“They Did Also Lay Snares and Catch Fowls of the Air”

Alan C. Miner

According to Warren and Palmer, in the Sumerian culture there were fowlers who caught birds with an arsenal of nets. Deliveries of fifty-four roasted birds are recorded in Sumerian documents. This would explain the phrase in Ether, "and they did also lay snares and catch fowls of the air" (Ether 2:2). Many of those fowl were taken on the final boats used by the Jaredites to cross the ocean (Ether 6:4). According to Mesoamerican scholars, birds were also an important part of the diet in the Olmec site of San Lorenzo (Coe and Diehl, 1980). [Bruce W. Warren and David A. Palmer, The Jaredite Saga, ch. 4, unpublished]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

References