Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 28 March 2019
Ancient West Bank site draws Christians, and controversy

By ILAN BEN ZION A new three-dimensional
SHILOH, WEST BANK (AP) "hologram" presentation
— Deep in the West Bank, entertains viewers with a
Israeli settlers have trans- representation of the tab-
formed an archaeological ernacle and a description
site into a biblical tourist at- of the rituals performed
traction that attracts tens there, based on the Bible.
of thousands of evangeli- A small museum inside the
cal Christians each year. visitors' center makes scant
Tel Shiloh is believed to mention of nearly 1,400
have been the site of the years of Muslim rule, and a
biblical tabernacle, but not film depicting the site's his-
everyone is pleased at how tory deals exclusively with
the ruins are presented to the biblical account.
visitors. The archaeological record,
Like many Holy Land sites, however, is more compli-
Tel Shiloh sits at the conflu- cated.
ence of competing narra- Tel Aviv University archae-
tives of archaeology, reli- ologist Israel Finkelstein led
gion, and nationalism. Crit- excavations at Tel Shiloh
ics say the site promotes a in the 1980s. He said there
narrow interpretation of is evidence of continuous
history popular with Israeli In this Tuesday, March 12, 2019 photo, tourists visit the archaeological site of Tel Shiloh in the West religious activity at the site
settlers and their Christian Bank. In this Tuesday, March 12, 2019 photo, tourists visit the archaeological site of Tel Shiloh in for centuries leading up
supporters. the West Bank. to the early Iron Age, the
The hilltop mound, 20 miles Associated Press period associated with the
(30 kilometers) north of Je- emergence of the ancient
rusalem in the Israeli-occu- In 2009, Tel Shiloh hosted on private Palestinian land peoples, whether Canaan- Israelites.
pied West Bank, has been 30,000 visitors, 60 percent of but Palestinians are barred ite, Byzantine or Muslim. This "What exactly was the na-
excavated by several ar- whom identified as evan- from entering, according has drawn criticism from ar- ture of the cult, whether
chaeological missions, gelical Christians, accord- to a recent Amnesty Inter- chaeologists and activists. there was a temple there,
starting in 1922, and has ing to the Israeli govern- national report. Emek Shaveh and Yesh and also the exact location
yielded remains spanning ment. In 2012, the govern- The Palestinians have de- Din, Israeli NGOs, charged of this cult place at the site,
over 3,700 years. ment allocated about $4.2 manded the West Bank as in a 2017 report on Israeli is not very clear," Finkelstein
For centuries, Jews, Mus- million for a plan to pre- part of their future state, archaeology in the West said. As with any archaeo-
lims, and Christians have serve and upgrade the site, and most of the interna- Bank that Ancient Shiloh logical site, Finkelstein said
associated the site with the inaugurating a new visitors' tional community views the aims to "reinforce the con- "our responsibility is to give
home of the biblical taber- center the following year. settlements as illegal. nection between the bibli- the facts, and then we can
nacle, the portable shrine Since its completion, Tel The Second Protocol of the cal Shiloh and the modern of course say that there is
where the Israelites housed Shiloh — rebranded as Hague Convention for the settlement, in a manner not more than one way to in-
the Ark of the Covenant. Ancient Shiloh: City of the protection of cultural prop- necessarily based on the terpret the finds."
Because of its biblical sig- Tabernacle — has seen erty prohibits archaeologi- archaeological discoveries No evidence of the taber-
nificance, the archaeologi- tourism skyrocket to around cal excavations in occu- at the site." nacle has been found, but
cal ruins have become a 120,000 visitors in 2018, said pied territory "save where The goal, they argue, is to archaeologists are look-
pilgrimage site for evangel- site director Lilyan Zaitman. this is strictly required to "create a broad consensus ing. Excavations are being
ical Christians. Over half were evangelical safeguard, record or pre- about its importance as an carried out by the Associ-
Last week, Prime Minister Christians. serve cultural property." Is- indivisible part of the state ates for Biblical Research,
Benjamin Netanyahu vis- Unlike other major sites in rael is not one of the proto- of Israel." whose stated aim is "dem-
ited Tel Shiloh with former the West Bank, Tel Shiloh is col's 82 signatories. Among the ruins are three onstrating the historical reli-
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huck- managed by the local set- Zaitman said visitors should Byzantine-era churches ability of the Bible through
abee and settler leaders, tler council and Mishkan understand that "the roots and two mosques. One of archaeological and bibli-
calling it Israel's "first capi- Shiloh, a private nonprofit of the Jewish people be- the two historical mosques cal research."
tal." organization, rather than Is- gan here," calling it "the first is located outside the ar- Scott Stripling, head of the
Huckabee, a television rael's Nature and Parks Au- capital city of the Jewish chaeological park, while current excavation, is one
host with a strong evangeli- thority. people before Jerusalem." the second is unmarked of a handful of evangelical
cal following, tweeted that The site is inside the Jewish Despite Tel Shiloh's long and undeveloped for visi- archaeologists currently ex-
"Shiloh is proof from 3000 yrs settlement of Shiloh, found- and varied history, the site tors. A Byzantine church cavating in the West Bank.
ago this land was home to ed after Israel captured the drives home its Jewish rel- has been reconstructed Evangelicals are the only
@Israel site of ancient Tab- West Bank in the 1967 war. evance, with little attention and serves as a venue for non-Israeli teams involved
ernacle." The tourist attraction is built paid to other periods or events. in West Bank digs. q

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