Was Graham Hancock on the right track with his book The Sign and the Seal (Amazon US and UK)? A news story doing the rounds provocatively announces that German archaeologists may have traced the Ark of the Covenant to a temple in Ethiopia – claiming that they have found the remains of the palace of the Queen of Sheba, which has within it an altar “that may have held the Ark”:
Professor Helmut Ziegert, of the archaeological institute at the University of Hamburg, has been supervising a dig in Aksum, northern Ethiopia, since 1999. “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.
Interesting story, although other archaeologists are skeptical. Not to mention my own cynicism about the timing of the story, coming shortly before Indiana Jones makes his long awaited reappearance…
