Overview
Tel Shiloh has been dug by three expeditions: a Danish team (1926, 1929, 1932, 1963), a Tel Aviv University team led by Israel Finkelstein (1981-1984, preliminary report in Tel Aviv 12, 1985; monograph 1993), and since 2017 the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR) under Scott Stripling, which finished its eighth season in June 2026.
ABR reports worship-related objects from the area of a large building that runs east-west: three altar horns (2019), a ceramic pomegranate (2018, published in Judea and Samaria Research Studies 28, 2019), murex shells, and a Thutmose III scarab. In 2022 it found the piers and socket stones of a gate in the northern wall. In 2025 it worked on this gate complex. In 2026 it reported three things: more walls showing a bent-axis gate with several rooms; the southern wall of the east-west building; and three Middle Bronze Age storage jars in Area D, two holding charred olives and one holding wheat.
Most of the ABR results so far are season announcements. The only peer-reviewed ABR article located for this entry is the pomegranate study. The building's full dimensions, its stratigraphy, and radiocarbon dates have not yet been published.
What the evidence shows
- Three restorable Middle Bronze Age pithoi in Area D (the favissa area). Two held charred olives and one held wheat. Radiocarbon testing of the contents is planned (ABR, 22 June 2026).
- The southern wall of a 'monumental building' oriented east-west was located in 2026. ABR says this now lets it reconstruct the full dimensions, but it has not yet published them (ABR, 22 June 2026).
- Gate complex in the northern fortification: 2022 exposed the gate's piers and socket stones where the glacis against the northern wall ends, with a terraced slope leading up to it; 2026 exposed more walls showing a bent-axis gate with several rooms (ABR 2022; 2026).
- Altar horns (2019): horn 1 was 38 x 23.5 cm and was built into an Early Roman wall; horn 2 was 18 x 12.5 cm and lay about 3 m to the southwest; horn 3 was 38 x 20 cm and came from a 'destruction matrix' about 1 m lower. All came from the general area of the east-west building (ABR, 12 Aug 2019).
- A ceramic pomegranate from the same area (2018), published by Lopez, Stripling and Ben-Shlomo in JSRS 28 (2019).
- Arrowheads that look medieval, together with Islamic pottery and Islamic and Crusader coins, are read as evidence of a possible Frankish raid on the medieval village of Seilun in the 13th century (Seevers, Barber and Campbell, JSRS 34/2, 2025).
- A rock-cut pool about 13 x 18 m and 2.5 m deep, about 300 m south of the tell, was built in the Byzantine-Umayyad period and used until the Ottoman period (IAA salvage digs in 2013 and 2022; HA-ESI 138, 2026).
Open questions
- Is the east-west building the tabernacle precinct? ABR (22 June 2026) says the structure 'exhibits proportions similar to those described for the biblical tabernacle (Ex. 26:15-25; 27:13)' and lists altar horns, pomegranates and murex shells found 'in and around' it. Against this, from the published data: the dimensions have not been published, so the proportion claim cannot yet be checked; horn 1 was reused in an Early Roman wall, so its original context is lost; and the only date given (1177-980 BC, ABR 2019) comes without stratigraphic or radiocarbon support. Until a report appears, this stays an announced claim.
- Is the northern gate the one where Eli died? ABR (2022) says it 'may have been the gate where Eli died' (1 Sam 4:18). The posts read here give no phase date for the gate, so the tie to Eli rests on the biblical narrative plus the gate's position, not on a dated stratum.
- How does ABR's sequence fit the earlier Tel Aviv University stratigraphy (Finkelstein et al., Tel Aviv 12, 1985; monograph 1993)? Neither report has been reviewed in full for this entry. Any agreement or conflict between the two sequences has not been checked here.
Since 2024
- 2025-06ABR's 2025 season concentrated on the northern gate complex; no specific finds were announced. [4]
- 2025Medieval arrowheads from the current dig published as evidence of a possible 13th-century Frankish raid on Seilun (JSRS 34/2). [8]
- 2026-06Eighth ABR season: southern wall of the east-west monumental building, bent-axis gate walls, and three MB pithoi holding olives and wheat, with radiocarbon planned. [1]
- 2026-06IAA publishes a salvage excavation of a Byzantine-Ottoman rock-cut pool 300 m south of the tell. [9]
Sources
- Associates for Biblical Research (B. Windle). "ABR Announces Three Significant Discoveries at Shiloh from 2026 Season." 22 June 2026. link excavation report
- Associates for Biblical Research (B. Windle). "Horns of an Ancient Altar Discovered at Shiloh, Israel." 12 Aug 2019. link excavation report
- Associates for Biblical Research. "City Gate Discovered at Shiloh." 26 Aug 2022. link excavation report
- Associates for Biblical Research. "ABR Ministry Update - Summer 2025." 2 June 2025. link excavation report
- Lopez, T., Stripling, S. and Ben-Shlomo, D. 2019. "A Ceramic Pomegranate from Shiloh." Judea and Samaria Research Studies 28(1): *37-*56. doi:10.26351/jsrs/28-1/7 link study
- Finkelstein, I., Bunimovitz, S., Lederman, Z., Hellwing, S. and Sadeh, M. 1985. "Excavations at Shiloh 1981-1984: Preliminary Report." Tel Aviv 12(2): 123-180. doi:10.1179/tav.1985.1985.2.123 link excavation report
- Finkelstein, I., Bunimovitz, S. and Lederman, Z. (with B. Brandl) 1993. Shiloh: The Archaeology of a Biblical Site. Monograph Series of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University 10. Tel Aviv. link excavation report
- Seevers, B., Barber, M. and Campbell, J. 2025. "A Possible Frankish Raid on Medieval Seilun (Shiloh)." Judea and Samaria Research Studies 34(2): 87-115. doi:10.26351/jsrs/34-2/5 link study
- Livyatan Ben-Arie, R. and Harel Fleitman Maman, Y. 2026. "Tel Shiloh (South) (3-3-2013, 5-2-2022)." Hadashot Arkheologiyot-Excavations and Surveys in Israel 138(1). doi:10.70967/1565-5334.1151 link excavation report
- Kjaer, H. 1927. "The Danish Excavation of Shiloh." Palestine Exploration Quarterly 59(4): 202-213. doi:10.1179/peq.1927.59.4.202 link excavation report
Corrected from the earlier edition of this page
- Claims that the tabernacle's building has been 'found' at Shiloh go beyond the evidence. ABR's own June 2026 wording is that the east-west structure 'exhibits proportions similar to' the Exodus tabernacle, and its dimensions are not yet published.
- Claims that the altar horns come from 'the tabernacle altar' ignore their contexts. Horn 1 was built into an Early Roman wall, and the three horns lay at two elevations about 1 m apart (ABR 2019).
- Calling the northern gate 'the gate where Eli died' overstates ABR's own 'may have been' (2022). No phase date for the gate appears in the posts read.
- An earlier draft note mentioned 'bone deposits'. No ABR post cited here describes bone deposits, so that claim is not repeated here.
- The 2026 pithoi are Middle Bronze Age (Canaanite), which ABR itself places before any Israelite presence. They are not evidence for the tabernacle period.
Checked against new publications through 2026-09.