JAREDITE RUINS DISCOVERED?

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NOTE: This message was originally posted at the "OUR ETERNAL STRUGGLE" web site on Thursday 25 January 2007.
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Brothers and Sisters:

Here's an intriguing news report from the Associated Press: 

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OLMEC INFLUENCED CITY FOUND IN MEXICO 

By: MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press Writer 

Thursday 25 January 2007
21:20 Hours Eastern Standard Time 

A two thousand five hundred year old city influenced by the Olmecs, often referred to as the "mother culture" of Mesoamerica, has been discovered hundreds of miles away from the Olmecs' Gulf coast territory, archaeologists said. 

The remains of Zazacatla are providing insight into the early arrival of advanced civilizations in central Mexico, while also providing lessons about the risks to ruins posed by modern development that now cover much of the ancient city. 

Archaeologist Giselle Canto said Wednesday that two statues and architectural details at the site, twenty-five miles south of Mexico City, indicate that the inhabitants of Zazacatla adopted Olmec styles when they changed from a simple, egalitarian society to a more complex, hierarchical one. 

"When their society became stratified, the new rulers needed emblems - - - to justify their rule over people who used to be their equals," Canto said of the inhabitants, who may not have been ethnically Olmec, but apparently revered the culture as the most prestigious. 

Zazacatla covered less than one square mile between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C.

But much of it has been covered by housing and commercial development extending from Cuernavaca, a city popular with tourists just seven miles north. 

"There are ten housing developments, a gas station, a highway and a commercial building on the site now," Canto said. 

Authorities hope to excavate and preserve other pre-Hispanic sites before they are forgotten or covered over. 

Since excavation of Zazacatla began last year, archaeologists have unearthed six buildings, and two sculptures of what appear to be Olmec-style priests. 

The sculptures appear to have headdresses portraying the jaguar, which the Olmecs revered, and other symbols of status and authority. 

The Olmecs dominated areas around the Gulf coast states of Veracruz and Tabasco from 1,200 B.C. to about 400 B.C. 

Some had speculated that the signs of Olmec influence found at Zazacatla and other areas far from the Gulf coast might suggest Olmec settlements, conquests, or missionary sites. 

But Canto said the Olmecs' most famous ceremonial center, about two hundred and fifty miles east, was too far for direct contact, though trade links may have existed. 

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What do you think - - - were these the Jaredites we read about in the BOOK OF MORMON?

Boy, oh boy, what a find!

Thank you. 

John Robert "SAIGON" Mallernee, KB3KWS

Official Bard of Clan Henderson
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Washington, D.C. 20011-8400 

NOTE: "My unpopular and controversial personal opinions are independent of my Scottish clan."

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