At the University of Nevada Las Vegas student union building, I saw the following chiselled in a stone on the front of the building:
A.D. 1968
A.L. 5968
What does the second line mean? At first I thought it might be another calendar, but what calendar would be 4000 years off from the usual calendar? Unless someone is counting from the “creation” of the world in Genesis and assuming 4000 B.C. (though I thought the usual number was 4004 B.C.)
Looks like anno lumina and anno lucis are synoymous-- I’d guess that the builders at UNLV were more likely influenced by the Freemasons than by the, ahem, Illuminati books. The Bishop Ussher thing is interesting-- I didn’t realize anyone had EVER taken him seriously, but hey.
Were the dots/periods chiseled too? I bet it has nothing to do with the calendar, perhaps, with the alumni who donated/contributed to the building. The original construction drawings must be still somewhere, dig.
I think Anno Lucis sounds like it’s the answer. I can’t remember for sure if the dots were chiselled in the stone, but I think they were. It is surprising to me though that in 1968 a masonic date would be put on a public building.
I’ve seen 1999, and I think the upper limit is somewhere around there as dates before that are lost. For once the OP is actually still around to get a reply
Stone buildings are partially/traditionally built by (stone)masons. Although it is unlikely that there is a huge overlap between professional masons and Masonic members, there are still enough similarities that the might want to use the dates. I’ve seen it on other buildings before, the locations escape me.
Or it’s because of the Illuminati. These guys are so insidious that they put the signs of their control in plain sight.
I see this on all the older buildings at UNLV, including the one I work in every day (the biology building). I always figured it was some kind of Masonic thing. Interesting. Thanks for asking the question 11 years ago, Arnold Winkelried!
It is a Masonic convention; if the building was originally a Masonic lodge, or if it was originally dedicated to a Masonic lodge for some reason, that’s where the A.L. comes from. There may also be a square and compass design somewhere in the architecture of the building.
No, Masons do not all believe that the world is literally six thousand years old.
Needn’t necessarily have been a Masonic Lodge or so dedicated. The Masons sometimes perform cornerstone laying ceremonies for churches, schools or public buildings if so requested. They consider it to be a public service, and it leads to a lot of random Masonic emblems on buildings.
Yeah, that’s what I meant - not “dedicated TO” but dedicated BY. I don’t know if Masons still do this; I know at least that my lodge hasn’t done it recently. But it would be a good tradition to revive.