Phoenician Inscription Rock: History or hoax?

RIO PUERCO — Concealed within a small valley at Hidden Mountain is a 15-square-foot piece of basalt. The surface is carved with 216 characters that resemble Phoenician or old Hebrew. Translations have postulated buried treasure, a battle description and a exiled Greek named Zakyneros from 500 B.C.

“I believe someone decided to write down the Ten Commandments , but the question is who and when,” said Richard Melzer, a professor at The University of New Mexico-Valencia branch.

Many people of Jewish ancestry have traveled through the Southwest over the past 400 years, Melzer said.

In 1949, Professor Robert Pheiffer, of the Harvard Semitic Museum, translated the writing on the stone and concluded that the text is Paleo-Hebrew and is based on Exodus 20:2-17 .

Line one of the stone reads: “I am Yahweh thy God who brought thee out of the land ... ”

Line two contains text that seems to have been added to the original passage: “There shall not be unto them other gods before me.”

In lines three through eight, the well-known text continues: “... of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shall not make unto thee a graven image.

“Thou shall not take the name of Yahweh in vain.

“Remember the day of the Sabbath to sanctify it.

“Honor thy father and mother that thy days be long on the soil which Yahweh thy God (hath) given thee. “Thou shalt not kill. “Thou shalt not commit adultery . “Thou shalt not testify falsely against thy neighbor. “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife.” Like Melzer, UNM history professor Ferenc Szasz believes this to be the correct translation, he also has a theory on who the mysterious author might be. “I think it’s old, but not pre-Columbian , more likely from the 18th century,” Szasz said Near the large rock are the initials A.M. the same initials are also present at Inscription Rock at El Morro near Grants. The initials are attributed to Andres Muñiz , chief interpreter of the 1776 Dominguez-Escalante Expedition.

Silvestre Velez de Escalante, a Franciscan priest, and his superior Francisco Domínguez , were looking for a northern route to Monterey, in California, from Santa Fe.

Known to be versed in a number of language skills, Muñiz also might have had knowledge of ancient written languages.

Domínguez treats Muñiz and his brother harshly in his diary. “They manifested their little or entire lack of faith and their total unfitness for such an enterprise,” Domínguez wrote.

Domínguez ordered that the sole mission of the expedition was “to strengthen the people of this nation in their good intention of becoming Christians.”

Szasz contended that Muñiz may have retaliated against the priest by inscribing text from the Old Testament at a sacred American Indian site covered with hundreds of petroglyphs

It is believed that Muñiz and his brother might have been conversos, Spanish Jews who converted to the Catholic faith.

Szasz said that he has heard that the Phoenician Inscription Rock is a hoax, but to date he doesn’t know of anyone who has claimed responsibility for it.

One theory goes that, in the 1930s, a group of students chiseled the ancient lettering into the stone as a prank.

“What is needed is a microscopic analysis of the tools or chisel used,” Szasz said. “For now, (the story of the rock) remains a mystery”

The Phoenician Inscription Rock is under the care of the state of New Mexico and is located on state-trust land just off N.M. 6.

Maps refer to it as Phoenician Inscription Rock, but it also has been called the Mystery Stone, the Ten Commandments Rock and the Decalogue Stone.

There is a $25 fee for viewing the area. The pass can be purchased by contacting the State Land Office at (505) 827-5724 .