Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:47 pm
It would be nice to see a photo.
I googled for one yesterday without success.
I googled for one yesterday without success.
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Cards - Dave Campbell has a nice site at Anarchaeology.com. Don't want you to leave us , but some members here post over there too.I warned you I was an anarcheologist
Yes, I know. I don't post anywhere but I read everywhere, that is until I got brave and registered here. I certainly have a lot of questions in my head.Beagle wrote:Cards - Dave Campbell has a nice site at Anarchaeology.com. Don't want you to leave us , but some members here post over there too.I warned you I was an anarcheologist
What I don't understand is why these things are not discussed?
Check google...'los lunas petroglyphs' (or 'decalogue') there are several pictures of it undisturbed (or so it appears). The lettering is plainly visible (perhaps it has been enhanced). The rock is estimated at 60-100tons.stan wrote:First I've heard of this ten commandments boulder.
Is there a photo of it in situ? How big, etc.
Does the rock itself belong there?
Digit wrote:And all clubs have the same basic rule, if you're not in, you're out!
“If you attack the establishment long enough and hard enough, they will make you a member of it.”
Apparently the perpetrators signed their workThe book, "Mormonism - Shadow or Reality," written by Jerald and Sandra Tanner, provides the following excerpt from Welby W. Ricks, President of the University Archaeological Society at Brigham Young University:
"Many requests have come to me from time to time for information about a certain inscription on stone found near Los Lunas, New Mexico, which contains extracts from the Ten Commandments in a Phoenician script, which type of writing was in existence in Palestine during Leni's day around 600 B.C. To find such a script on stone in the New World is indeed interesting, but upon translation for it to contain the Ten Commandments seems almost incredible.
"To Latter-day Saints such a discovery would appear to agree with the Book of Mormon. But to accept such evidence at face value, i.e., without investigation, could be embarrassing to this Society as well as to the Latter-day Saint Church, especially if it were later shown to be fraudulent. Because of the position of the Church, we must exercise every caution, even greater-than-objective scholarship, if possible, to make sure any purported Hebrew (or Phoenician) writing found in the New World is genuine. ...
"It was in October, 1953, that a group of us -- Dr. Milton R. Hunter, Dr. Sidney B. Sperry, Dr. Hugh Nibley, Mr. (now Dr.) John L. Sorenson and myself -- got together and made a trip to New Mexico to investigate the inscription." (Fifteenth Annual Symposium on the Archaeology of the Scriptures, BYU, 1964, p. 94)
Welby W. Ricks goes on to tell of their investigation of the purported inscription (see Archaeology and the Book of Mormon, pp. 19-20) and concludes by stating:
"To conclude, I should like to list the evidences which make me believe the inscription is fraudulent:
"(1) The characters in the stone were too fresh. They did not have any patination. If they had been of ancient date there would have been some patination, and certainly there would have been some in those inscriptions on top of the mesa. One might argue that the Ten Commandments stone could have been covered up for centuries by sand, but the Phoenician inscriptions on top must surely be related to the one below. They also were without patination.
"(2) The finding of the words, 'Eva and Hobie, 3-13-30,' nearby, cut in the same size, depth, and freshness, is sufficient to create suspicion as to the origin of the Phoenician inscription.
"(3) The finding of the dust of freshly cut stone still in the grooving suggests very recent origin.
"(4) The making by the McCarts of an inscription in Phoenician characters on each of two stones to test for patination seems strange, indeed.
"(5) The obvious lying about finding another inscription, "Temple of Toni'; the finding of the entrance at one time and not another; the finding of gold in the temple and not taking any out to prove it; and, above all, not being able to find it again--all this is fantastic beyond humun [sic] limits of comprehension.
"(6) The admission by Bill McCart that they were doing this to get money to sponsor a search for treasure in the malpais (lava remains) area, where there was supposedly the possibility of finding Spanish gold.
"For these reasons and others I am fully convinced that the Ten Commandments stone found near Los Lunas, New Mexico, IS A FRAUD. Its age does NOT go back into ancient times. It is probably from thirty to fifty years old, perhaps even dating to as late as March 13, 1930." (Fifteenth Annual Symposium on the Archaeology of the Scriptures, pp. 99-100)
Quotation from Mormonism - Shadow or Reality. Enlarged Edition. Jerald and Sandra Tanner. Modern Microfilm Company, Salt Lake City, Utah. Pp 110 - 111. 1972.