Los Lunas Decalogue StoneWay back in 2003, I bought a book called Mysteries & Miracles of New Mexico: Guide Book To The Genuinely Bizarre In The Land Of Enchantment, by Jack Kutz. Chapter One is about New Mexico's Mystery Rock so naturally I followed his cryptic instructions and found it at the base of Hidden Mountain. That was 16 years ago. Last weekend, I grabbed the book and took Johnpaul out to the desert and we found it once again. Still the topic of much archaeological debate, the Los Lunas Decalogue stone is written in a dead language and predates Columbus by well over 1000 years. It is older than the petroglyphs and written in a language from the other side of the world. So, uh... hmmmmm. The Ten Commandments?One common theory about the Decalogue Stone is that it is a transcription of the Ten Commandments. I even had someone on Twitter, who lives in Jordan, claim to be able to decipher the writing and confirm that it is in fact the Ten Commandments. I'm not saying it is or isn't but there have been other translations that tell a very different story. Specifically, the translation from ancient language expert, Dixie Perkins, who published another translation that reads as follows: "I have come to this place to stay. The other one met with an untimely death in battle, dishonored, insulted and stripped of flesh. The men thought him to be an object of care whom I looked after, considered crazed, to be tossed about as if in a wind, to perish in poverty and need. By my kinsmen I was respected and honored, of blessed lot, with a body of slaves and so many olive trees, a peg to hang anything upon. Men punished me with exile to exact retribution for a debt; meanwhile, I remain here as a rabbit. I, Zakyneros, just as a prophet, out of reach of mortal man, I am fleeing and very afraid. I am dross, scum, refuse, just as aboard a ship a soft, effeminate sailor is flayed with an animal hide, all who speak offensively are lashed or beaten with a cane; but after a short time, the hurtful ones may be sated; at an unseasonable time, I remain to protect from the rainy southwest winds the hollow or the ravine. Very much harvest is gathered in, very much is the woody dell and glen; very many bags of young deer. Very many hides with delicate, luxuriant hair; by the channel of a river, swift flowing. Very much is given by the gods for again and again, at the unseasonable time I become gaunt from hunger." Why?There are some who dismiss the Decalogue Stone as nothing more than elaborate hoax perpetrated by archaeology students from The University Of New Mexico. However, due to eyewitness reports of the stone's existence in the 1800's, the hoax theory has been mostly dismissed. I am not a historian or an expert on ancient languages so the writing on the stone could be directions to the closest Wal-Mart for all I know. What I am, however, is a person who asks "why?" How and why was this traveler from the Mediterranean wandering around New Mexico 2000 years ago, when people from that part of the world were not known to have been here? Why would this person spend untold hours carving the Ten Commandments into a rock on Hidden Mountain? I mean, not for nothin', but that's a lot of work. Why would they carve the Ten Commandments on a rock for no one to see? In my mind, it makes a lot more sense that someone who was alone and frightened would write their story, a soliloquy of sorts, into the stone in hopes of someday being remembered. Like a message in a bottle or a page in a memoir, this message is meant to say, "I was here and this is my story." How To Find The Mystery Stone
![]() Sadly, vandalism is taking a toll on this (possibly) ancient artifact and on the site as a whole. Obviously, the stone has become too easy to find and has been visited by too many disrespectful individuals. For this reason, I will not reveal the exact location in this post. If you want to get there, you're gonna have to work for it and hopefully vandals will look elsewhere for an easier target.
1 Comment
Jeremy
2/2/2019 10:56:59 pm
Hidden Mountain is an intriguing site, for certain! I've been dozens of times in effort to understand the conundrums it presents and hope to return again for further insights. The Decalogue Stone / Mystery Rock is most assuredly written in Paleo-Hebrew letters, and the content is an abridged version of the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20. As one who uses Hebrew daily, is a Bible teacher and has worked on several published translations, I can state this as a fact.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am DeAnna Vincent, fine art and portrait photographer in Los Lunas, New Mexico. These are the photos from my everyday adventures. Archives
November 2019
Categories
All
|
Website by Dry Heat Web Design
|
All images and content copyright
DeAnna Vincent and Dry Heat Photography. |