasional periods of peace and prosperity. The times of peace were interrupted by intrigue over the throne, civil war, and the accession of wicked kings. The history of the Jaredites confirmed the fears of Jared and his brother that a monarchy would lead to evil. The Book of Mormon claims that the Jaredites grew to become a civilization that exceeded two million people just before its destruction. They finally destroyed themselves about the time Lehi and the other refugees from

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

arrived in America. A prophecy of

was fulfilled: the last Jaredite king, Coriantumr, lived to see both the total destruction of his entire house, the scattering of the remaining Jaredites, and the arrival of another people to inherit the land.

Other references in Book of Mormon

Outside the Book of Ether, the Book of Mormon relates that Coriantumr was found by the Mulekites. The Nephites later encountered the Mulekites and taught them the Nephite language. The Mulekites told them that Coriantumr had died some nine months after he had come to live with them. The Nephite prophet King Mosiah I was able to translate a large stone with engravings that gave an account of Coriantumr. Another record on twenty-four plates, discovered by the people of King Limhi, was translated by the Nephite King Mosiah II. An abridged account of the Jaredite records was later included by Moroni, as the Book of Ether, in the Book of Mormon.

Geography

The ocean crossed is not specified in the Book of Mormon. Hugh Nibley's ''There were Jaredites'' and ''The World of the Jaredites'' argue for the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, but Milton R. Hunter argues for the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. The location of the Jaredite civilization is also not specified in the Book of Mormon except that it was north of a narrow neck of land in what was called the "Land Northward" by the Nephites. The New World location of the Jaredites and Nephites is a subject of disagreement among

Mormons Mormons are a Religious denomination, religious and ethnocultural group, cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's d ...

. Joseph Smith indicated that the Jaredites arrived in "the lake country of America" and that "the Nephites... lived about the narrow neck of land, which now embraces Central America, with all the cities that can be found."

Proposed relations

Descendants of Ham

Some early Latter Day Saints, including Apostle Parley P. Pratt believed the Jaredites were descendants of Ham, based on the group's origins near the Tower of Babel, and initial migration into the Valley of Nimrod, an area associated with the descendants of Ham.

Olmecs

Some Mormon have argued for substantial parallels between the Jaredites and the

Olmec The Olmecs () or Olmec were an early known major Mesoamerican civilization, flourishing in the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco from roughly 1200 to 400 Before the Common Era, BCE during Mesoamerica's Mesoamerican chronolog ...

s. For example, one scholar asserted that the writings of an ancient Native American historian, Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl, wrote about a group of people who came from the great tower to

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

. Ixtlilxochitl wrote that the people lived in an area in the northern parts of the land, along the

Gulf Coast of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

. Other LDS researchers, such as W. Vincent Coon, point to native legends and suggest that the earliest immigrants to Central America migrated by land and boat from "northern America". Phyllis Carol Olive compares Jaredite civilization to ancient cultures of the Great Lakes region.Olive, Phyllis Carol
''The Lost Empires and Vanished Races of Prehistoric America'', Ch. 3, The Jaredites – From Babylon to the Promised Land (2000-1800 B.C.)

References

Sources

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External links

Jaredite chronology
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