Excavations at Tel Shiloh in the hill country of Ephraim continued, and each layer of earth removed added weight to a theory that captivated archaeologists and biblical historians: the worship complex uncovered at the site might be where the Ark of the Covenant once rested.
A team working at the site identified ruins of a stone structure that matched the dimensions and layout of the Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary that originally housed the Ark. The Ark was described in the Bible as a gold-covered chest containing the tablets of the Ten Commandments and symbolized the divine presence among the Israelites.
“We discovered a monumental Iron Age I building that matches the biblical descriptions of the Tabernacle,” said Dr. Scott Stripling, the director of the excavations. “The building is oriented east to west and divided in a 2:1 ratio, as described in Scripture.” Inside, the researchers documented a large internal wall that separated the space into two sections, mirroring the division between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies described in Exodus 26.
Around the structure, the team unearthed more than 100,000 animal bones—primarily sheep, goats, and cattle—with a high share from the right side of the animals. “These findings cannot be considered a coincidence. The evidence for ritual sacrifices is overwhelming and in absolute agreement with the description of the Bible,” Stripling said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Pottery from the same layers dated to the general period in which the Tabernacle was used, nearly four centuries before the Jerusalem Temple. Many scholars placed the Exodus around 1445 BCE, and Scripture stated that Moses placed the tablets in the Ark, which was kept in the portable sanctuary.
Shiloh served as the first major religious center of Israel after the Exodus. According to the First Book of Samuel, the high priest Eli presided over the Tabernacle there. During a war with the Philistines, the Israelites carried the Ark from Shiloh to the battlefield, lost the battle, and the Ark was captured. When a messenger relayed the news to the 98-year-old, nearly blind Eli, he fell from his seat at the city gate, broke his neck, and died after judging Israel for forty years.
Stripling said the gate area exposed during the recent season might be the very spot where Eli’s fatal collapse occurred.
The fate of the Ark remained one of antiquity’s enduring mysteries. The last biblical references to it disappeared before the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Leviticus 16:2 warned that even the high priest could enter the inner sanctuary only under strict conditions, and Second Samuel recorded deadly consequences for those who touched or looked inside the Ark.
Researchers suggested that the stone structure at Shiloh might have replaced an earlier tent-like Tabernacle during the site’s roughly four-hundred-year tenure as Israel’s worship venue. The discovery renewed interest in theories about the Ark’s last resting place—whether it stayed in Shiloh, was later moved to Jerusalem and lost before the Babylonian invasion, or was hidden elsewhere.
Archaeologists said the trenches at Tel Shiloh continued to yield pottery shards, animal bones, and architectural clues, bringing them closer to reconstructing the story of Israel’s earliest sanctuary.
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