Shiloh, the sanctuary before Jerusalem
Shiloh was an active cult and storage centre in the period of the judges and was destroyed by fire, after which it ceased to matter.
Confirmed by the groundExcavated siteIron Age I
A hill site with a substantial Iron Age I settlement, storage buildings full of collared-rim jars, and a destruction by fire in the mid-eleventh century. Joshua sets up the tent of meeting at Shiloh; Samuel grows up there; Jeremiah tells Jerusalem to go and see what God did to Shiloh.
But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it.
- Found
- Khirbet Seilun (Shiloh), West Bank, 1922 — Danish expedition; later Israel Finkelstein and current excavations
- Now held at
- In place
- How it reached us
- Dug up, or still standing where it was built.
What it shows
No structure has been identified with certainty as the sanctuary itself, and claims to have found it are contested.
How historians use it
Standard in the study of Iron Age I settlement in the central hill country.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Finkelstein (ed.), Shiloh: The Archaeology of a Biblical Site (1993)
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.