Probable date for the creation of the Los Lunas Ten Commandment Stone. "Eva and Hobie 3-13-30" is carved on a rock nearby the notorious "Ten Commandment Stone.". The stone contains a Phonecian inscription of the Ten Commandments and has achieved some fame in the Mormon community as evidence of the historicity of the Book of Mormon. In 1953 Welby Ricks (President of the University Archaeological Society at BYU), Milton R. Hunter, Sidney B. Sperry, Hugh Nibley, and John L. Sorenson made a trip to New Mexico to investigate the inscription on the stone. Sorenson notes: "We were quite thrilled at first sight and fascinated by its contents." Sorenson "took some shots of surrounding petroglyphs and was surprised to find they were heavily patinated, whereas none of the carvings on the Phoenician stone were thus darkened. (Patination is the discoloration due to oxidation which develops on exposed surfaces of stone over very long periods of time.)" The "Eva and Hobie" stone shows similar lack of patination. Welby Ricks issues a report concluding: "I am fully convinced that the Ten Commandment stone found near Los Lunas, New Mexico is a fraud. Its age does not go back into ancient times. It is probably from thirty to fifty years old, perhaps even dating to as late as Mar 13, 1930."
[Source: On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
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