Second Trip to Los Lunas
As regular readers know, we visited Los Lunas and the Decalogue stone in April of this year. Since that time we have come to know that there is much more to this site than just the Decalogue stone. I arranged another trip on November 5 & 6 with Roger Norman and some other folks to more fully explore the site. After our first visit we had heard from other visitors that the stone had been vandalized. And we found this to be true. Here is a picture from our most recent trip showing that the first line is basically obliterated. It appears that some person just hammered at the stone hundreds of times to achieve this effect.
Armed with information from several sources, we climbed the mesa and located basically all the artifacts that have been reported to exist. The site has literally hundreds of petroglyphs scattered over a few square miles. The petroglyphs are definitely different than the decalogue stone. While the characters of the Decalogue stone are sharply etched into the surface, the petroglyphs are scraped into the surface. The effect is more of a picture and less of writing.
We also found at the highest point in the whole site a single very large rock with the same paleo-Hebrew writing style which says "Yahweh Elohim".
There is a rock on the edge of a cliff that is purported to illustrate a sky map showing a lunar eclipse that occurred on Tishri 1 of 107 BCE. I don't know the first thing about astronomy, so I just pass this along without editorial comment. I will say that the style of this particular rock is that of the petroglyphs found in the area and not that of the writing of the decalogue stone.
Finally, the top of the mesa is scattered with stone wall structures. They are obviously of human origin. It is unknowable to me when they were erected or by whom.
Conclusion: It's a very frustrating experience. We want to know the How, Why, When and By Whom of the Decalogue inscription. We want to know the connection of it to the other artifacts at the site. This site has elicited little sustained interest from scholars who could help with this. I fear that the passage of time just adds to the mystery. Already you can see modern day embellishments. Are some of the structures and pictures we see just slightly less modern embellishments? Inquiring minds want to know.
Armed with information from several sources, we climbed the mesa and located basically all the artifacts that have been reported to exist. The site has literally hundreds of petroglyphs scattered over a few square miles. The petroglyphs are definitely different than the decalogue stone. While the characters of the Decalogue stone are sharply etched into the surface, the petroglyphs are scraped into the surface. The effect is more of a picture and less of writing.
We also found at the highest point in the whole site a single very large rock with the same paleo-Hebrew writing style which says "Yahweh Elohim".
There is a rock on the edge of a cliff that is purported to illustrate a sky map showing a lunar eclipse that occurred on Tishri 1 of 107 BCE. I don't know the first thing about astronomy, so I just pass this along without editorial comment. I will say that the style of this particular rock is that of the petroglyphs found in the area and not that of the writing of the decalogue stone.
Finally, the top of the mesa is scattered with stone wall structures. They are obviously of human origin. It is unknowable to me when they were erected or by whom.
Conclusion: It's a very frustrating experience. We want to know the How, Why, When and By Whom of the Decalogue inscription. We want to know the connection of it to the other artifacts at the site. This site has elicited little sustained interest from scholars who could help with this. I fear that the passage of time just adds to the mystery. Already you can see modern day embellishments. Are some of the structures and pictures we see just slightly less modern embellishments? Inquiring minds want to know.
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posted by Bill at 7:56:00 PM
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