[pistola]

Interesante

[freebilly]

Everyone knows the Mayans are the famous lost Jewish tribe. Just look at the pyramids they built!< /tinfoil >

[patriciaruth]

Farfetched but intriguing.

However, this reminds one of the Piltdown Man hoax, the fake Howard Hughes will, fake French cave hand prints and cave paintings (by some trying to cash in on the tourist business generated by Lescaux), and alterations in the Great Pyramid at Giza by scientist trying to prove a religious theory.

Any update on the ancient remains of a Caucasoid male that the Indians wanted to bury, claiming it was an ancestor, and that the scientists filed in court for right to examine?

[Judith Anne]

Fascinating! Thanks for the interesting post. ;-D

[woofie]

I'll have to run down to Los Lunas and check this out

[PatrickHenry]

It's times like this that we need medved's guidance.

[MadIvan]

Perhaps it's like this fellow:

Cop a walk it's all right. …. Hus du gezen in deine leiben, they darker than us. Woof!

Regards, Ivan

[Wrigley]

Hey, maybe Joe was right...

[William Terrell]

You missed one, blam.

[dd5339]

Ping

[r9etb]

presented by Dr. Fell

Appropos of absolutely nothing, I am reminded of the following ditty:

I do not like thee, Dr. Fell.
The reason why I cannot tell.
But this I know, I know full well:
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Thor Heyerdahl showed the possibility of Mediterranean peoples sailing to south america. When the Spaniards first entered California, they reported the presence of Chinese traders - who had apparently been trading with the locals for generations. The Vikings obviously knew of the americas. Magellan didn't find the Straits of Magellan by accident.  He was following a map.

The assertion by landlubbers that ancient peoples wouldn't have the skills to navigate the oceans is laughable.  These same landlubbers are given to the view that ancient peoples were afraid to get out of sight of land.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Seamen know that they are far safer in blue water than they are near shore.  Most shipwrecks occur near shore.  There were many ancient peoples noted for their seamanship (Phoenicians for example).

[VadeRetro]

Yes, there's some good evidence that Meditteranean civilization made it (on purpose or more likely, not) across the pond before Columbus. Roman-looking amphorae have turned up in Guanabara Bay in Brazil.

But I'm suspicious of putting the Lost Tribes of Israel in the New World. People are always trying to do that.

[aruanan]

The question is—how did it get there? Is it a fraud, perpetrated by some pranksters for amusement purposes?

A OT Studies seminary student on a camp out.

[aristeides]

Aren't the earliest surviving Hebrew texts written in an alphabet that is essentially indistinguishable from the alphabet used by the Phoenicians? Wouldn't Phoenicians have been more likely to sail to America? (Of course, your average Phoenician might not have known about the Ten Commandments -- I suppose one or more Hebrews could have been on the crew of a Phoenician ship.)

[Theo]

Mormonism says that Hebrews came over to the continental US. I wonder if those who are suggesting the writing is authentic are Mormons. My position is that Joseph Smith goofed when he wrote that.

[VOA]

bump

[albee]

As I was saying to one of my Apache friends just the other day, "Funny, you don't look Jewish"!

[andy_card]

Blown from Israel to New Mexico? Oy. What a bunch of schlmozzles. I bet the Jewish Indians all retired to Florida, and became the Seminoles.

[colorado tanker]

After the reconquest culminating in 1492 the Spanish forced the Jews to convert or leave Spain. Applying Occam's Razor (the simplest explanation is usually right), attributing the Hebrew writing in New Mexico to a Spanish convert is a much more likely explanation than an Israelite naval expedition to the Americas.

[Some hope remaining.]

interesting.