Past and Present Efforts to Solve the Puzzle

The Danish archaeologist Hans Kjaer, who excavated Shiloh in 1926 and 1929, hoped to find “the very place of the old sanctuary,” but he failed, as have others before him and since. The contour map is based on a map drawn by the architect of the Danish expedition.

Israel Finkelstein, director of the new dig at Tell Shiloh, proposes that the Shiloh Tabernacle was located on the summit of the tell. However, there does not seem to be enough level ground to support the Tabernacle and courtyard, if we assume the dimensions given in Exodus 26 and 27.

In his 1873 report to the Palestine Exploration Fund, Charles Wilson described “a sort of level court” at Tell Shiloh. This “level court” about 160 yards north of the tell, stands out in the aerial photograph below taken in February 1983. It is about 400 feet long and 77 feet wide, much larger than any level spot on the summit of the tell. “There is no other level space on the ‘Tell’ sufficiently large to receive a tent of the dimensions of the Tabernacle,” Wilson reported.