Book of Mormon Chronology: Jaredite Timeline

Timeline Chronology for the Jaredite culture from the Book of Ether in the Book of Mormon. See link for general Bible timeline.

The Book of Mormon Jaredite King List gives only 7 exact dates (lifespans and reigns) for the Jaredite Chronology. The only real markers we have to build a working chronology from are firstly, the date of the “dearth” or famine and megafauna extinction given in the narrative of Heth Ether 9:30–34. It’s important to note that it’s well established that Mastodons and other megafauna went extinct in most of continental North America at about 11-8,000 BC and the paleoindians role in killing them off and eating them amidst a major climate event (as explained in Ether 9:30–34) is well documented in the archaeological record, so we must consider the possibility that if radiocarbon dates are not off (which they certainly may be for that period), then there is likely a large unknown break of thousands of years between the Jared to Heth, and the rest of the timeline.

Secondly, the last Jaredite date which can be placed somewhere between ~570 BC when the Old World Migrants arrived and ~180 BC when the move to Zarahemla took place. As with most “King Lists” found in the old world, the list suggests a direct father to son succession, even though large breaks in time are almost positively present. Comparison with Egyptian, Sumerian and Babylonian King Lists in the Old World suggests this practice of mistakenly inferring direct succession was common, as later rulers wished to prove political legitimacy based on genealogy. All dates and ages are complete conjecture and are based upon the notes and the handful of exact dates (about 7) marked in underlined bold. Jared is said to have lived during the time of the Bible’s Tower of Babel which a literal Biblical timeline puts very close to the time of Abraham. However, Babylonian and Akkadian records suggest that this event was a common aspect of mythical records as early as 4000 BC (radiocarbon dated histories anyway).

If we are to believe radiocarbon dates, and the Book of Mormon’s Ether account of Jaredite people’s pursuing and “eating all” (Ether 9:34) of the Mammoths, Mastodons and megafauna dying off in the “dearth” (presumably the Younger Dryas, Ether 9:30), then we should suggest the true date to whatever event actually spawned the Babel myth occurred sometime around C14 date of 14,000 BC. (Which actually matches fairly well for radiocarbon dated ruins of Jericho and Göbekli Tepe). The last Jaredite historian, Coriantumr lived sometime just before the time of King Mosiah in the Book of Mormon.  See the genealogical table correlation chart to see agreement between this timeline and other biblical internal genealogies. Guessed life Spans and other dates on this chart (dates not in underlined bold) are made to approximately match the ages and dates of corresponding figures in the bible timeline.

Symbols:
* = born in fathers old age
^ = lived an exceedingly long time
Bold = exact date given in scripture

-Note Noah dies 350 years after the flood, around 1994 BC–Thus contemporary with Abraham. The Book of Jasher has Abraham being trained under Noah & Shem (who LDS accounts equate with Melkezidek). It also gives Abraham as a contemporary with Nimrod & the Tower of Babel who it places around the time of Peleg’s birth, adding meaning to the phrase “in his days was the earth divided”. These details may be substantiated in the LDS Jaredite record, give the length of ages & ‘dearth’ likely equating with Moses and the children of Israel having to live off of mana because of the destructions. (note also the correlation of fiery serpents in both accounts.) Coriantum lives to an age of 142 (Ether 9:24), which isn’t reached until JACOB in the descending ages of the bible after the flood–so it seems possible that Coriantum was born about the same time as Jacob or a few generations later (see Gen 7:6,11 8:17 9:28).

-The reason behind the date for Coriantumr is that when the people of Lemhi sent a group out to find Zarahemla, and yet they overshot and found a land “covered with bones” and brought back the 24 plates.  Well unburied bones disintegrate in a hundred years or so unless its very arid.  Thus they must have found the land within a hundred years of when the battles occurred (Mosiah 21:25–28).  

-We know it happened a while before King Mosiah I, since the Mulekites brought the stone with the record of Coriantumr staying with them at that time..and spoke of it like it was a while back (Omni 1:20–22).    This was some time before 130 BC.

King Limhi’s group went north about 121 B.C.

So perhaps around 130-250 BC.  Or perhaps not. Placing absolute dates on the Jaredite chronology is largely conjecture.

Correlation of all genealogical tables given in biblical/LDS scripture. Third column is the Jaredite king list.