{"it":{"id":"W11A32","kind":"artifact","sub":"Hoax or modern","name":"Los Lunas Decalogue Stone","place":"Los Lunas NM","mat":"basalt boulder (material not in opened text)","dims":">80 t; 9 lines","loc":"in situ Hidden Mountain NM","acc":"n/a","find":"first recorded 1933 Frank Hibben","flag":"disputed (Wikipedia: hoax)","src":[113,431,598],"lat":34.81,"lon":-106.99,"tags":["Hoax or modern"],"sum":"South of Albuquerque a boulder carries nine lines of the Ten Commandments in an early Hebrew script.","why":"Evidence points to a modern inscription; it is widely considered a hoax, though its date has never been tested directly.","nfacts":3,"nsrc":3,"yt":"Compare letter forms and weathering.","rel":["NAM-LUN","W11A31"],"hook":"In 2006 someone vandalised the first line of the Los Lunas stone, after decades of dispute over its age."},"S":{"113":["Wikipedia Los Lunas Decalogue Stone","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone&oldid=1381254019"],"431":["Wikipedia: Los Lunas Decalogue Stone","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone"],"598":["New Mexico State Land Office: Mystery Stone profile (2020)","https://www.nmstatelands.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Mystery-Stone-Profile-FINAL-1.pdf"]},"rec":{"id":"W11A32","alias":[],"ms":[{"a":"boulder_mass","v":">80","u":"t","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M116","s":["W11S71"],"c":"Wikipedia Los Lunas Decalogue Stone","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone&oldid=1381254019"},{"a":"inscription_lines","v":"9","u":"count","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M117","s":["W11S71"],"c":"Wikipedia Los Lunas Decalogue Stone","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone&oldid=1381254019"},{"a":"distance_S_of_Albuquerque","v":"56","u":"km","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M118","s":["W11S71"],"c":"Wikipedia Los Lunas Decalogue Stone","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone&oldid=1381254019"}],"lab":[],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[{"a":"museum_accession","r":"not in staged/legacy artifact record (free sources)"}],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA185","a":"Ancient Hebrew Decalogue in America","who":"various","main":"Paleo-Hebrew known to scholars by 1870; Hibben credibility issues","ms":"W11S71","st":"contradicted","n":"","nl":"1"}],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"art":{"claimed_anomaly":"Ancient Hebrew Decalogue in America","mainstream_reading":"Paleo-Hebrew known to scholars by 1870; Hibben credibility issues","provenance_flag":"disputed (Wikipedia: hoax)","current_location":"in situ Hidden Mountain NM","find_circumstances":"first recorded 1933 Frank Hibben","claimant":"various","status":"contradicted","dimensions":">80 t; 9 lines","material":"basalt boulder (material not in opened text)","date":"","culture":"","museum_accession":"n/a","b":"S","s":["W11S71"]},"sub":[],"src":[{"id":"W11S71","t":"Wikipedia Los Lunas Decalogue Stone","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone&oldid=1381254019"},{"id":null,"t":"Wikipedia: Los Lunas Decalogue Stone","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone"},{"id":"S2599","t":"New Mexico State Land Office: Mystery Stone profile (2020)","u":"https://www.nmstatelands.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Mystery-Stone-Profile-FINAL-1.pdf"}],"sum":"In April 2006 someone vandalised the first line of the Los Lunas stone, a boulder on Hidden Mountain about 35 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. By then the stone had been disputed for decades.\n\nThe boulder carries nine lines, a version of the Ten Commandments in an early Hebrew script. Its first recorded viewer is Frank Hibben, a University of New Mexico archaeologist, in 1933. In a 1996 interview he said the inscription was covered with lichen, and that his guide claimed to have seen it in the 1880s. Hibben's word carries weight in either direction: he was later accused of fabricating data in other work.\n\nSupporters read it as old. The scholar Cyrus Gordon took it for a Samaritan mezuzah of Byzantine date, and one estimate puts its age at 500 to 2,000 years.\n\nMost archaeologists read it as modern. The script was known to scholars by 1870, so a 19th-century carver could have copied it. Kenneth Feder calls it \"almost certainly a fake\", pointing out that nothing else from ancient Israelites has turned up around it. Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews notes the mix of letter forms, which a forger working from books would produce.\n\nNo weathering study has settled the date, and the 2006 damage made one harder to do. Until then, the stone's age rests on Hibben's memory and on the letters themselves.","qs":["The script was known by 1870, and the stone is first recorded in 1933. What would it take to prove it older than that?","Hibben's other work was accused of fakery. How much should one person's reputation decide what we believe?","Why do people want proof that ancient Israelites reached America, and what would it change if they had?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/10_Commandment_Rock.jpg/1280px-10_Commandment_Rock.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:10_Commandment_Rock.jpg","title":"10 Commandment Rock.jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"Brainardo at English Wikipedia","cap":"Los Lunas Decalogue Stone Photograph taken in January 1997 west of Los Lunas, New Mexico - Brian Haines"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone_Vandalized%2C_Aug._13%2C_2006.jpg/1280px-Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone_Vandalized%2C_Aug._13%2C_2006.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone_Vandalized,_Aug._13,_2006.jpg","title":"Los Lunas Decalogue Stone Vandalized, Aug. 13, 2006.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"HuMcCulloch","cap":"Los Lunas NM Decalogue Stone with first line vandalized. Taken Aug. 13, 2006. Los Lunas Decalogue Stone"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"80+","u":"t","h":"Too heavy to move to a museum for study","s":[164]},{"v":">80 t; 9 lines","h":"Recorded dimensions","s":[221]}],"hs":{"164":["Wikipedia: Los Lunas Decalogue Stone (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone"],"221":["Wikipedia Los Lunas Decalogue Stone","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone&oldid=1381254019"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/W11A32.webp","w":1280,"h":865,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/10_Commandment_Rock.jpg/1280px-10_Commandment_Rock.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}