 It
is only a breathless Hollywood script: treasure-hunter
Indiana Jones races with German archaeologists to track down
the fabled Ark of the Covenant, the chest that held the
stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were etched.
RIGHT: A priest carreis a replica of the biblical Ark of
the Covenant in Ethiopia.
Now German researchers
claim to have found the remains of the palace of the Queen
of Sheba — and an altar that may have held the Ark.
The discovery, announced by the University of Hamburg last
week, has stirred skeptical rumblings from the
archaeological community.
The location of the Ark,
indeed its existence, has been a source of controversy for
centuries.
Regarded as the most precious treasure of
ancient Judaism, it is at the heart of a debate about
whether archaeology should chronicle the rise and fall of
civilizations or explore the boundaries between myth and
ancient history.
"From the dating, its position and
the details that we have found, I am sure that this is the
palace," he said.
The palace, that is, of the Queen
of Sheba, who is believed to have lived in the 10th century
B.C.
After she died, her son and successor, Menelek,
replaced the palace with a temple dedicated to Sirius.
The German researchers believe that the Ark was taken
from Jerusalem by the queen — who had a liaison with King
Solomon — and built into the altar to Sirius.
"The
results we have suggest that a Cult of Sothis developed in
Ethiopia with the arrival of Judaism and the Ark of the
Covenant, and continued until 600 A.D.," an announcement by
the University of Hamburg on behalf of the research team
said.
Sothis is the ancient Greek name for the star
Sirius.
The Ark was made, according to the Bible, of
gold-plated acacia wood and topped with two golden angels.
It is said to be a source of great power. In about 586 B.C.,
when the Babylonians conquered the Israelites, the Ark
vanished
Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355264,00.html?sPage=fnc/scitech/archaeology
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