2000 year old stone carving of the 10 commandments in New Mexico?

Professor Robert Pfeiffer, of the Harvard Semitic Museum, believes it to be an ancient version of the Ten Commandments.

Robert Hoath La Folette, author of The Rock That Gives Every Word Wished, claims that it is a 4,000-year-old message left by Navajo ancestors who
emigrated from the Palestine-Phoenician region.

Dixie L. Perkins, author of The Meaning of the New Mexico Mystery Stone, translated it as a 2,500-year-old tale left by the Greek explorer Zakyneros.

www.nmstatelands.org...

If this stone is what its claimed to be it changes the whole history of the America's. Or is it an elaborate hoax constructed in the last few hundred years?

[edit on 15-2-2007 by etshrtslr]

i want to believe this but have some doubts.

first, if the carvings are that old wouldn't we see lichen in the carved figures. the stone itself has blemishes and lichen, i would expect the same inside the letters.

second, why travel half the earth, carve the stone, then just leave it in the desert.

just some thoughts...

first, if the carvings are that old wouldn't we see lichen in the carved figures. the stone itself has blemishes and lichen, i would expect the same inside the letters.

Im no archaeologist but could they not have been cleaned somehow?

Yeah, that looks much younger than 4,000 years. As a matter of fact, it looks like it was just carved the other day, and didn't even have the dust properly washed off.

I guess something like this would give the Mormons a little more credability.
And also backup the notion that all of the Earths religions are connected to the same God or gods.

i thought the same after i had posted, anyone wanting to study the carving would most likely clean them. When was it first studied? by who? and are the available for commentary.

I heard this on C2Coast and it made me think of the copper plate with egyptian figures on it i had also heard about on a different C2C.

For the sake of discussion, lets say it is genuine. I can think of three scenarios:

1) 10 commandments were originated in asia minor, then brought to the americas.

2) commandments were originated in america and brought to middle east.

3) the thought was simultaneously arrived at in both areas.

(yes, i know i am a horrible speller, so anyone out there who feels the need to call me out on it can save thier time)

Originally posted by Rasobasi420
Yeah, that looks much younger than 4,000 years. As a matter of fact, it looks like it was just carved the other day, and didn't even have the dust properly washed off.

After examining the Los lunas site geologist, George Morehouse, estimated the placement of this Decalogue inscription up to 3000 years ago, which would, again, date it around 1000 B.C.

members.aol.com...

The stone was found in the 1930's so its at least 70-80 years old.

The inscription has been translated by the Epigraphic Society as follows:

I (am) Jehovah [the Eternal] Eloah [your God] who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim [Mizraim or the two Egypts] out of the house of bondages. You shall not have other [foreign] gods in place of (me). You shall not make for yourself molded (or carved) idols [graven images]. You shall not lift up your voice to connect the name of Jehovah in hate. Remember you (the) Sabbath to make it holy. Honor your father and your mother to make long your existence upon the land which Jehovah Eloah [the Eternal your God] gave to you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery (or idolatry). You shall not steal (or deceive). You shall not bear witness against your neighbor, testimony for a bribe. You shall not covet (the) wife of your neighbor and all which belongs to your neighbor.

[edit on 15-2-2007 by etshrtslr]

i think it is the utmost importance with this stone to know who first presented it back in the 1930's.

As someone else has already posted, this stone, if real, would result in a massive rewritting of history ( which is long, long, overdue)

You know, it seems like the American south west is a treasure chest of lost archeology. Does anyone know when the huge inland sea covering the midwest was around. If there were people on the earth at that time, then an inland sea would have been valuable to civilization, which could be why so many lost sites exist in the region; it is where the coast would have been when the inland sea was still wet.

i think it is the utmost importance with this stone to know who first presented it back in the 1930's.

After some more reading it appears the stone was known much earlier than that.

People were already aware of the inscription when New Mexico became a territory in 1850, but no one could read it back then, mainly because the old-Hebrew or Phoenician alphabet in which this rock is inscribed was mostly unknown among scholars or archaeologists at that time.

www.webcom.com...

Very interesting find.

As they say, seems 'to good to be true'.

Found some more interesting stuff on it Here


Maybe Byrd will jump in with some of her expertise and Yay or Nay it. This could of been debunked /discussed before.

I surprised this is the first time I heard of its existance



[edit on 15-2-2007 by Grailkeeper]

Wow, this is incredible if true! Terrific find!

God is indeed making himself known in these days!

God Bless,
tke

Professor Robert Pfeiffer, of the Harvard Semitic Museum, believes it to be an ancient version of the Ten Commandments.

He made this claim in 1949. So for the record, this is not a new claim.

I see here a list of his writtings:
www.hds.harvard.edu...

I don't see what would be the article in which he makes this claim. Too bad, since we'd have to be able to see it to evaluate it.


According to this page:
spondoo.com...

It was an unpublished translation.

Stewart Lewis
wouldn't we see lichen in the carved figures

economics.sbs.ohio-state.edu...
, Moorehouse compares the surviving weathering on the inscription to that on a nearby modern graffito dating itself to 1930. He concludes that the Decalogue inscription is clearly many times older than this graffito, and that 500 to 2000 years would not be an unreasonable estimate of its age.

(in 1996)

thisguyrighthere
And also backup the notion that all of the Earths religions are connected to the same God or gods.

The study of the texts shows that it is, one way or another, taken from the old world and brought to the new world, not vice versa.


[edit on 15-2-2007 by Nygdan]

Maybe Bird wil jump in with some of her expertise and Yay or Nay it. This could of been debunked /discussed before.

Yes I would love to hear Byrd's take on this.

What I find interesting is from what I have read so far there are no so called scholar's calling this a fraud.

In 1999 Stan Fox, a linguist and Bible expert from Colchester, England, made a fresh translation of the Los Lunas Inscription, based upon photos and a careful drawing of the text. It is apparently the first translation to be published on the Internet (see translation on this Web site).

Even though the stone was first translated in 1949 it seems that much of academia does not want to deal with the consequences of possibly having a 2000-4000 year old middle eastern ancient text in america.

Just a thought,

Could the rock itself have been brought to the location where it sits now, being transported many years after its inception?

I didn't see any measurements or if the rock is 'mobile'.

Originally posted by Grailkeeper
Just a thought,

Could the rock itself have been brought to the location where it sits now, being transported many years after its inception?

I didn't see any measurements or if the rock is 'mobile'.

It is a boulder weighing an estimated 80 to 100 tons and is about eight meters in length.

www.nmstatelands.org...

The insciption can't be 4,000 years old, but with a text that only existed 2,000 years ago. And notice that it could be as young as 500 years ago (which of course can be said to still be pre-columbian).

Here is what a student of ancient Hebrew has to say about it:

...linguistically, some of the characters used could not possibly have been used by any Hebrew (or other Jew /Christian) people from 2000 years ago.
I'm open minded to the idea of ancient Hebrews somehow making it to North America, but this tablet has several errors no self respecting Hebrew-writer would make.

... but I would stake my life on the idea that this stone was not chiselled by an ancient Hebrew, or an experienced writer of the ancient Hebrew letter system, and probably not even by a Jew.

Source

Researchers have stated that its a mix of paleo-hebrew, samaritan, and greek letters. So the claim that its not what a 'respectable hebrew' would use doesn't actualyl invalidate it.

www.thetruthseeker.co.uk...
letters are used here to replace some of the ancient Hebrew characters that are more intricate to draw, so it seems likely to me that the author did not know them

Why would someone bother to create a hoax like this, but not know any hebrew and then just, for no particular reason, insert greek letters?
They wouldn't.

Originally posted by Nygdan
The insciption can't be 4,000 years old, but with a text that only existed 2,000 years ago. And notice that it could be as young as 500 years ago (which of course can be said to still be pre-columbian).

the paleo-Hebrew alphabet was only discovered from archaeological inscriptions in the Middle East over the past 100 years.

I have also interviewed Prof. Frank Hibben, local historian and archaeologist from the University of New Mexico, who is convinced the inscription is ancient and thus authentic. He reports that he first saw the text in 1933. At the time it was covered with lichen and patination and was hardly visible. He was taken to the site by a guide who had seen it as a boy, back in the 1880s. Thus we have eye-witness evidence, going back over a hundred years, that the inscription existed. This alone is impressive, since it is rather preposterous to imagine some pranksters or forgers operating with a knowledge of paleo-Hebrew in the late 1800s, when this ancient alphabet was not even fully known to the scholars.

Researcher David Deal, to whom we owe credit for a drawing of the site, has identified the eclipse astronomically as occurring on September 15, 107 B. C. E. I have run that date on a sophisticated computer calendar that does conversions to the ancient Hebrew calendar and surprisingly, that date turns out to fall on Tishri 1st, or Rosh HaShanah of that year—107 B.C.E.! Mr. Deal, who first did the astronomical calculations, was not even aware of this correlation. It might well be the case that the ancient Israelites who lived on this mountain, and left their inscription of the Ten Commandments at the “Gate” of the camp, also recorded an eclipse that happened to fall on a very important day in their sacred calendar.

www.unitedisrael.org...

Maybe not 4000 years old but there appears to be evidence of it being 2000 plus years old.

I think a big question is was there cultures or societies that used or knew paleo-Hebrew 500 or so years ago?