[Alouette]

What would move ancient religious Jews (who cared about the Ten Commandments) to hop in a boat and sail for months over uncharted oceans

Good question. However if the inscriptions are not the work of a modern prankster, they could have been made by "crypto-Jews" Spanish Jews who converted to Christianity at the time of the Inquisition, then came to the New World with the Spanish conquistadores in the early 16th century. They might have set up an encampment and left code in paleo-Hebrew since the Inquisition priests would have recognized modern Hebrew.

[Sacajaweau]

Wonder how much funding they will get??

Sac

[patriciaruth]

The simplest answer may be that Sacajaweau has an evil twin who set this us to blow your mind away.

Still it's fun sometimes to think about Kazanzakis' seven levels of truth.

[aristeides]

Would 16th century Spanish crypto-Jews have known anything about the Paleohebrew alphabet?

[Bohemund]

Good point on the "crypto-Jews." However, it seems as though the evidence for crypto-Jews in Mexico/New Mexico may not be as good as it once looked:

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/12/ferry.htm