Some 55 miles south of Albuquerque, deep in the New Mexico desert near the town of Los Lunas, there is some strange evidence that the lost tribes of Israel somehow reached the New World and traveled to New World Americans. Carved stone lies. Southwest. It may seem improbable, but everyone can see tangible evidence carved into a large stone known as the Los Lunas Decalogue Stone. Is this stone real evidence of a Jewish presence in pre-Columbian America? Or, as critics claim, a modern hoax? Let’s look at both sides of the story.
Stone Discovery
Oral tradition claims that people knew about the Los Lunas Decalogue stones as early as the 1850s, but at least one Franz Hooning claimed in 1871 that the stones were already there from local Native Americans. claimed to have been informed that It was when his ancestors arrived. regional. Official credit for the discovery of this stone goes to University of New Mexico professor Frank Hibben. The stone was shown to Hibben by a local resident, who said he learned it was carved as a child in the 1880s. Hibben claims the stone was covered in lichen when he found it and was almost indistinguishable from other stones in the area. .
STONE CARVING
The 80-ton Los Lunas Decalogue stone is carved into a flat surface with a passage from the Hebrew Old Testament book of Exodus detailing the Ten Commandments and the Old Hebrew Scriptures. Hibben et al. date the stone carvings to more than 1,500 years before Columbus’ visit to the New World, and offer this as evidence that Jewish travelers, possibly the lost tribes of Israel, reached the southwestern United States. ing. A mineralogist named George Morehouse examined his stone carvings in 1985 and based on weathering patterns, he concluded that the carvings were between 500 and 2,000 years old.
A Plausible Theory
We now know that Christopher Columbus was not the first European to set foot in the Americas. There have been voyages of Vikings, Middle Easterners, and possibly travelers from Asia to the New World. It is not impossible for Hebrew sailors to safely cross the Atlantic and enter the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps they were rescued by natives and taken further inland. And there is further evidence, though not yet proven, that some of the indigenous peoples of North America were in contact with the Hebrews in ancient times. Perhaps the Los Lunas Decalogue Stones are the evidence we need.
Application Notes
The Ten Commandments are carved in stone in fine Old Hebrew script. Like the Phoenician alphabet, Old Hebrew is one of the earliest forms of Hebrew writing. The 10th-century BC Gezer Calendar This is the earliest known example written in Old Hebrew. However, there are some anomalies in the stone inscriptions of Los Lunas de Caro. Experts in ancient languages point out that some of the writing is ancient Greek, and archaic Hebrew letters were used at least once.
An elaborate hoax?
However, many experts doubt the stone’s authenticity. The main reason for this is Professor Hibben’s unreliability. On at least two other occasions, Hibben has been caught fabricating his findings to support his own theories. Are the stones of Los Lunas Decalogue another example of Hibben’s erroneous archaeology?
Could grammatical errors indicate fraud?
Although most of the Los Lunas Decalogue stones are written in Old Hebrew, the text contains several notable errors that alarm researchers. there is For example, the inscription has some symbols that were not used in Hebrew writing until the late Middle Ages. In addition, stone carvers used the Old Hebrew letter “aleph” as a vowel, even though it was a consonant in the ancient language. Other letters were used interchangeably, even though they represented individual sounds. If the stone had been carved by a native speaker, these mistakes would not have happened. Critics of the stone’s authenticity claim that it was carved by a person with only cursory knowledge of Old Hebrew.
Word Order Clues
Some researchers who have studied the stone believe that the word order of the inscriptions provides clues to the age of the engraving. They claim that the stone’s author lived during the Byzantine period, and refer to both the word order and spelling of the words written on the stone to show that they are consistent with contemporary writings. However, there are some signs that point to the Middle Ages and beyond.
Source: (stavislost.com)
Lone Stone
Another clue that the Los Lunas Decalogue stone is fake is not from the stone itself, but from its surroundings. To date, no further evidence has been found of an ancient Hebrew presence in the American Southwest. For example, the Spaniards and Vikings left artifacts and structures that tell of their existence, but nothing of the sort exists in the Hidden Mountains region of New Mexico.
