---
author: Eric Wagoner
date: '2000-06-16T04:56:43'
draft: false
title: A few miles west of
---

A few miles west of the small town of Los Lunas, New Mexico (south of Albuquerque, north of Socorro), there is a boulder on a mountainside that may be carved with the [world's oldest surviving inscription of the Ten Commandments](http://www.webcom.com/mhc/archaeology/decalogue-introduction.html). Known as the Los Lunas Decalogue, it's been dated using various methods to 600 B.C.E. I haven't found any sites giving a skeptical view, and the evidience itself is fairly convincing. Given the technology of late Phonecian-era ships and the weather/geology of the time, it's not out of the question for a single ship to find its way to central New Mexico. Of course the rock doesn't show that there was a mass movement of people or regular back & forth travel. When I lived in the area, there was a "wacko" newpaper out of Hatch (the chile capital of the world) titled _The Courier_ that documented ancient Ogam writing all around the Rio Grande valley and beyond. When I went looking for on-line issues the other day, I discovered that _The Courier_ has folded. That's too bad, because despite its wackiness, it was a good paper.