Dating the Death of Shiz

A question I think most LDS members consider lightly or not at all is, When did the Jaredites perish? I think the reason behind this is most people make sweeping, cursory assumptions about the Jaredite timeline. The common mentality is that as Lehi's foot first pressed the American shores, Shiz' head fell from his shoulders. I would like to show that this is conception utterly false.

Absolute Upper Limit
If we only take into account one event, namely Mulek's landing, we find that the soonest the Jaredites could have foregone is about 530 BC. We learn that Mulek was the only son of Zedekiah not slain (Hel 8:21). From the Bible, we learn that Zedekiah died at 32 (2 Kings 24:18). By common concession, Jerusalem was razed in 587 BC. The oldest Mulek could have possibly been at the time is 20 years old. The oldest he could have plausibly been is 14-16. The problem with imagining him as a stripling is that all of Zedekiah's sons were killed by Babylon. A teenager, especially the eldest son, would be hard to miss—for invader and historian alike—so it's improbable.

The leading theory is that Mulek was either an infant (so he could have been disguised as a girl or more easily snuck out in a basket), or he was unborn. The leading theory for how Mulek got to the Americas is through the Phoenicians. This is supported by (1) the identification of the Jaredites as the Olmec people, and (2) the fact that Mulek and his party first landed among the Jaredites in the land northward (Alma 22:30). The Olmecs lived primarily along the eastern coast of Mexico, meaning Mulek would have to take an Atlantic route to arrive there.

So the earliest Mulek could have landed in the Americas is 586 BC, five or so years after Lehi. The oldest he could possibly be at that point is about 20, but more likely he would have been an infant. It's more likely that he lived in the eastern hemisphere for a time, gained a few years under his belt, then made the voyage. One of my main sources for that inference is Hel 6:10 where it says, "the Lord did bring Mulek into the land north, and Lehi into the land south." I'm assuming that Mormon is making parallel references to the leader of the traveling parties. It's also easier to imagine a 20+ year-old man as the leader of the party than a baby. That puts a more likely date of Mulek's earliest arrival at ~565 BC, though it could have been even later.

However, we cannot yet assume that 565 is when the Jaredites perished. Omni 1:16 tells us "[the people of Zarahemla's] language had become corrupted; and they had brought no records with them; and they denied the being of their Creator; and Mosiah, nor the people of Mosiah, could understand them." Verse 21 tells us that Coriantumr (the "last Jaredite") dwelt with the people of Zarahemla for nine moons. It may just be me, but a people who put no emphasis on records and who had forgotten God don't strike me as the type to remember a single man who lived with them more than 400 years before. That indicates that the Jaredite civilization ended closer to 130 than 587 BC.

Chemical Degradation Factors
That was a fun exercise using chronology alone, but now I'd like to introduce the factors of corrosion and decomposition. Mos 8:8-11 (the Limhi expedition, ca. 130 BC) reports that Limhi's scouts found

1. Bones (ch. 21 specifies dry bones) of man and beast of a very numerous people
2. Ruins of buildings
3. 24 gold plates
4. Perfectly sound brass and copper breastplates
5. Sword with perished hilts and rusted blades

In my mind, I also identify the Jaredites with the Olmecs, but even if you think they lived in North America, this will be relevant. This brings up some questions, namely

1. How long does it take corpses to skeletonize in the open air, but not for bone decomposition to take place?
2. How long does it take blades to rust in open air, but not oxidize entirely?
3. How long does it take wood to decompose (the hilts)?

Copper and brass don't come into the question because they tarnish and don't rust. Gold also doesn't rust.

I've done a lot of searching on the internet, but haven't found too much conclusive material. To summarize my findings, I set an upper limit for the destruction of the Jaredites at 100 years before the Limhi expedition. A more likely limit in the tropical climate of Mexico is 50 years. Heat and humidity will make all of the applicable processes go faster. Taking decomposition into account, a new time frame for the end of the Jaredites is 180-230 BC.

This site dedicated to "online information regarding the funeral and cremation process" states that "decomposition in the air is twice as fast as when the body is under water and four times as fast as underground." It also states that "When buried six feet down, without a coffin, in ordinary soil, an unembalmed adult normally takes eight to twelve years to decompose to a skeleton." Using these two statements, bodies above ground would take two to three years to skeletonize (in the UK). Add in the higher heat and insect population in Mexico and the number will be even lower.

Wikipedia says that "After skeletonization has occurred, if scavenging animals do not destroy the bones, acids in many fertile soils take about twenty years to completely dissolve the skeleton of mid- to large-size mammals, such as humans, leaving no trace of the organism. In neutral-pH soil or sand, the skeleton can persist for hundreds of years before it finally disintegrates." I looked but couldn't find any good information on the pH levels of the soil in Olmec areas.

Here's a site for a high school rusting experiment with pictures. It states that visible rust (Iron (III) Oxide) forms within hours. In this article, Tim Scarlett, archaeologist, says, "Put partly corroded nails in a zip-lock bag, store them awhile, open the bag years later, and end find 'lumps of rust powder,'” I don't know what "end find" means (likely bad editing), but it's clear that iron doesn't have that long of a lifespan. I just can't find exact numbers on that lifespan. Also, everywhere I've found says that heat and humidity will make rusting faster.

Answers.com says that wood an inch in diameter can take 3 years to decompose, and logs a foot across can take ten years. It's safe to say that the hilts of the swords were gone within five years of the final battle.

Conclusion

Pictured: the head of Shiz

There's much more that can be said on the topic, but I think I'll stop here. If you have any further information about rusting and decomposition, please drop it in the comments! I just wanted to point out that the Jaredites lived on the same continent as the Nephites for about 400 years before they perished.

In conjunction with Alma 22:30 (which states that the land northward where Limhi's expedition found the bones was the people of Zarahemla's first landing site), Mos 25:2 talks about "Zarahemla, who was a descendant of Mulek, and those who came with him into the wilderness." That means that some of the Mulekites stayed with the Jaredites, and it also likely means that the two groups had intermarried. So even though Coriantumr is appellated "the last Jaredite," Jaredite blood (and culture) still lived on in the people of Zarahemla. That's probably why their "language [was] corrupted; and Mosiah, nor the people of Mosiah, could understand them."

Anyways, my thoughts.