The Newark, Ohio Decalogue Stone and Keystone
The Decalogue
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 black stone that only appears to
be brown in the accompanying overexposed color photographs. It has been
identified by geologists Ken Bork and Dave Hawkins of Denison University as
limestone; a fossil crinoid stem is visible on the surface, and the stone reacts
strongly to HCl. It is definitely not black alabaster or gypsum as previously
reported here. According to James L. Murphy of Ohio State University, "Large
white crinoid stems are common in the Upper Mercer and Boggs limestone units in
Muskingum Co. and elsewhere, and these limestones are often very dark gray to
black in color. You could find such rock at the Forks of the Muskingum at
Zanesville, though the Upper Mercer limestones do not outcrop much further up
the Licking." We therefore need not look any farther than the next county over
to find a potential source for the stone, contrary to the previous assertion
here that such limestone is not common in Ohio. [Paragraph updated 8/7/00, per
personal communication from Murphy.]
The inscribed stone was found inside a sandstone box, smooth on the outside, and
hollowed out within to exactly hold the stone.
The Decalogue inscription begins at the non-alphabetic symbol at the top of the
front, runs down the left side of the front, around every available space on the
back and sides, and then back up the right side of the front to end where it
begins, as though it were to be read repetitively
Several months earlier, in June of 1860, Wyrick had found an additional stone,
also inscribed in Hebrew letters. This stone, shown above, is popularly known as
the "Keystone" because of its general shape. However, it is too rounded to have
actually served as a keystone. It was apparently intended to be held with the
knob in the right hand, and turned to read the four sides in succession, perhaps
repetitively. It might also have been suspended by the knob for some purpose.
Although it is not pointed enough to have been a plumb bob, it could have served
as a pendulum.
The material of the Keystone has been identified, probably by geologist Charles
Whittlesey immediately after its discovery, as novaculite, a very hard
fine-grained siliceous rock used for whetstones
# Qedosh Qedoshim, "Holy of Holies"
# Melek Eretz, "King of the Earth"
# Torath YHWH, "The Law of God"
# Devor YHWH, "The Word of God"
Wyrick found the Keystone within what is now a developed section of Newark, at
the bottom of a pit adjacent to the extensive ancient Hopewellian earthworks
there (c. 100 BC - 500 AD). Although the pit was surely ancient, and the stone
was covered with 12-14" of earth, it is impossible to say when the stone fell
into the pit. (See Wyrick's map of the Newark earthworks below.) It is therefore
not inconceivable that the Keystone is genuine but somehow modern.
The letters on the Keystone are nearly standard Hebrew, rather than the very
peculiar alphabet of the Decalogue stone. These letters were already developed
at the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls (circa 200-100 B.C.), and so are broadly
consistent with any time frame from the Hopewellian era to the present. For the
past 1000 years or so, Hebrew has most commonly been written with vowel points
and consonant points that are missing on both the Decalogue and Keystone. The
absence of points is therefore suggestive, but not conclusive, of an earlier
date.
Note that in the Keystone inscription Melek Eretz, the aleph and mem have been
stretched so as to make the text fit the available space. Such dilation does
occasionally appear in Hebrew manuscripts of the first millenium AD. Birnbaum,
The Hebrew Scripts, vol. I, pp. 173-4, notes that "We do not know when dilation
originated. It is absent in the manuscripts from Qumran ... The earliest
specimens in this book are ... middle of the seventh century [AD]. Thus we might
tentatively suggest the second half of the sixth century or the first half of
the seventh century as the possible period when dilation first began to be
employed." Dilation would not have appeared in the printed sources nineteenth
century Ohioans would primarily have had access to.
The Hebrew letter shin is most commonly made with a V-shaped bottom. The less
common flat-bottomed form that appears on the first side of the Keystone may
provide some clue as to its origin. The exact wording of the four inscriptions
may provide additional clues.
Today, both the Decalogue Stone and Keystone, or "Newark Holy Stones," as they
are known, are on display in the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Roscoe Village,
300 Whitewoman St., Coshocton, Ohio. Phone (740) 622-8710 for hours (note new
area code). Plaster casts of the Decalogue stone and Keystone may be purchased
from the Museum.
Robert Alrutz, "The Newark Holy Stones: The History of an Archaeological
Tragedy," Journal of the Scientific Laboratories, Denison University, 1980, 57:
1-57. Copies available from the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Roscoe Village,
300 Whitewoman St., Coshocton, Ohio. Phone (740) 622-8710. Plaster casts of the
Decalogue stone and Keystone may also be purchased from the Museum.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America,
Vol. 4. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1875.
Mark E. Coleman, producer/director, "Holy Stones," a 40-minute videotape
documentary on the Newark stones, 1999. Interviews with Midge Derby of the
Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum, Bradley T. Lepper, and J. Huston McCulloch.
Available inexpensively from Coleman at [email protected].
David A. Deal, "The Ohio Decalog: A Case of Fraudulent Archaeology," Ancient
American Issue # 11 [Jan/Feb 1996], pp. 10- 19.
David A. Deal and James S. Trimm, "Ohio Decalog is Ancient Arm Phylactery,"
Ancient American Vol. 3, Issue # 13 [May/June 1996], pp. 25- 2
The Decalogue
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 black stone that only appears to
be brown in the accompanying overexposed color photographs. It has been
identified by geologists Ken Bork and Dave Hawkins of Denison University as
limestone; a fossil crinoid stem is visible on the surface, and the stone reacts
strongly to HCl. It is definitely not black alabaster or gypsum as previously
reported here. According to James L. Murphy of Ohio State University, "Large
white crinoid stems are common in the Upper Mercer and Boggs limestone units in
Muskingum Co. and elsewhere, and these limestones are often very dark gray to
black in color. You could find such rock at the Forks of the Muskingum at
Zanesville, though the Upper Mercer limestones do not outcrop much further up
the Licking." We therefore need not look any farther than the next county over
to find a potential source for the stone, contrary to the previous assertion
here that such limestone is not common in Ohio. [Paragraph updated 8/7/00, per
personal communication from Murphy.]
The inscribed stone was found inside a sandstone box, smooth on the outside, and
hollowed out within to exactly hold the stone.
The Decalogue inscription begins at the non-alphabetic symbol at the top of the
front, runs down the left side of the front, around every available space on the
back and sides, and then back up the right side of the front to end where it
begins, as though it were to be read repetitively
Several months earlier, in June of 1860, Wyrick had found an additional stone,
also inscribed in Hebrew letters. This stone, shown above, is popularly known as
the "Keystone" because of its general shape. However, it is too rounded to have
actually served as a keystone. It was apparently intended to be held with the
knob in the right hand, and turned to read the four sides in succession, perhaps
repetitively. It might also have been suspended by the knob for some purpose.
Although it is not pointed enough to have been a plumb bob, it could have served
as a pendulum.
The material of the Keystone has been identified, probably by geologist Charles
Whittlesey immediately after its discovery, as novaculite, a very hard
fine-grained siliceous rock used for whetstones
# Qedosh Qedoshim, "Holy of Holies"
# Melek Eretz, "King of the Earth"
# Torath YHWH, "The Law of God"
# Devor YHWH, "The Word of God"
Wyrick found the Keystone within what is now a developed section of Newark, at
the bottom of a pit adjacent to the extensive ancient Hopewellian earthworks
there (c. 100 BC - 500 AD). Although the pit was surely ancient, and the stone
was covered with 12-14" of earth, it is impossible to say when the stone fell
into the pit. (See Wyrick's map of the Newark earthworks below.) It is therefore
not inconceivable that the Keystone is genuine but somehow modern.
The letters on the Keystone are nearly standard Hebrew, rather than the very
peculiar alphabet of the Decalogue stone. These letters were already developed
at the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls (circa 200-100 B.C.), and so are broadly
consistent with any time frame from the Hopewellian era to the present. For the
past 1000 years or so, Hebrew has most commonly been written with vowel points
and consonant points that are missing on both the Decalogue and Keystone. The
absence of points is therefore suggestive, but not conclusive, of an earlier
date.
Note that in the Keystone inscription Melek Eretz, the aleph and mem have been
stretched so as to make the text fit the available space. Such dilation does
occasionally appear in Hebrew manuscripts of the first millenium AD. Birnbaum,
The Hebrew Scripts, vol. I, pp. 173-4, notes that "We do not know when dilation
originated. It is absent in the manuscripts from Qumran ... The earliest
specimens in this book are ... middle of the seventh century [AD]. Thus we might
tentatively suggest the second half of the sixth century or the first half of
the seventh century as the possible period when dilation first began to be
employed." Dilation would not have appeared in the printed sources nineteenth
century Ohioans would primarily have had access to.
The Hebrew letter shin is most commonly made with a V-shaped bottom. The less
common flat-bottomed form that appears on the first side of the Keystone may
provide some clue as to its origin. The exact wording of the four inscriptions
may provide additional clues.
Today, both the Decalogue Stone and Keystone, or "Newark Holy Stones," as they
are known, are on display in the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Roscoe Village,
300 Whitewoman St., Coshocton, Ohio. Phone (740) 622-8710 for hours (note new
area code). Plaster casts of the Decalogue stone and Keystone may be purchased
from the Museum.
Robert Alrutz, "The Newark Holy Stones: The History of an Archaeological
Tragedy," Journal of the Scientific Laboratories, Denison University, 1980, 57:
1-57. Copies available from the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Roscoe Village,
300 Whitewoman St., Coshocton, Ohio. Phone (740) 622-8710. Plaster casts of the
Decalogue stone and Keystone may also be purchased from the Museum.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America,
Vol. 4. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1875.
Mark E. Coleman, producer/director, "Holy Stones," a 40-minute videotape
documentary on the Newark stones, 1999. Interviews with Midge Derby of the
Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum, Bradley T. Lepper, and J. Huston McCulloch.
Available inexpensively from Coleman at [email protected].
David A. Deal, "The Ohio Decalog: A Case of Fraudulent Archaeology," Ancient
American Issue # 11 [Jan/Feb 1996], pp. 10- 19.
David A. Deal and James S. Trimm, "Ohio Decalog is Ancient Arm Phylactery,"
Ancient American Vol. 3, Issue # 13 [May/June 1996], pp. 25- 2
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