Is the Decalogue Stone Real or a Hoax? By Craig Springer
N
ine lines of titled chiseled text string out along the flat face of an ancient boulder staring blankly into a dome of a powdery cobaltblue sky. I’m standing in steep stony wash on the northeasterly front of Hidden Mountain west of Los Lunas. The nasally monotone buzz of bugs rises and falls on the ears. Earth and rocks and scrub brush all the color of a fawn’s pelt is a prevailing color. The Manzano Mountains stand like
Photos by Craig Springer. 8
a dusty purple armada far to the East. If you need a reminder the planet is held together by stone, this is the place. But a 100-ton stone in particular stands out not for its color or its shape, but a message written upon it. To the uninitiated, the text looks alien, almost other-worldly. It is foreign but the message is a familiar one to the religious and to the uncommitted. The message is written in an archaic paleo-Hebrew used 2,000 years ago. The so-called Decalogue Stone has written upon it a timeless code for right-living, the Ten Commandments. It’s gone by other names over time, such as Inscription Rock, Mystery Stone,
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and Commandments Stone. Regardless of what you call it, considering its seemingly remote existence, its age and what the text conveys surely gives a thinking person some pause. When the stone was first documented is a bit hazy. Anecdotes involving Franz Huning of Albuquerque who once owned the property intimate that the stone was known as early as 1871. The Decalogue Stone at its discovery was covered with lichens and a patina, a so-called desert varnish where rocks take on a darkened tone from near-perpetual sun and abrasion by wind-borne sand. The text was barely perceptible indicating that the rock face had long been exposed to the desert harshness after the words were chiseled. The lines are tilted at 40 degrees from horizontal, indicating that gravity moved the boulder from its original position. Well-meaning folks have since scrubbed rock face clean of the varnish and even scratched the original letters to see them better, but in doing so brought on some level of ruin to the ancient artifact. It all of course begs a few questions: Who did this? Why here, and when? Is this a hoax? Were the words etched in stone by early sojourners from the Old World? New York University professor of archeology Cyrus Gordon was of the mind that the stone was the real deal, akin to a Samaritan mezuzah marking an entryway of some sort, etched in the New Mexico desert. There’s clear evidence that the mountaintop was occupied by people at one time. If Gordon is correct, that would certain upset the established view of early habitation in North America. Others have postulated that the etching was made by members of the famous Mormon Battalion as it passed toward San Diego in 1846 during the Mexican War. The battalion camped along the Rio Grande a single night at Los Lunas on October 26. If you are able-bodied and own a curious mind, then the stone is something worth seeing. Make up your own mind as to its authenticity. The stone resides on land owned by the State Land Office. A permit is required to visit the site. Contact 505-827-5760 for more information.
