Archaeologists believe they’ve uncovered fresh clues that could solve one of history’s most famous mysteries.
No, not the whereabouts of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee or any of the millions of pairs of AirPods we’ve all collectively lost. We’re talking about the Ark of the Covenant.
According to the Bible, the Ark was a gold-covered chest that held the Ten Commandments before it seemingly disappeared.
The very same thing, you may recall, that turned a load of artefact-hunting Nazis into gory puddles in the 1981 Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The real Ark of the Covenant remains missing, but a dig in biblical Shiloh in Israel’s West Bank has given researchers reason to think they may have discovered something that could well bust the mystery wide open.
Excavations at the ancient site have revealed more of a huge building that some archaeologists believe may have been the Tabernacle. According to the Bible, that portable sanctuary housed the gold-covered Ark after the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt.
To be clear, they’ve dug a hole they think had a building in it. Inside the building may have been the Tabernacle. Inside the Tabernacle was the Ark. Inside the Ark were the Ten Commandments. And within those were how God reckons we’re all supposed to live.
The latest breakthrough came when researchers uncovered the building’s southern wall. That allows archaeologists to reconstruct the structure’s full size and better judge what it was actually used for.
Dr. Scott Stripling, director of the Tel Shiloh excavation for the Associates for Biblical Research, said the discovery is helping the team understand both the building’s dimensions and its purpose.
The structure runs east to west and has proportions that resemble those described for the biblical Tabernacle.
Researchers first announced last year that they’d uncovered a monumental building with dimensions that appeared to match the biblical description. The latest discoveries don’t exactly prove that’s precisely what it is, but the team says they strengthen the case.
The excavation has also produced several objects linked to worship, including altar horns, ceramic pomegranates and murex shells.