The Cascajal Block: The Earliest Precolumbian Writing

By Andrew Bridges
updated 1:12 p.m. CT, Thurs., Sept . 14, 2006


A.P. Associated Press

More Than PicturesThe Cascajal block,

pictured here, was found in Veracruz, Mexico, in 1999.

Since then archaeologists have confirmed it bears the

earliest known writing in the New World.

WASHINGTON - It’s more than idle doodling, and the meaning is unclear. But there’s one thing researchers are sure of: The insect, ear of corn, inverted fish and other symbols inscribed on an ancient stone slab is the earliest known writing in the Western Hemisphere.
The arrangement and pattern of the symbols suggest the ancient Olmec civilization was using written language roughly three centuries earlier than previously proposed.
“We are dealing with the first, clear evidence of writing in the New World,” said Stephen Houston, a Brown University anthropologist. Houston and his U.S. and Mexican colleagues detail the tablet’s discovery and analysis in a study appearing this week in the journal Science.

The patterns covering the face of the rectangular block also represent a previously unknown ancient writing system — a rare find in archaeology.

The text covers the block’s face, which is almost exactly the dimensions of a standard legal pad. However, at 5 inches (12 centimeters) thick and tipping the scales at 26 pounds (12 kilograms), the tablet is decidedly more hefty.

The face is smooth and slightly concave, which suggests it may have been worn down in antiquity as it was inscribed and erased multiple times, Houston said.

Discovered Years Ago

Villagers in the Mexican state of Veracruz discovered the tablet sometime before 1999, while quarrying an ancient Olmec mound for road-building material. News of the discovery slowly trickled out, and the study’s authors traveled to the site earlier this year to examine and photograph the block.

Based on other materials, including pottery sherds, believed found with the slab, team concluded it is roughly 2,900 years old. Isolated signs similar to those inscribed on the block also appear on even older figurines found elsewhere in Mexico.
In 2002, other experts claimed an Olmec cylindrical seal and chips from a stone plaque contained the oldest examples of writing in the Americas. Some have disputed their interpretation of those symbols, which date to roughly 650 B.C.

“This is centuries before anything we’ve had. People have debated whether the Olmecs had any writing. This clears it up. This nails it for me,” David Stuart, a University of Texas at Austin expert in Mesoamerican writing, said of the new find. Stuart was not connected with the discovery, but reviewed the study for Science

Was It A Dead-End Script?

The block contains 28 distinct glyphs or symbols, some of which are repeated three and four times. The writing system doesn’t appear to be linked to any known later scripts, and may represent a dead end, according to the study.

Other experts unconnected to the study agreed with Houston and his colleagues that the horizontally arranged inscription shows patterns that are the hallmarks of true writing, including syntax and language-specific word order.

“That’s full-blown, legitimate text — written symbols taking the place of spoken words,” said William Saturno, a University of New Hampshire anthropologist and expert in Mesoamerican writing.

More Detailed Info About
The Cascajal Block.

http://www.mesoweb.com/reports/Cascajal.pdf

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The Olmecs flourished between about 1200 B.C. and 400 B.C., before other great Central American civilizations like the Maya and Aztec. They are best known for the massive heads they carved from stone. The village where the block was found is close to a site called San Lorenzo, believed to be the center of the Olmec world.

“To me, this find really does bring us back to this idea that at least writing and a lot of the things we associate with Mesoamerican culture really did have their origin in this region,” Stuart said.
The small size of the block and the faintness of the inscription imply the text wasn’t a public document, but instead was meant for intimate reading, Houston said. Some suggested it may have had a ritual use.

Los Lunas Stone Part 2

The Los Lunas Stone Part 2

by J. Huston McCulloch

Send comments to: mcculloch.2@osu.edu.

http://www.econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/loslunas.html

All credits to J. Houston McCulloch.

Photo Dan Raber, Loudon TN

The Los Lunas Inscription is an abridged version of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, carved into the flat face of a large boulder resting on the side of Hidden Mountain, near Los Lunas, New Mexico, about 35 miles south of Albuquerque. The language is Hebrew, and the script is the Old Hebrew alphabet, with a few Greek letters mixed in. See Cline (1982), Deal (1984), Stonebreaker (1982), Underwood (1982), and/or Neuhoff (1999) for transcriptions and translation, and Deal (1984) for discussion and photographs of the setting.

Direct Link Neuhoff transcriptions / Translations below:

http://www.mhccorp.com/archaeology/decalogue-translation.html

George Moorehouse (1985), a professional geologist, indicates that the boulder is of the same basalt as the cap of the mesa. He estimates its weight at 80 to 100 tons, and says it has moved about 2/3 of the distance from the mesa top to the valley floor since it broke off. The inscription is tilted about 40 degrees clockwise from horizontal, indicating that the stone has settled or even moved from its position at the time it was inscribed. (The above photograph was taken with a tilted camera.)

In 1996, Prof. James D. Tabor of the Dept. of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina - Charlotte, interviewed the late Professor Frank Hibben (1910-2002), a retired University of New Mexico archaeologist, "who is convinced that the inscription is ancient and thus authentic. He reports that he first saw the text in 1933. At the time it was covered with lichen and patination and was hardly visible. He was taken to the site by a guide who had seen it as a boy, back in the 1880s." (Tabor 1997) At present the inscription itself is badly chalked and scrubbed up. However, Moorehouse compares the surviving weathering on the inscription to that on a nearby modern graffito dating itself to 1930. He concludes that the Decalogue inscription is clearly many times older than this graffito, and that 500 to 2000 years would not be an unreasonable estimate of its age.

The inscription uses Greek tau, zeta, delta, eta, and kappa (reversed) in place of their Hebrew counterparts taw, zayin, daleth, heth, and caph, indicating a Greek influence, as well as a post-Alexandrian date, despite the archaic form of aleph used. The letters yodh, qoph, and the flat-bottomed shin have a distinctively Samaritan form, suggesting that the inscription may be Samaritan in origin. See Lidzbarski (1902), Purvis (1968).

Cyrus Gordon (1995) proposes that the Los Lunas Decalogue is in fact a Samaritan mezuzah. The familiar Jewish mezuzah is a tiny scroll placed in a small container mounted by the entrance to a house. The ancient Samaritan mezuzah, on the other hand, was commonly a large stone slab placed by the gateway to a property or synagogue, and bearing an abridged version of the Decalogue. Gordon points out that prosperous Samaritan shipowners were known to live in Greek communities at the time of Theodosius I circa 390 A.D., and proposes that the most likely age of the Los Lunas inscription is the Byzantine period.

If Los Lunas is indeed a Byzantine Samaritan inscription, it may be significant that the sixth century historian Procopius reports that the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (r. 527-565 A.D.) undertook a massive persecution of the Samaritans in particular, which

... threw Palestine into an indescribable turmoil. Those, indeed, who lived in my own Caesarea and in the other cities, deciding it silly to suffer harsh treatment over a ridiculous trifle of dogma, took the name of Christians in exchange for the one they had borne before, by which precaution they were able to avoid the perils of the new law. .... The country people, however, banded together and determined to take arms against the Emperor ... For a time they held their own against the imperial troops; but finally, defeated in battle, were cut down, together with their leader. Ten myriads [100,000] of men are said to have perished in this engagement, and the most fertile country on earth thus became destitute of farmers. ( Chapter 11, and in particular screens 52-54.)

Procopius elsewhere states that Justinian was responsible for the deaths of no less than three trillion (sic!) persons, so perhaps his estimate that 100,000 Samaritans were killed in this uprising may be a little inflated. Nevertheless, a persecution such as this, and perhaps this very one, may have been the impetus behind the Los Lunas Inscription. Pummer (1987, p. 4) reports that the uprising in question occurred in 529 A.D., and that "after the Muslim conquest of Palestine from 634 A.D. on, the Samaritan swere reduced even further in their numbers through massacres and conversions. Particularly under the Abbasids [750-1258 A.D.] their sufferings increased greatly." Although the Samaritans have survived into the 21st century, they were clearly more numerous and prosperous in the first millenium A.D. than the second.

Further evidence of a Hellenistic or Byzantine influence on Los Lunas is provided by Skupin (1989). He analyzes the orthographic errors of the Los Lunas text itself, and concludes that it appears to have been written by a person whose primary language was Greek, who had a secondary, but verbal, comprehension of Hebrew.

He writes of the inscriber,

He used the consonant [aleph] as if it were a vowel, like the Greek alpha, even though this clashes with the Hebrew orthographic system .... He confounded [qoph] and [caph] as a Philhellene who only knew kappa might do, and was sufficiently removed from Hebrew to be unaware that he had made an irreverent slip thereby. Most amazingly, he 'heard' macrons, the drawling long vowels that are structurally and semantically important in Greek ... and felt compelled to indicate them even if he was not exactly sure of how it's done (and rightly so, since in Hebrew they're insignificant).... His word order suggests a scriptural tradition related to a Greek version produced in Alexandria, Egypt, as does his spelling; and finally, he gives inordinate prominence to the words 'brought you out of Egypt.'

Skupin concludes,

None of this proves anything. Until confirmation comes from another quarter, all we can really do is provide a clearer idea of the stone's contents for those who are intrigued by it, and give those who reject the inscription's authenticity ... a deeper appreciation of what they have rejected.

Yet more evidence of Greco-Samaritan interactions is provided by Prof. Reinhard Pummer (1998, p. 29), who reports that "Ancient literature hints that Samaritan synagogues may have been located in Rome and Tarsus between the fourth and sixth centuries C.E. Short inscriptions in Samaritan and Greek script found in Thessalonica and Syracuse may have come from Samaritan synagogues in these cities during the same time period. Apparently, the Samaritans flourished in the Diaspora." One Samaritan synagogue in Palestine, at Sha'alvim, in Judea N.W. of Jerusalem, simultaneously bears religious inscriptions in Samaritan letters and secular inscriptions in Greek.

Another at Tell Quasile in Tel Aviv shows considerable Greek architectural influence. (Ibid., p. 30.) In his book, Pummer reports that the Samaritan wedding service even today contains a few words of Greek, and that a Samaritan deed of divorce from Egypt, dating to 586 A.D., is written in Greek (1987, p. 19). A Samaritan inscription in the nethermost diaspora might therefore well exhibit some Greek attributes.

It should be noted, however, that Pummer himself (personal communication, Aug. 31, 1998) does not believe that the Los Lunas inscription could be Samaritan. First, in Verse 8, the Los Lunas text follows the Masoretic (standard Jewish) text by saying "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," whereas the Samaritan text always says "preserve the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Second, the Samaritans added a clause to the tenth commandment calling for a temple to be built on Mt. Gerizim, but this clause is absent in Los Lunas. And third, although an inscription in Greek language written in Samaritan letters is known, he is not aware of Greek-style letters ever appearing in Samaritan inscriptions.

The stone is located on New Mexico state trust land, as indicated in the New Mexico State Land Office's webpage on the "Mystery Stone" at http://www.nmstatelands.org/GetPage.aspx?sectionID=39&PagID=186. Visitors are supposed to obtain a permit in advance, costing $25 per family, from the New Mexico State Land Office, 310 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87504, (505) 827-5724. A copy of the permit application, with further details, is downloadable from http://www.nmstatelands.org/PDFs/crd_recpermit.pdf. [Links updated 7/24/06.] The site is about 1/2 mile south of State Route 6 at Rio Puerco, about 16 miles west of Los Lunas. A map and detailed directions are available from the State Land Office.

REFERENCES

Cline, Donald, "The Los Lunas Stone," Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications 10 (1982, part 10), 68-73.
Deal, David Allen, Discovery of Ancient America, 1st ed., Kherem La Yah Press, Irvine CA, 1984. 1999 3rd Edition available from David Deal at 1651 Monte Vista Drive, Vista, California 92084 or mailto:davebigdeal@cox.net?subject=Los for $9.20, P&H included.
Fell, Barry, "Ancient Punctuation and the Los Lunas Text," Epigraphic Society Occasional Publicatons 13 (1985), 32-43 and cover photo.
Gordon, Cyrus, "Diffusion of Near East Culture in Antiquity and in Byzantine Times," Orient 30-31 (1995), 69-81.
Leonard, Phillip M., and William R. McGlone, "An Epigraphic Hoax on Trial in New Mexico," Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications 17 (1988), 206-219.
Lidzbarski, Mark, Letter Chart in Appendix to Wilhelm Gesenius and Emil Kautzsch, Hebräische Grammatik, 27th ed., Leipzig, 1902.
McGlone, William R., Phillip M. Leonard, James L. Guthrie, Rollin W. Gillespie, and James P. Whittall, Jr., Ancient American Inscriptions: Plow Marks or History? Early Sites Research Society, Sutton MA, 1993.
Moorehouse, George E., "The Los Lunas Inscriptions: A Geological Study," Epigraphic Society Occasional Publicatons, 13 (1985), 44-50.
Neuhoff, Juergen, "Los Lunas Decalogue" website, with translation of inscription by Stan Fox (1999). (URL updated 12/08)
Pummer, Reinhard, "How to Tell a Samaritan Synagogue from a Jewish Synagogue," Biblical Archaeology Review, vol. 24 #3, May/June 1998, pp. 24-35. Online at http://www.bib-arch.org/barmj98/pummer.html.
Pummer, Reinhard, The Samaritans, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1987.
Procopius of Caesarea, The Secret History c. 550 A.D. Richard Atwater translation, edited by Tim Spalding, online at www.isidore-of-seville.com/library-procopius/secrethistory-1.htm. Note: The reader is strongly cautioned against reading Chapter 9, and in particular screen 42.
Purvis, J.D., The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Origin of the Samaritan Sect Harvard Semitic Monographs, vol. 2. Harvard University Press, 1968.
Skupin, Michael, "The Los Lunas Errata," Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications 18 (1989), 249-52.
Stonebreaker, Jay, "A Decipherment of the Los Lunas Decalogue Inscription," Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications 10 (1982, part 1), 74-81.
Tabor, James D. "An Ancient Hebrew Inscription in New Mexico: Fact or Fraud?" United Israel Bulletin Vol. 52, Summer 1997, pp. 1-3.
Underwood, L. Lyle, "The Los Lunas Inscription," Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications 10 (1982, part 1), 57-67.

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Memorial to Frank C. Hibben

Bloggers Note To Reader

By James Marshall

Perhaps more than any man, Frank C. Hibben beit by Heavens default influence or by Frank Hibbens personally informed choice, has produced scientific archaeological evidence validating the Book of Mormons claims Hebrews once were in America.

Our hats off to Frank C. Hibben!!!

Frank C. Hibben 1910-2002

Frank C. Hibben, archaeologist, anthropologist, author, outdoor adventurer, big-game hunter, philanthropist and friend to many, died peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday, June 11, 2002 at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Born on December 5, 1910 in Lakewood, Ohio, Dr. Hibben was the son of Fredrick Martin Hibben and Lucy West Hibben. Of Scottish decent, Hibben's ancestors first settled in America in the late 1600s and later in the area of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. The"Hibben House" (1755) still stands at 111 Hibben Street, the oldest on the Mount Pleasant side of the Charleston peninsula. The Hibben Presbyterian Church of Mount Pleasant holds regular services to this day.

Frank Hibben first came to New Mexico in the mid-1930s on an expedition to collect small mammals and birds for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. A 1933 Princeton University archaeology graduate, Hibben was so fascinated by the Native American cliff dwellings that he decided to attend graduate school at the University of New Mexico and make New Mexico his home. Dr. Hibben received a master's degree in zoology with field studies of the mountain lion from the University of New Mexico in 1936. He continued his education at Harvard, receiving his Ph.D. in archaeology in just one year, and then returned to New Mexico to begin his teaching career at UNM.

During World War II, Hibben served in the Navy as a commissioned officer and aide to Admiral Foy of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C. His duties were to memorize final battle plans and carry them--only in his mind--to commanding officers in the various war theaters. He was in a plane shot down toward the end of the war by a German submarine, and carried shrapnel until his death. Following the war, Hibben devoted much of his time creating a museum of anthropology at UNM.

He persuaded a friend, Gil Maxwell, who had discovered the San Juan oil field in northwestern New Mexico, to donate 50,000 shares of Occidental Petroleum stock, along with a collection of Navajo rugs, to the University. This was the beginning of the University's Maxwell Museum, of which Hibben served as director from 1961 to 1971. Beginning in 1946, Hibben made a number of trips to Africa for archaeological field work. He worked with Louis and Mary Leakey in their excavations in northern Kenya. He undertook secret State Department missions at the behest of his friend, President Richard Nixon, who offered to name him undersecretary for African affairs in the 1970s.Hibben was also a world renowned big-game hunter, setting many world records. He received the Weatherby Hunting and Conservation Award in 1964.

As chairman of the Albuquerque Zoological Board (1960-1970), director of the Albuquerque Zoo (1977) and chairman of the New Mexico State Game and Fish Commission (1961-1971), Hibben was instrumental in introducing numerous exotic species to the wilds of New Mexico. Granted full-professor status at UNM in 1952, Hibben continued his lifelong love of teaching and, until recently, kept office hours and lectured. At the time of his death, Dr. Hibben held the title of Professor Emeritus. In 1994, the University honored Hibben with the Zimmerman Award, which is given to an alumnus who has"made a significant contribution to the world and has brought fame and honor to the University and state.

" Hibben was predeceased by his wife, Eleanor "Brownie" Hibben; his son, Patrick Hibben; and his two brothers. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn; his lifelong friend and helper, Nora Chino Wilson of Acoma Pueblo; and his stepchildren. Hibben's writings were first published in 1936. Over the ensuing decades, he authored hundreds of articles and numerous books dealing with the anthropology and archaeology of Europe, Africa, the United States and the American Southwest and on big-game hunting.

Some of his books include The Lost Americans (1946), Treasure in the Dust (1951), Prehistoric Man in Europe (1958), Digging Up America (1960), Hunting in Africa (1962), Kiva Art of the Anasazi (1975) and a series of limited editions including the most recent Under the African Sun (1999). His articles appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Reader's Digest, Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, the Denver Post, Empire and many sporting magazines and professional periodicals.

In 1996, he and his late wife, Eleanor (Brownie), gifted the University with the deed to their residence to be used as the future site of the Hibben Research Center. The house was not practical for office and laboratory space, so Frank decided to build a new structure for the University, from the ground up. Hibben developed the plans for the 35,000 square foot Hibben Center at UNM and supplied the funding for the three-story complex nearing completion (scheduled for June 2002) on the western edge of the campus next to the Maxwell Museum.

The Hibben Center will be devoted to archaeological study and graduate research and will house collections Hibben discovered during the excavations of Pottery Mound. The Center will also be the home of the Hibben Trust, a $10 million endowment which will furnish annual grants to students working in the field of archaeological research. Services for Frank Hibben were Monday, June 17, 3:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, in Albuquerque. Memorial gifts can be made to UNM for the Hibben Trust for scholarships, c/o The University of New Mexico Foundation, Inc., 700 Lomas NE, Suite 200, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131.

Work involving Frank C. Hibben:

http://www.econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/loslunas.html

The Los Lunas Hebrew Inscription

By Jeff A. Benner

Click Link of larger Image

http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/6_18.html

The above inscription is very unique for several reasons. First, it is written in an ancient Hebrew script. Second it is located near the small town of Los Lunas in the State of New Mexico, USA. Third, the inscription is of the "Ten Commandments".

Is this inscription an original or a fake? If it is original, this proves that a Semitic people, probably Hebrews, arrived in the Americas long before Columbus or the Vikings.

Why Inscription Cannot Be Fake

The above inscription cannot be a fake for the following reasons. The actual time of discovery of the inscription is not known but was known by the locals as far back as the 1850's. At that time, the script of the text was unknown and therefore undecipherable. It was not until this last century that the ancient Hebrew (paleo-Hebrew) script was discovered in the Near East. Once this ancient script was discovered the Los Lunas inscription could be deciphered and was found to be a copy of the "Ten Commandments".

Click link for larger Image

http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/6_06.html

When we compare the script on the Los Lunas inscription with the above inscription found in 1993 at Tell Dan in the land of Israel, we find that the scripts are almost identical. Below is a comparison of the scripts from both inscriptions.

The Tel Dan inscription was written around 1000 BCE. Since the Los Lunas inscription uses the same script, it is safe to conclude that the Los Lunas inscription was written by a Hebrew people about 3,000 years ago. Other ancient Hebrew inscriptions have been found around the country including Tenessee and the Mississippi Valley.

The "Archeological Outliers Homepage" includes other ancient Hebrew artifacts found in the United States. The article "Who Really Discovered America?" also includes some very interesting information on the Los Lunas inscriptions as well as other finds and includes a possible link between the Gold of Solomon and the Gold of Brazil.

All special thank you to Jeff A. Benner of the Ancient Hebrew Research Center for allowing BMNS to post his research materal.

Detailed Review of the Inscription: Roger Williamson's article about his personal inspection and investigation of the Los Lunas Inscription, other inscriptions in the area and the topography

More Pictures: Pictures by Matthew S. Demers of the Los Lunas inscriptions and surrounding ruins including the recent vandelism.

More Pictures: Pictures by Mike Hilson showing the recent vandelism of the Los Lunas Inscription.

More Pictures: Pictures by C. Klappauf of the rock and inscription including its recent vandelism.

Vandalism: I have received a couple of emails from individuals who have recently visited the site and reported vandelism to the inscription.

Horses Fossils In Panama

Horses before "mules" at the Panama Canal
June 15, 2009

Story written and first posted

By the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

http://www.stri.org/english/about_stri/headline_news/news/article.php?id=1001

Evidense for those who doubt the Book of Mormons claimes.

Aldo Rincón, STRI paleontology intern, unearthed a set of fossil teeth in the Panama Canal that Bruce MacFadden, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, describes as belonging to Anchitherium clarencei Aldo Rincón, STRI paleontology intern, unearthed a set of fossil teeth in the Panama Canal that Bruce MacFadden, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, describes as belonging to Anchitherium clarencei, a three-toed browsing horse the size of the modern donkey, living 15 to 18 million years ago.

Once processed, the fossil will return to Panama.Expanding the Panama Canal to make way for super-sized ships is providing geologists and paleontologists with rare finds. Carlos Jaramillo, STRI stratigrapher, has, in collaboration with the University of Florida and the Panama Canal Authority, organized a team of researchers and students who move in following dynamite blasts to map and collect exposed fossils.

"This is one of very few places in the tropics where we have access to fresh outcrops before they are washed away by torrential rains or overgrown by vegetation, and we expect the fossils that we have been salvaging to resolve some major scientific mysteries," said Jaramillo."What geological forces combined to create the Panama land bridge? Were the flora and fauna of Panama before the land bridge closed similar to those of North America, or did they include other elements?"

The latest finding appears in the Journal of Paleontology, vol. 83: 489-492.