The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone is a fake object linked to a large rock on the side of Hidden Mountain, near Los Lunas, New Mexico. This rock is located about 35 miles (56 km) south of Albuquerque. The stone has a nine-line message carved into a flat surface. It is also called the Los Lunas Mystery Stone or Commandment Rock. Some people believe the message is very old, from before European explorers arrived in the Americas, and that it shows early contact between people from the Middle East and the Americas. However, standard archaeological evidence does not support this claim.
History
The first known record of the stone dates back to 1933, when Professor Frank Hibben (1910–2002), an archaeologist from the University of New Mexico, saw it. In a 1996 interview, Hibben said he believed the inscription was ancient and real. He reported seeing the text in 1933, but it was covered with lichen and a layer that forms on the stone over time, making it hard to see. Hibben said a guide took him to the site and claimed to have seen the stone as a boy in the 1880s. However, Hibben’s account has been questioned because some people say he made up parts of his findings to support his theory about people arriving in the Americas before the Clovis culture.
The claim that the stone was discovered in the 1880s is important to those who think it is pre-Columbian. However, the Paleo-Hebrew script, which is closely related to the Phoenician script, was already known to scholars by 1870. This means the script could not prove the stone is ancient, as it might have been used in a modern fake.
Because the stone weighs more than 80 tons, it has never been moved to a museum or lab for study. Over the years, many visitors have cleaned the inscriptions, possibly destroying any chance to analyze the layer that forms on the stone. A geologist named George E. Morehouse, who worked with Barry Fell, compared the stone to a nearby modern inscription and estimated the writing could be between 500 and 2000 years old. He explained the stone’s fresh appearance as the result of frequent scrubbing to make it more visible.
In April 2006, the first line of the unprotected inscription was destroyed by vandals.
Visitors to the site must buy a $35 Recreational Access Permit from the New Mexico State Land Office.
Controversy
Archaeolinguist Cyrus Gordon suggested that the Los Lunas Decalogue might be a Samaritan mezuzah. A Jewish mezuzah is a small scroll placed in a case and mounted near a house entrance. In contrast, the Samaritan mezuzah was often a large stone slab placed near a property or synagogue entrance, with a shortened version of the Ten Commandments written on it. Gordon believes the inscription likely dates to the Byzantine period, based on historical and writing evidence. The Samaritan alphabet is directly based on the older Paleo-Hebrew alphabet.
Some people argue the stone is not ancient because its punctuation resembles modern Hebrew or appears unusual. However, amateur epigrapher Barry Fell claimed the punctuation could still be old. Other experts disagree, pointing out many writing and style mistakes in the inscription.
Archaeologist Kenneth Feder said the stone is almost certainly fake. He noted the stone’s surface has a very clear and sharp inscription. His main concern is the lack of archaeological evidence, such as signs of people living or traveling near the stone. He explained that if ancient Hebrews had been there, they would have left behind items like food remains, tools, or other signs of their presence. No such evidence has been found in the American Southwest, and no ancient Hebrew settlements exist in New Mexico.
British archaeologist Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews concluded the Los Lunas inscription is a well-made forgery. He pointed out that the text mixes letter styles from two different alphabets, which is more likely the work of a modern forger than an ancient scribe. Some people have also suggested the stone might have been carved by soldiers from a U.S. Army group during the Mexican-American War.
Similar landmarks
The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone is often compared to the Heavener Runestone, Kensington Runestone, Dighton Rock, and the Newport Tower as examples of American sites with uncertain origins. Other disputed inscriptions in Hebrew found in America include the Smithsonian Institution's Bat Creek Inscription and the Newark Ohio Decalogue Stone, Keystone, and Johnson-Bradner Stone.