Tuesday, May 24, 2022

George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl vs. the Heartland Model: The Jaredites Inhabited Central America, not the "Heartland" Merely

  

It is generally understood that the place where they landed was south of the Gulf of California and north of the land called Desolation by the Nephites, which was north of the Isthmus of Panama. . . . To this land the Jaredites gave the name of Mormon. It was a portion of the region known to us as Central America. (George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1977], 6:208)

 

ANCIENT RUINS FOUND IN AMERICA

 

We now come to the consideration of the question, Are any of the ruins found upon this continent the remains of Jaredite cities and buildings? Individually, we think that few, if any, of the ruined cities of ancient America are of Jaredite origin; indeed, we will go farther and say we believe but few of them date as far back as the days of the Nephites. This conclusion will doubtless surprise many of our readers, it is therefore due to them that we give our reasons,

 

The writers and explorers to whom English speaking people are indebted for their information regarding the ruins of this continent, the largest, best preserved and most important of which are to be found in Central America and contiguous regions, drew their conclusions from conditions which do not exist in the regions where these ruins most largely exist. The vast overgrowth of vegetation conveyed to their minds an idea of antiquity which the facts did not warrant, an error to which they were predisposed from the prevailing tendency among modern students to dabble in eons instead of centuries, and to give every thing and every event whose date was not determined a remote and indistinct antiquity. When in this frame of mind an explorer from the temperate zone discovered in Yucatan a tree which had five hundred rings, growing on a house-top, he argued that that tree must be at least five hundred years old, as in his native land the trees only added one ring a year to their growth, and if the tree was five hundred years old the house underneath must be much older. But the mistake made was this, that in that heated climate, some trees added ten or twelve rings, instead of one, a year, and consequently were only one-tenth or one-twelfth as old as he imagined.

 

Professor John Fiske, of Harvard College, cites the following example:

 

"The notion of their antiquity was perhaps suggested by the belief that certain colossal mahogany trees growing between and over the ruins of Palenque must be nearly two thousand years old. But when M. de Carnay visited Palenque in 1859, he had the eastern side of the 'palace' cleared of its dense vegetation in order to get a good photograph; and when he re-visited the spot, in 1881, he found a sturdy growth of young mahogany the age of which he knew did not exceed twenty-two years. Instead of making a ring once a year as in our sluggish and temperate zone, these trees had made rings at the rate of about one a month; the trunks were already more than two feet in diameter; judging from this rate of growth the biggest giant on that place need not have been more than two hundred years old, if as much."

 

M. Charnay himself speaking on this subject says:

 

"I may here remark that [the] virgin forests have no very old trees, being destroyed by insects, moisture, lianas, etc., and old monteros tell me that mahogany and cedar trees, which are most durable, do not live above two hundred years."

 

Another reason is that cities of the same class and description, having the same characteristics and style of architecture as the neighboring ruins, were inhabited at the time of the Spanish invasion by the people who built them. Some indeed were decaying, others were growing cities. This fact is attested by the Spanish Chroniclers. But more than this, some of the now ruined cities, generally supposed to be very ancient, have lately been proven to have also been inhabited at this period. A native chief of Yucatan, named Nakuk Peoh, wrote about the year 1562, a brief history of the Spanish conquest of that country. This chronicle, which has been translated into English, refers directly to Chichen-Itza and Izamal as inhabited towns during the time of the Spanish invasion, from 1519 to 1542. Mr. Fiske is inclined to consider the highest probable antiquity for most of the ruins of Yucatan and Central America as the twelfth or thirteenth century of our era; while M. Charnay says, "Copan and Palenque may be two or three centuries older, and had probably fallen into ruins before the arrival of the Spaniards."

 

A third reason is that ruins found in Central America, etc., in no wise agree with what we should naturally expect would be built by a people such as the Jaredites or the Nephites are represented to have been in the sacred writings of their prophets, but they are not inconsistent with a barbarous, idolatrous race of builders such as the Lamanites, after the destruction of the Nephites undoubtedly were. The Nephites were of the house of Israel and Christians. As Israelites they were forbidden by God Himself to make to themselves the likeness of any thing in the heavens above, on the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. These ruins are full of images and representations of human beings and other animate things. As Christians, the Nephites would not indulge in the class of grotesque statuary and reliefs that so largely abound in many of these cities, especially in those that clearly point to idolatry and idolatrous customs. The occasional appearance of an ornament that somewhat resembles a cross carries no weight in our mind. The cross was used as an ornament, and with no reference to Christianity long before Jesus was crucified, and today is more the symbol of the apostate churches of Christendom than the original Church established by God Himself. The appearance of such a symbol would appeal more readily and have greater weight with Roman Catholics than with members of the true Church. The heathen has adorned his edifices with crosses for the reason that it was a natural, easy and becoming style of ornament.

 

The civilization of the Jaredites very much resembled that of the Nephites and to our mind was greatly in advance of that of the builders of Copan, Palenque and their sister cities. It should here be observed that the greater portion of the cities built by the Nephites before the crucifixion of Christ were destroyed by the convulsions that attended that most momentous event, others so badly shattered that it would not pay to repair them. The Nephite remains, therefore, that we would expect to find would be those that were erected during the universal reign of peace that followed the ministry of the risen Redeemer. Is it not also consistent to believe that if any Jaredite ruins remained at the time of the Savior's death they also were destroyed by the universal convulsions? It must likewise be remembered that in the last great war the Lamanites took great delight in destroying everything Nephite. (Ibid., 228-31)