In Ether 10:32 it says that "Com[2] drew away half the kingdom and . . . obtained power over the remainder of the kingdom." According to Warren and Palmer, it was apparently in the time of Com2 that San Lorenzo suffered an enormous devastation. It appears to have been the result of an uprising by the slaves in a civil war. Those slaves were perhaps descendants of Jared.
The lead excavator of San Lorenzo was Michael D. Coe. He has stated that the Olmec phase of San Lorenzo ended in 900 B.C. (Coe, M.D. and Diehl, R.A., 1980:31). The actual date could possibly have been as much as two hundred years earlier, with recalibration of the radiocarbon dates; therefore, a spread from 1100 to 900 B.C. must be considered. The site of San Lorenzo was purposely destroyed, and Coe speculated as follows:
Why was this done? Because the Olmec monuments must have stood for a class of leaders that held the tributary populace in such a firm grip, forcing from them incredible expenditures of labor. These stones must have been the symbols of all that had held them in thrall, and they destroyed these symbols with as much fervor as the Hungarian revolutionaries toppled the giant statue of Stalin in Budapest in 1956 (Coe, 1968:86).
It seems evident that the descendants of Jared had ample reason to destroy those monuments which they and their ancestors were forced to quarry, transport, and sculpt (see illustration). [Bruce W. Warren and David A. Palmer, The Jaredite Saga, pp. 8-20, 21]
Ether 10:32 Com drew away half the kingdom and . . . obtained power over the remainder of the kingdom ([Illustration]): Monument of a seated Olmec ruler on display in the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City. Note the pendant hung from the neck, believed to be a representation of the concave iron mirrors worn by the rulers. The head and arms were knocked off deliberately, probably in a civil war. [David A. Palmer, In Search of Cumorah, p. 138]
Ether 10:32 Com drew away half the kingdom and . . . obtained power over the remainder of the kingdom ([Illustration]): Statue of a crouching man found at San Lorenzo. The head was deliberately knocked off, probably during the destruction which accompanied a civil war at San Lorenzo. It appears that the statue may have originally had wooden arms that pivoted.] [David A. Palmer, In Search of Cumorah, p. 140]