The mighty kingdom of Israel under the leadership of Kings David and Solomon was seriously fractured by Solomon’s selfish and spoiled son, Rehoboam. His story is found in chapter twelve of First Kings. The kingdom was divided between the ten “tribes” of Israel in the north, and the two “tribes” of Judah in the south. Within a few generations the Kingdom of Israel, with its false worship at Bethel, would fall to the Assyrian Empire. The northern kingdom was essentially deported and spread over the Assyrian Empire which constituted most of the Middle East and some of Asia.
Several years ago the family of Manasseh, one of the ten northern “tribes”, was found in India! Hebrews have been found as far east as China, whether by Assyrian deportation or later migration is unknown. In 2022 I wrote about the Lemba tribe in South Africa, who follow Jewish rituals and have a tradition that they were led out of the Middle East about 2,500 years ago, or about the time of the Babylonian Captivity. Please click HERE for more information.
All of these discoveries are amazing, and yet there are indications that Hebrew peoples were here in North America, the State of Ohio to be exact. There are numerous sites of what are considered aboriginal American mounds in Ohio. Academics say that the mounds were built by the Hopewell Culture of about 100 B.C. to 500 A.D.
The mounds are generally considered to be burial mounds. But the designs and size of the mounds are impressive. Many of the mounds have features that align with the Spring and Fall solstices and other more nebulous celestial events. Some of the mounds extend for hundreds of feet! It is difficult to understand how a group of people living in what we would call the Stone-Age could create such intricate structures. To consider that such a people with stone tools and woven baskets moved so much earth strains believability.
A discovery made over two-hundred years ago in Ohio takes all this up to a new level. William Lytle, a land surveyor, in about 1803 discovered a mound in the form of a Jewish Menorah! Adjacent to this mound was another mound in the shape of an oil lamp!
In addition to this astonishing discovery, in 1860 near Newark, Ohio, David Wyrick excavated two fascinating stones. One four-sided stone had Hebrew phrases inscribed, one on each side. Here are the phrases:
Here is a map and a photo of the Decalogue Stone found near Newark, Ohio.
Because mound-building is not part of the Hebrew or Jewish culture, it appears that these Jewish descendants were absorbed by another culture. However, they still remembered their history and sought to memorialize it. You would think that such unusual information would be better known.