Posted on 10/08/2002 11:51:51 PM PDT by pistola
An Ancient Hebrew Inscription in New Mexico Fact or Fraud?
by James D. Tabor
The standard textbook wisdom that we all learned from grade school on up is that the Americas were discovered by the Europeans either in 1492 by Columbus, or perhaps even a few hundred years earlier by the Vikings. There seems to be an aversion among the establishment historians to even consider the idea that ancient Mediterranean peoples might have traveled to the Americas in the centuries before our era. Except for certain “fringe” scholarship, particularly promoted by Mormon historians, the standard view is considered indisputable. The very idea that “primitive” peoples from Cyprus, Phoenicia, Greece, or Iberia had the sailing sophistication to cross the Atlantic is thought to be improbable if not absurd.
There are a few notable exceptions. Dr. Cyrus Gordon, one of the greatest living historians of ancient Near Eastern civilizations has promoted the idea that such peoples reached the New World for the past several decades. Actually, when one digs around a bit, it turns out that the historical and archaeological evidence is quite impressive. It has been well documented by Barry Fell in his major study, America B.C. (New York: Pocket Books, 1989).
One of the most fascinating sites Dr. Fell surveys is located south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, a few miles west of a little town called Los Lunas. The site has been known as “Mystery Mountain” by the locals for many years. At the foot of a mini-Masada like natural plateau there is an inscription written in paleo-Hebrew. The inscription contains a slightly abridged version of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments. Anyone who is familiar with the Hebrew language, and the well-established ancient Hebrew alphabet used prior to the Common Era, can easily read this inscription.
The question is—how did it get there? Is it a fraud, perpetrated by some pranksters for amusement purposes? If so, it could not be much older than this century since the paleo-Hebrew alphabet was only discovered from archaeological inscriptions in the Middle East over the past 100 years. Or, is it possible that it was put there much earlier, by Jews or Israelites who had settled in the area we know as New Mexico when paleo-Hebrew was in common use—that is in the centuries B.C.E. To even suggest such an idea, for most, is to immediately dismiss it. However, when the Los Lunas inscription is placed in the wider context of an abundant amount of evidence, such as that presented by Dr. Fell, that ancient Mediterranean peoples did visit the New World, it becomes not only plausible but perhaps the only logical explanation for the existence of this text.
In September, 1996 I visited the Los Lunas site with a group of associates for an initial survey of the evidence. 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.
Associated with the inscription is the mountain itself, which shows evidence of fortification and ancient habitation, whether by native Americans or whomever. The Decalogue inscription is located at the foot of the mountain, on the north, at the only accessible pathway going up. The top of the mountain is a flat plateau with many ruins. The whole area is covered with drawings on rocks called petroglyphs. One of the most interesting of these petroglyphs is what appears to be a sky-map, laid out on a flat rock, recording the positions of the planets and constellations during a solar eclipse. 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.
I have become tentatively convinced that the Los Lunas inscription offers solid evidence that ancient Israelites explored and settled in the New World in the centuries before the Common Era. Whether we can precisely date this encampment, based on Mr. Deal’s astronomical evidence, remains in discussion. However, I have little doubt, nor does Dr. Gordon, who is one of the world experts on ancient inscriptions, that the text itself is authentic and was written sometime B.C.E. Beyond this we can not go at this point in time. What is needed is a rigorous archaeological examination of the whole mountain and its human artifacts. It was obvious to us, even from our brief survey last Fall, that the site has been inhabited by successive peoples. We would have to have coin and pottery evidence to more precisely identify these remains and correlate them, if possible, with the inscription itself. The author is in the process of investigating possibilities for just such an investigation, led by qualified experts in archaeology. In the meantime I would encourage any of our Bulletin readers who are interested in this subject to read Dr. Barry Fell’s book, America B.C., which is readily available in major bookstores.
Why would a person from Middle East write in a Paleo Hebrew inscription (alphabet) in 100 BC. The Paleo hebrew stopped at 600 BC.
Would that be the same Taylor who wrote The Jesus Dynasty?
The book a reviewer said
“....does contains some assertions that will attract attention and even be considered heresy. For example, Tabor not only postulates that Jesus was fathered by a man but also that his mother, Mary, was married more than once. But these are not the main points of the book, merely factors Tabor uses to develop his theme”.
Would it be that Taylor?
Why?
First guess out of the box is fraud. Does that sound too unlikely?
LOL!
Try reading the Book of Mormon that will explain everything in total.
I just stumbled back on this thread, and somehow missed the posts to me last Fall.
Alterations on the Great Pyramid were supposedly made by a fellow 60 or more years ago whose book claimed that measurements and markings in the Great Pyramid were proof and prophesy of the history in the Bible made after the Pyramid was built: Great Pyramid Proof of God by George Riffert published in 1942
I tried reading the Book of Mormon, but I found it uninspiring.
Alterations on the Great Pyramid were supposedly made by a fellow 60 or more years ago whose book claimed that measurements and markings in the Great Pyramid were proof and prophesy of the history in the Bible made after the Pyramid was built: Great Pyramid Proof of God by George Riffert published in 1942.
My father bought and read this book to us about 60 years ago. Later Dad said he thought the fellow was a fraud, that he’d been caught making marks to fit with his theory. I have only my memory of this. Didn’t find anything in a quick Google search.
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http://www.econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/loslunas.html
Can you add me to your ping list?
This is an interesting subject that constantly finds new adherents. Another group (other than Mormons) who may have planted Hebrew artifacts are Seventh Day Adventists. I remember reading the senior thesis of a Harvard archeologist who studied Hebrew inscriptions (and other evidence) in New Mexico hoping to find evidence of the so-called crypto-Jews (she was Jewish).
She found that what was thought to be evidence of Jews had actually been planted by a group of Seventh Day Adventists from Mexico City who had moved to New Mexico in the 1930’s.
The evidence is the evidence. What’s authentic must meet certain criteria and what’s fake is sometimes easy to ascertain because modern investigations can expose a lot. That makes most debunking a relatively easy job. If they think a priori that something is fake, it’s probably because it has red flags obvious to the trained eye.
If the evidence is the evidence, where’s the evidence for the existence of these Seventh Day Adventists? Records of their activities? Diaries? Photos or affadavits that they faked this or that? Claims of debunkers are designed to keep the curious in their comfort zones by various methods, including outright and unfounded bashing of things, and confusing and logically fallacious equating of things, among other methods.
About ten years ago a book came out by a scholar who claimed that Sir Arthur Evans (not one of my favorite people, but anyway) had faked some famous finds from Crete; around that same time, some scholar claimed that Schliemann’s “Mask of Agamemnon” (which is generally believed to have been centuries too early for Agamemnon, thus the quotes) were also faked, and gave a train of evidence that consisted of something like, Schliemann had a neighbor whose cousin knew a goldsmith in Athens...
The a priori assumption was epitomized by “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof”. What constitutes an extraordinary claim? Anything not accepted by those who use that foolish fallacy — it is itself a sort of koan, since it is the only indisputably extraordinary claim that has ever been made.
So you think her advisors were easily fooled? Her task was to submit work worthy of a honors student. I’m assuming like all advisors hers checked her work. She had to go into the field, check records , conduct interviews and find corroborating evidence. She makes her thesis statement and backs it up.
I read this paper years ago and it seemed to be sound in method. In her preface, she made it clear she was disappointed in her results. In the years since, I’ve seen no study that overturns her conclusions.
These investigations are conducted in argument form. Merely making claims doesn’t cut it. Scholars are always making claims that some find is faked. (Look at the acrimonious nature of the James ossuary study) Merely making an accusation doesn’t mean anything unless the argument being made makes for a better explanation of the evidence.
No, not easily fooled, completely in favor of her conclusion; a priori — no one took a boat to the Americas before Columbus (or, if pressed and reminded of the L’anseax Meadows site, the Vikings), there is nothing to find.
“Look at the acrimonious nature of the James ossuary study” — yes, look at it, a rush to judgment against authenticity, and after lengthy LEGAL trials, the arguments against authenticity have been shown to be fabrications. This isn’t to say that this is the one, the only, James of the Bible, it is to say that there wasn’t any honesty on the side of those who immediately condemned it.
Here in the US the condemnation of out-of-place artifaces is built right in.
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