A Chronological history of the Olmecs coincides exactly to the recorded history, of the Jaredites, in the Book of Mormon.
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Previous to 1941 no information other than the Book of Mormon claimed that a civilized distinctive group of people, dated back to the Jaredite time period, lived in the Americas.
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1941 -- A shocking discovery to almost all of the worlds archaeologists were the presenting of evidence of the discovery of a pre-dated Maya race of people called the Olmecs.
<< Matthew StirlingIn July 7, 1941, at a conference sponsored by the Mexican Society of Anthropology, two Mexican archaeologists, Alfonso Caso and Miguel Covarrubias, along with a great American archaeologist, Matthew Stirling, calmly proclaimed that a culture that has become known as the Olmecs was the mother culture of Mexico. The concept of a culture predating the Maya was opposed by the majority of the scholars. The new findings were presented about a race of people that predated the Mayas in Mesoamerica. The Olmecs have been shown to reach back to pre-Christian times during which the Book of Mormon Jaredite history took place.
"Stirling was unable to return to La Venta until 1942...." "It would be nearly 15 years before radiocarbon dating finally confirmed that the Olmec pre-dated the Maya. The Olmec culture is generally considered to have lasted from 1400 BCE until 400 BCE." (Wikipedia, Matthew Stirling)
Various archaeologists and scholars have dated the Olmec culture much older, back to 2500 BC.
This would coincide to the calculated Book of Mormon dates for the Jaredites of between 2500 BC to 300 BC.
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<< Olmec-Jaredite Population Chart by John Clark