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By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Archaeologists have uncovered ruins in Israel they believe once housed the Ark of the Covenant, a sacred, gold-covered chest described in the Bible.
According to scripture, Moses placed the Ten Commandments inside the Ark, which was kept in the Tabernacle, a sanctuary built shortly after the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt, traditionally dated by some scholars to around 1445 BC.
While the fate of the Ark remains a mystery, it vanishes from the biblical record before the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
Now, a team working at the ancient biblical site of Shiloh has unearthed a stone structure that appears to match the dimensions and orientation of the Tabernacle described in the Bible.
Dr Scott Stripling, director of the Tel Shiloh dig, said: ‘We’ve uncovered a monumental building from the Iron I period that matches the biblical dimensions of the Tabernacle. The structure is oriented east-west and divided in a 2:1 ratio, just as described in scripture.’
Adding to the discovery, excavators have found over 100,000 animal bones, mostly from sheep, goats, and cattle, and predominantly from the right side of the animals, aligning with Leviticus 7, which states that the right side was reserved for priestly offerings.
‘This isn’t a coincidence,’ Dr Stripling told The Christian Broadcasting Network. ‘The evidence of sacrificial rituals here is overwhelming, and it matches the biblical account to a degree that’s hard to ignore.’
Pottery found among the bones dates back to the same period, reinforcing the site’s connection to the Tabernacle era, which the Bible says lasted nearly 400 years before the Temple was built in Jerusalem.
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Archaeologists have uncovered ruins in Israel they believe were the Tabernacle, which the Bible says was the original home of the Ark of the Covenant.