We’d heard about the Los Lunas Mystery (Decalogue) Stone after we moved to New Mexico. It took us 2 years to get directions and actually drive/walk to find it. The road was so muddy that we found it was easier to walk in the snow where the ground was a little harder. Despite our efforts to stay clean, our shoes were caked with mud; we took them off before we climbed into Emily’s car!
The Mystery Stone is a large boulder on the side of Hidden Mountain that bears a very regular inscription carved into a flat panel. The inscription is interpreted to be an abridged version of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments in a form of Paleo-Hebrew. The stone is controversial in that some claim the inscription if Pre-Columbia, and therefore proof of early Semitic contact with the Americas.
The Mystery Stone is a large boulder on the side of Hidden Mountain that bears a very regular inscription carved into a flat panel. The inscription is interpreted to be an abridged version of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments in a form of Paleo-Hebrew. The stone is controversial in that some claim the inscription if Pre-Columbia, and therefore proof of early Semitic contact with the Americas.
The first recorded mention of the stone is in 1933, when professor Frank Hibben, an archaeologist from the University of New Mexico, saw it. Hibben was led to the stone by an unnamed guide who claimed to have found it as a boy in the 1880s. The 1880s date of discovery is important to those who believe that the stone was inscribed by a lost tribe of Israel. One argument against the stone's antiquity is its apparent use of modern Hebrew punctuation; other researchers dismiss the inscription based on the numerous stylistic and grammatical errors that appear in the inscription.
Because of the stone's weight of over 80 tons, it was never moved to a museum or laboratory for study and safekeeping. Many visitors have cleaned the stone inscriptions over the years, likely destroying any possibility for scientific analysis of the inscriptions' patina. Nevertheless, comparing it to a modern inscription nearby, geologist G. E. Morehouse estimated that the inscription could be between 500 and 2000 years old and explaining its freshness and lack of patina as being due to frequent scrubbing to make it more visible.
Whether the stone was carved by ancient Nephites/Lamanites or a modern hoax, I’m glad we visited the Los Lunas Mystery Stone.
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