Batcreek and Decalogue Stones-Hebrew Writing in Pre-Colombiam America

The Batcreek Stone:  

The Bat Creek Stone was discovered in 1889 in an undisturbed burial mound in Eastern Tennessee by the Smithsonian's Mound Survey project.

In 1971, Cyrus Gordon identified the letters inscribed on the stone as Paleo-Hebrew of approximately the first or second century A.D. According to him, the five letters to the left of the comma-shaped word divider read, from right to left, LYHWD, or "for Judea."

In 1988, wood fragments found with the inscription were Carbon-14 dated to somewhere between 32 A.D. and 769 A.D. These dates are consistent with the apparent date of the letters.

Today the stone resides out of sight in a back room of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

“In November of 1860, David Wyrick of Newark, Ohio found an inscribed stone in a burial mound about 10 miles south of Newark. The stone is inscribed on all sides with a condensed version of the Ten Commandments or Decalogue, in a peculiar form of post-Exilic square Hebrew letters.”

“The robed and bearded figure on the front is identified as Moses in letters fanning over his head. The inscription is carved into a fine grained stone that has eluded geological identification. “

“In November of 1860, David Wyrick of Newark, Ohio found an inscribed stone in a burial mound about 10 miles south of Newark. The stone is inscribed on all sides with a condensed version of the Ten Commandments or Decalogue, in a peculiar form of post-Exilic square Hebrew letters...