Moroni writes that the Jaredites "went forth upon the face of the land, and began to till the earth" (Ether 6:13). According to John Thompson, tilling the ground seems like such an ordinary thing to do. Why, then, would one waste time and space writing about such things? Such an apparently superfluous piece of information becomes more meaningful when we realize that tilling the earth had symbolic significance among various ancient societies. Mircea Eliade has noticed in his studies of ancient cultures and religions that "when possession is taken of a territory, . . . rites are performed that symbolically repeat the act of Creation: the uncultivated zone is first 'cosmicized,' then inhabited." . . . Thus, tilling the ground may symbolize the act of creation to the author/editor of the Jaredite record and therefore warrants inclusion. [John S. Thompson, "The Jaredite Exodus: A Literary Perspective of a Historical Narrative," in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Spring 1994, pp. 106-107]
The reader might wonder how far the Jaredites "went forth" into the territory of the New World. All the text mentions is that by the time of Ether 7:5 the king dwelt in the land of Moron, which was "up," apparently from the landing site.
“They Went Forth Upon the Face of the Land and Began to Till the Earth”
John Sorenson notes that new physical and statistical procedures have expanded the possibilities of C-14 dating, but they also necessitate correcting the "radiocarbon years" in order to fit our normal calendar. Calibrated dates can be expressed only as statistical ranges, not as single years; this means that there is a 95% chance that the real age falls within the indicated range. A few of the dates that apply to early Mesoamerican pottery-users, and presumably to agriculture-based villages, are listed below. These are sufficient to show that village life and ceramics were widespread in Mesoamerica during the period that John Sorenson assigns to the early Jaredites:
Puerto Marquez, Guerrero (Brush): 3765-3000 B.C.,+ 140 years.
Zohapilco, D.F. (Niederberger): 4085-3645 B.C. + 110.
Cuicuilco, D.F. (Heizer and Benyhoff): 3160-2635 B.C. + 120
Teopantecuantitlan, Guerrero (an "Olmec city") (Martinez Donjuan): 2115-1640 B.C. + 110
San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Veracruz (Coe and Diehl): 1910-1435 B.C. + 120
[John L. Sorenson, "Viva Zapato! Hurray for the Shoe! in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 6, Num. 1, pp. 317-318]
Ether 6:13 They went forth upon the face of the land ([Illustration]): San Jose Mogote and the northern valley of Oaxaca, the best candidate to have been the Jaredite Moron. (Courtesy Richard Jones)] [John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, p. 185]
Ether 6:13 They went forth upon the face of the land (Illustration): The valley of Oaxaca seen from Monte Alban [F.A.R.M.S. Staff, "Lands of the Book of Mormon," Slide #86]