The Jaredites are a people described in the book of Ether (see BOOK OF MORMON: BOOK OF ETHER) whose name derives from their first leader, Jared. The Jaredites date to the time of the "great tower" mentioned in the Old Testament (Gen. 11:1-9), which was built in or around Mesopotamia. Led by God, the Jaredites left their homeland for a new land somewhere in the Americas, and there they established a kingdom. They grew to be a numerous population with kings and prophets, and, like the Nephites after them, were eventually annihilated by internecine war evidently sometime be-tween 600 and 300 B.C. Their story was recorded by their last prophet, Ether. Around A.D. 400, the last Nephite survivor, MORONI2, abridged the record of Ether and appended his summary to the account of the Nephites that had been prepared by his father, MORMON. Although the record is brief, it hints at an epic genre rooted in the ancient Near East.

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