Lib's City=La Venta?

[Olavarria]

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/mapcenter/map.aspx

Ether 10:19-20

19) And it came to pass that Lib also did that which was good in the sight of the Lord. And in the days of Lib the poisonous serpents were destroyed. Wherefore they did go into the land southward, to hunt food for the people of the land, for the land was covered with animals of the forest. And Lib also himself became a great hunter.

20) And they built a great city by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land.

Olmec Time

1100BC: After centuries of habitation, a second Olmec city is built at La Venta.

Charles Phillips, Complete Illustrated History of the Aztec and Maya; Lorenz Books (June 25, 2007), pg 24.

Jaredite Time(+/-) 200 years.

1240BC: Lib builds his city on the narrow neck of land.

Olmec Place

On the Strait of Tehuantepec, on/next to the Tonala River. The Tonala River empties into the Bay of Campeche.

Jaredite Place

"...by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land."

The Olmec World ...a site with a bunch of FAMSI links.

[Olavarria]

http://www.mesoweb.com/olmec/publications/...erEtal1967.html

The absence of occupation refuse beneath the mound constructions and

surfaced areas of the La Venta site, taken together with the general occurrence

of trash deposits beyond the perimeter of the ceremonial site area

(Drucker 1952: 10-22), probably means that the ceremonial area was off-limits

as a living zone from the time of the earliest large-scale occupation of La

Venta island. That pre-Phase I mound structures and/or plaza surfaces

existed-probably in the main ceremonial s i t e area-is suggested by the

clay chunks with colored clay wash-surfacings found in some of the f i l l

layers underneath the Phase I structures and in some of the Phase I f i l l s

(Drucker, Heizer and Squier 1959:37-38, 44, 67, 124, 298; Drucker and

Heizer 1965:41-42).

We now suggest that these earlier structures probably

were situated in the actual 'ceremonial s i t e area, but cannot estimate how

much older they are than the Phase I constructions named and identified by

Drucker, Heizer and Squier (1959). There i s no pottery or stone sculpture

that can be associated with these evidences of pre-Phase I clay mounds or

floors. Apparently La Venta island, or that part of the island where the

ceremonial center we know as the La Venta site was built, was not occupied

or used until the ceremonial s i t e was established in pre-Phase I times.

This inference strongly suggests that the La Venta s i t e is contemporaneous

with the oldest refuse deposits on the perimeter of the site. This conclusion,

while important, would be even more significant i f we knew how to date

the pre-Phase I activity in the ceremonial s i t e area, and had reliable dates

for the lowest refuse levels in the trash deposits lying just outside the

ceremonial s i t e boundaries.

The age of La Venta Phase I can be judged from UCLA-1286 (3000 j: 60),

UCLA-1285 (2820 j: 60), and UCLA-902 (2940 j: 80); the average age of these

three samples i s 2920 years (970 B.C.). Two unchecked dates (M-529, 2860 2

300; M-535, 3110 j: 300) do not contradict this, and i f all five are averaged,

we have 2946 BP, or 996 B.C.

In summary, we propose that Phase I at La Venta dates from 1000 B.C.,

and that abandonment of the s i t e at the end of Phase IV occurred about 600

B.C. This is a change of 200 years from the age of the s i t e based upon the

Michigan radiocarbon dates f i r s t published by Drucker, Heizer and Squier

(1957).

[Olavarria]

Olmec Time

1000BC: A second Olmec city is built at La Venta.

Jaredite Time(+/-) 200 years.

1240BC: Lib builds his city on the narrow neck of land.

Olmec Place

On the Strait of Tehuantepec, on/next to the Tonala River. The Tonala River empties into the Bay of Campeche.

Jaredite Place

"...by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land."

[Olavarria]

http://anthropology.si.edu/olmec/english/sites/laVenta.htm

"A major Olmec cultural and political center from about 1000 BC to 400 BC...."

[Olavarria]

Or was it San Lorenzo?

http://www.ancientamerica.org/library/medi...F%20LIB.htm?n=0

SOME OF THE CORRESPONDENCES BETWEEN OLMECS AND JAREDITES AND BETWEEN SAN LORENZO AND THE CITY OV LIB (Ether 10:19-22, 11:5-7).

2400-2500 BC

Earliest possible antecedents of Olmec ceramics in highlands of Mexico.

Jaredites arrive in Mexico.

1450 BC

San Lorenzo built on Isthmus of Tehu

[blackstrap]

Is there any geological evidence that the "sea divides the Land" at any time?? A river,even a large one would not be considered to be a sea (salt). A sea,on the other hand, would be a pretty good barrier to wild animals.

[Olavarria]

Is there any geological evidence that the "sea divides the Land" at any time?? A river,even a large one would not be considered to be a sea (salt). A sea,on the other hand, would be a pretty good barrier to wild animals.

"by the place where the sea divides the land"

I think a river that empties into a bay might qualify.

[blackstrap]

Water encroaching on the land does not seem to fit the idea of dividing the land. Unless the area was quite massive like the Amazon delta... If there is some evidence of a Bering strait land bridge then might there be some evidence of a land "trough" in Mesoamerica?